The next Battery that will change everything.

[jasonhc73]

Bill Gates put a bunch of money into this company.

Technology: Ambri

ambri.com

 

[Samsonite801]

Yeah, I've seen several of Donald Sadoway's long talks, that is promising tech, the iron-flow and liquid-metal batteries. The only problem for nearer future I see, is they are currently geared toward large-scale energy storage (of course they have to honor where they can get research money for it to get going), but it'll be awhile before you could get one for your backyard.

Don't get me wrong, this is a huge global problem we need to solve, the power companies need to be able to store the energy for all the intermittent solar and wind they collect (for nighttime use, or lack of wind), before it makes practical sense for them to scale larger with renewable sources. So the focus is going to be on large-scale industrial application for awhile anyways.

I hope they can work something out sooner rather than later for the consumer market, but for now it doesn't make a lot of financial sense for them to pursue consumers, they can make so much more money by bringing the technology to the power companies. This is kind of like big oil in that sense. But also, the opportunity to make larger contribution to pollution control and cleaning the air is greater as well, so not like big oil in that sense...

But I do think you're right about this being a game-changer for battery storage, because they already have working systems out in the field at tester sites. I did try to email Ambri a few months ago, to enquire about a large 'storage container' battery for our off-grid ag coop ranch (for community-level use), but they never replied back to me, maybe we're not big enough.

I got my hopes high though, and have my eyes on this one

 

[Sparky]

9:01...the metal needs to be 500 degrees c to work? That's a lot of consistent heat, even for Texas.

 

[Jim Burrow]

The video was very interesting. But like Samsonite801 mentioned, for right now, us little people won't be seeing these batteries available to us any time soon. The money isn't there yet for the company to pursue our DYI market. But that is just my opinion at the moment as a newbie.

 

[Samsonite801]

9:01...the metal needs to be 500 degrees c to work? That's a lot of consistent heat, even for Texas.

Yeah tanks are highly insulated, it doesn't take much energy to hold the temp once it's stabilized. You could probably turn off the heat and in 2 weeks it would still be pretty hot...

I know on liquid natural gas or liquid hydrogen they put it into buses with insulated tanks and it stays frozen temps (holds liquid) for like a week or so with no refrigeration.

 

[Sparky]

The video was very interesting. But like Samsonite801 mentioned, for right now, us little people won't be seeing these batteries available to us any time soon. The money isn't there yet for the company to pursue our DYI market. But that is just my opinion at the moment as a newbie.

Reminds me of the turnkey nuclear reactor proposal from 15 or so years ago. You could own your own & bury it in your back yard for only $25m (plus regulatory approval, insurance, and other incidentals.)

 

[schmism]

I know on liquid natural gas or liquid hydrogen they put it into buses with insulated tanks and it stays frozen temps (holds liquid) for like a week or so with no
refrigeration.

PV=NRT

liquid hydrogen will have to be refrigerated to stay liquid. Hydrogen buses are not liquid. just compressed gas.
LNG is HIGHLY compressed.

 

[Samsonite801]

PV=NRT

liquid hydrogen will have to be refrigerated to stay liquid. Hydrogen buses are not liquid. just compressed gas.
LNG is HIGHLY compressed.

Of course hydrogen will have to be refrigerated to STAY a liquid, hydrogen can stay liquid (without active refrigeration) for several days, up to a week if in an insulated vessel (if you can hold it under -423 degrees Fahrenheit with high insulation), BMW built the Hydrogen 7 prototype with the following attribute:

"One major challenge is how to keep the hydrogen cooled to minus 253 degrees Celsius (minus 423 degrees Fahrenheit) so it remains in liquid form without boiling off. Despite the double-walled, stainless-steel tank that stores the liquid in high-vacuum conditions with aluminum reflective foil, the liquid hydrogen in the 8-kilogram fuel tank begins to boil after 17 hours if the car remains parked. The tank empties completely after 10 to 12 days."


I know it's harder to keep hydrogen a liquid because it needs to stay -423 degrees Fahrenheit, but LNG (Liquid Natural Gas) only needs to be half that cold (-259 degrees Fahrenheit), it is a lot more common to see LNG buses around, they fill the tanks in the morning (from the cryogenically refrigerated filling station system), drive the LNG buses around all day, then empty their tanks at night back into the depot's cryogenic tank .

CNG (Compressed Natural Gas) is different, I owned a bi-fuel CNG car for 15 years, those just compress vapor at ambient temperature (mine was 3600psi, 9 GGE Type-4 tank)... They also have CNG buses, but they don't have as much range as an LNG bus between fill intervals.

My main point was with highly insulated tanks, you can prolong the storage temperature of a given substance for prolonged periods. I remember the You Tube video of a guy who had a large water tank in his crawl space he insulated and he took away the heat source for around 2 weeks or something and it only dropped a few degrees.