Lithium Air Batteries Get Boost From IBM and DOE

coondoggie writes "The Department of Energy and IBM are serious about developing controversial lithium air batteries capable of powering a car for 500 miles on a single charge – a huge increase over current plug-in batteries that have a range of about 40 to 100 miles, the DOE said. The agency said 24 million hours of supercomputing time out of a total of 1.6 billion available hours at Argonne and Oak Ridge National Laboratories will be used by IBM and a team of researchers from those labs and Vanderbilt University to design new materials required for a lithium air battery."

absolutely

[Anonymous Coward]

Absolutely a game changer. In fact, I got a real charge out of reading about them. The current methods are terminal. I was much more depressed before reading about these things. I think the technology really has potential. Hopefully they will cell, but they might have to amp up the advertising.

Re:absolutely

[Anonymous Coward]

I am usually resistant to change, but your enthusiasm has transformed my thinking. I don't want to draw any hasty conclusions, but this has the capacity to lead to good things.

Re:Charging Stations at Universities

[Rockoon]

If eBikes are the way forward, then I'm turning this boat around.

Re:A new air pollution source?

[Rockoon]

One could argue that with the number of automobile related fatalities every year, that they are already population control devices.

Re:Hopefully not vaporware.

[iamhassi]

"I'd guess that living closer to work will have a much larger effect than buying a different car."

with the current job market people would be moving twice a year to keep up. Might as well just get an RV [wikipedia.org] and live your new employer's parking lot until they go bankrupt and you have to change jobs again.

Re:Hopefully not vaporware.

[samurphy21]

The latest technique involves wicking the sulfur into the pores of mesoporous carbon and then functionalizing the outside of the carbon with polyethylene glycol to keep the hydrophobic polysulfides inside when they form.

I got a little bit hard right there.

Re:Hopefully not vaporware.

[Chris Burke]

Lithium-air is, IMHO, one of the least promising upcoming battery techs.

Uh-huh. But between this and all the alternatives you mention, which would Michael Jordan endorse?

That's right.

Re:sweet

[pookemon]

You can allredy run your subnotbook for mor than a dae by terning of yur spall chikr.

Re:Mining in outerspace?

[ceoyoyo]

She'll be particularly unimpressed when it turns her finger black. And then the finger falls off.

Re:Hopefully not vaporware.

[GrumblyStuff]

I have mod points but since there's no 'Depressing' option, I'll have to settle with a reply.