Not every battery application offers easy access to recharging. In those situations, engineers are increasingly reaching for a chemistry known as lithium-thionyl chloride.
Lithium-thionyl chloride batteries, which offer some of the highest energy density figures now available, are being employed in military, aerospace, RFID (radio frequency identification), and GPS tracking applications.
A case in point: Vemco, a manufacturer of underwater acoustic telemetry systems, uses lithium-thionyl chloride for long-term underwater deployments where batteries can't be recharged. Vemco employs a battery pack from Tadiran Batteries that combines 24 D-sized primary cells and 12 Hybrid Layer Capacitors in an acoustic receiver.
Vemco's underwater acoustic telemetry system uses lithium-thionyl chloride batteries.
The receiver is used for remote monitoring of aquatic species tagged with transmitters. During operation, the system's acoustic modem wakes up the telemetry system, transfers data, then returns to a standby mode to minimize power consumption. It enables users to track the migratory patterns of aquatic animals, and to develop early warning systems when sharks and other predatory fish approach beaches.
The battery packs, known as Pulses Plus, enable the system to operate for more than nine years at depths of up to 500 feet.
Actually Tadiran has been making these cells for 30 years and makes many millions each year on totally automated equipment.
You can find Tadiran batteries in toll tags, such as the EZPASS, in automatic water, gas or electric meters, pressure sensors in tires, tracking devices, etc.
Sounds like custom-made, not mass-produced. That should be the case for consumer batteries, but I bet everyone here has opened up a flashlight long idle in the junk drawer that had goo oozing from the batteries, fouling the interior.
Aclara, a manufaturer of automated meter reading products, has its original units operating for over 25 years with Tadiran batteries, without replacements or recharging.
Energy harvesting systems have a lot of parts and thus reduce reliability. In addition they take up space and add cost. Aside from that, the source for the harvested energy may change over the years.
As for recycling them, possibly, but they are a such a small portion of the product stream that fixating on them would be a waste of time for all except troublemakers.
There are not that many applications that really need such a long life, and none of them include consumer products, for which the intended lifespan is six to ten months. Why put a long life battery in a device that will be in the landfill in less than a year?
Using the most low powered electronic devices is certainly a good choice insolving the problem from the other end.
1. They are expensive - maybe too expensive for a consumer product.
2. They suffer from passivation, so you have to keep them in a constant state of discharge - this limits their usefull life to less than a decade.
3. They have limited maximum current draw - a few tens of milliamps.
So they are fime for telemetry applications where the equipment spends most of it's time asleep, but it's a product suitable only for very specific uses.
Now we all know perpetual motion isn't possible. However, when you talk about batteries and the ability to capture energy that would otherwise be considered wasted. It just shows how much potential there is out there. Whether it be capturing the energy of a car as it slows down and generating energy with it, or capturing the energy while one walks I think the opportunities are just endless. And combining enery generation with the advancement of energy storage is just really exciting.
We looked at a number of sources to determine this year's greenest cars, from KBB to automotive trade magazines to environmental organizations. These 14 cars emerged as being great at either stretching fuel or reducing carbon footprint.
Researchers at MIT and Sandia National Labs have observed a reaction in lithium-air batteries that could help improve the design of these cells for electric vehicles and other applications.
Healthcare might seem to be an unlikely target application for the Internet of Things technology, but recent developments show small ways that big-data is going to make an impact on patient care moving into the future.
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