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On December 12, 2001, Dr. Fritz R. Kalhammer of Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) in Palo Alto , California , presented his research paper entitled Status of EV Batteries at the EVAA Electrical Transportation Industry Conference & Exposition. In his paper, Dr. Kalhammer reviewed the battery development goals set by United States Advanced Battery Consortium (USABC) and provides a clear comparison on all possible candidate batteries for Electric vehicles.
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| The chart lists all of the existing battery candidates. According to Dr. Kalhammer, the actual specific energy is approximately 1/3 ~ 1/3.5 of the theoretical specific energy. Therefore, the theoretical specific energy should be at least 500Wh/kg in order to meet the requirement of the specific energy set by USABC. There are only five types of battery, as shown on this chart, are qualified: Na/S, Li/V 2 O 4.3-5 , Li/S, Al/O 2 , and Zn/O 2 . |
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Na/S battery is a high temperature battery, not suitable for commercial products. |
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Li/V 2 O 4.3-5 and Li/S-redox polymers battery are far from mature. |
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Li/S battery is at early stage of development. |
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Al/O 2 battery is another metal-air battery. Aluminum is used as anode. Because the |
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recovery of aluminum from aluminum oxide will consume Electricity 6~7 times more |
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than that of zinc, it is not economically viable. |
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Zn/O2 battery (or Zinc Air Fuel Cell), however, is the only type that is a feasible of |
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power source for EVs. According to the final report of "Performance and Reliability |
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Batteries for Electric Vehicles: A Report of the Battery Technical Advisory Panel", |
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which was submitted to CARB by the Battery Technical Advisory Panel on December |
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11, 1995, the theoretical specific energy for zinc-air fuel cell is 1085 Wh/kg. The |
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Battery Technical Advisory Panel is co-chaired by Dr. Fritz.Kalhammer (Electric Power |
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Research Institute), Dr. Carl Moyer (Acurex Environmental Corporation), Dr. Akiya |
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Kozawa (Union Carbide Company, retired), and Dr. Boon Owens (Research |
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International). Other technical publications set the theoretical specific energy at |
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1350 Wh/kg. |
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Other existing batteries such as Ni/MH, Ni/Zn, Ni/Cd, LiC 6 /MnO 2 and Pb-acid |
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batteries just cannot meet the USABC's goal. |
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Hydrogen fuel cell is not included in the chart. This is because hydrogen fuel cell technologies are still in the development stage, meaningful commercialization remains at least a decade away from being realized. Professor Chan, Chin Chuan of Hong Kong University, one of the directors for China 's 863 project Electric Vehicle program, addressed in National Electric Vehicle Drive Systems Seminar in late September 2002 in Shanghai , hydrogen-oxygen fuel cell vehicles will be unavailable until 15 years from now. As officers of US Department of Energy (DOE) also stated during their visit to Powerzinc Electric (Shanghai), Inc. on September 13, 2001, "For stationary use, the Hydrogen-oxygen Fuel Cell will come soon; for powering vehicles, there is still a long way to go." |
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Powerzinc Electric, Inc.