Using wax to make electric cars a reality
Next time you light a candle, take a moment to think about the possibility of electric cars. With more than 250 million gas-guzzling, polluting cars on the road, gas prices through the roof and global warming, the idea of a zero emissions battery-powered car is certainly desirable.
Already, hybrid cars that use both batteries and gas are available commercially, but there are currently no cars that rely solely on batteries. One of the reasons is that the large lithium-ion batteries that would power electric cars generate lots of heat. Found in cell phones and laptop computers, lithium-ion batteries pack a lot of power into a very small battery. Their high energy density makes lithium-ion batteries susceptible to fire and may pose serious safety concerns. Hybrid carmakers solve this problem by fitting car battery cases with fans that blow excess heat away. But fans are complex and expensive, and if they fail, your batteries could have a major meltdown. Now, researchers at the Illinois Institute of Technology are working on a low-tech solution to this high tech problem – wax.
“When lithium-ion batteries are scaled up to the size needed to run a car, the heat they give off is very significant,” says Said Al-Hallaj, associate research professor of chemical & environmental engineering. “So much energy is released when the batteries are turned on that it becomes essential to remove this heat to keep the battery operating safe.” Conventional car batteries don’t have this problem because they contain water-based electrolytes which can’t burn. Lithium-ion batteries contain organic material that can vaporize and combust.
Al-Hallaj and his colleague Prof. J. R. Selman propose surrounding six or eight paper-towel sized lithium-ion batteries in wax. The wax would absorb the heat generated by the batteries, and at cold night with sub freezing temperatures, the heat from the melted wax would be returned to the batteries slowly to keep them from freezing.
“Its like ice in water – the ice keeps the water at a constant temperature as it melts,” says Al-Hallaj. “Only after the last ice cube has melted does the water temperature begin to rise.” By surrounding the batteries with slow melting wax (the “ice”), the batteries would be kept at a stable temperature because the wax would absorb the excess heat as it melts in the form of latent heat. When the car is switched off, the heat in the melted wax would be slowly transferred back to the batteries, preventing them from freezing in the winter.
The challenge is to design the battery pack with adequate amount of wax to absorb all the heat generated from the batteries during its operation period. So far, Alhallaj and Selman have worked out the details using computer modeling, but both are confident that their idea will work as expected. They are currently seeking funding to create their experimental battery pack and test it in the lab.Next time you light a candle, take a moment to think about the possibility of electric cars. With more than 250 million gas-guzzling, polluting cars on the road, gas prices through the roof and global warming, the idea of a zero emissions battery-powered car is certainly desirable.
Already, hybrid cars that use both batteries and gas are available commercially, but there are currently no cars that rely solely on batteries. One of the reasons is that the large lithium-ion batteries that would power electric cars generate lots of heat. Found in cell phones and laptop computers, lithium-ion batteries pack a lot of power into a very small battery. Their high energy density makes lithium-ion batteries susceptible to fire and may pose serious safety concerns. Hybrid carmakers solve this problem by fitting car battery cases with fans that blow excess heat away. But fans are complex and expensive, and if they fail, your batteries could have a major meltdown. Now, researchers at the Illinois Institute of Technology are working on a low-tech solution to this high tech problem – wax.
“When lithium-ion batteries are scaled up to the size needed to run a car, the heat they give off is very significant,” says Said Al-Hallaj, associate research professor of chemical & environmental engineering. “So much energy is released when the batteries are turned on that it becomes essential to remove this heat to keep the battery operating safe.” Conventional car batteries don’t have this problem because they contain water-based electrolytes which can’t burn. Lithium-ion batteries contain organic material that can vaporize and combust.
Al-Hallaj and his colleague Prof. J. R. Selman propose surrounding six or eight paper-towel sized lithium-ion batteries in wax. The wax would absorb the heat generated by the batteries, and at cold night with sub freezing temperatures, the heat from the melted wax would be returned to the batteries slowly to keep them from freezing.
“Its like ice in water – the ice keeps the water at a constant temperature as it melts,” says Al-Hallaj. “Only after the last ice cube has melted does the water temperature begin to rise.” By surrounding the batteries with slow melting wax (the “ice”), the batteries would be kept at a stable temperature because the wax would absorb the excess heat as it melts in the form of latent heat. When the car is switched off, the heat in the melted wax would be slowly transferred back to the batteries, preventing them from freezing in the winter.
The challenge is to design the battery pack with adequate amount of wax to absorb all the heat generated from the batteries during its operation period. So far, Alhallaj and Selman have worked out the details using computer modeling, but both are confident that their idea will work as expected. They are currently seeking funding to create their experimental battery pack and test it in the lab.Next time you light a candle, take a moment to think about the possibility of electric cars. With more than 250 million gas-guzzling, polluting cars on the road, gas prices through the roof and global warming, the idea of a zero emissions battery-powered car is certainly desirable.
Already, hybrid cars that use both batteries and gas are available commercially, but there are currently no cars that rely solely on batteries. One of the reasons is that the large lithium-ion batteries that would power electric cars generate lots of heat. Found in cell phones and laptop computers, lithium-ion batteries pack a lot of power into a very small battery. Their high energy density makes lithium-ion batteries susceptible to fire and may pose serious safety concerns. Hybrid carmakers solve this problem by fitting car battery cases with fans that blow excess heat away. But fans are complex and expensive, and if they fail, your batteries could have a major meltdown. Now, researchers at the Illinois Institute of Technology are working on a low-tech solution to this high tech problem – wax.
“When lithium-ion batteries are scaled up to the size needed to run a car, the heat they give off is very significant,” says Said Al-Hallaj, associate research professor of chemical & environmental engineering. “So much energy is released when the batteries are turned on that it becomes essential to remove this heat to keep the battery operating safe.” Conventional car batteries don’t have this problem because they contain water-based electrolytes which can’t burn. Lithium-ion batteries contain organic material that can vaporize and combust.
Al-Hallaj and his colleague Prof. J. R. Selman propose surrounding six or eight paper-towel sized lithium-ion batteries in wax. The wax would absorb the heat generated by the batteries, and at cold night with sub freezing temperatures, the heat from the melted wax would be returned to the batteries slowly to keep them from freezing.
“Its like ice in water – the ice keeps the water at a constant temperature as it melts,” says Al-Hallaj. “Only after the last ice cube has melted does the water temperature begin to rise.” By surrounding the batteries with slow melting wax (the “ice”), the batteries would be kept at a stable temperature because the wax would absorb the excess heat as it melts in the form of latent heat. When the car is switched off, the heat in the melted wax would be slowly transferred back to the batteries, preventing them from freezing in the winter.
The challenge is to design the battery pack with adequate amount of wax to absorb all the heat generated from the batteries during its operation period. So far, Alhallaj and Selman have worked out the details using computer modeling, but both are confident that their idea will work as expected. They are currently seeking funding to create their experimental battery pack and test it in the lab.Next time you light a candle, take a moment to think about the possibility of electric cars. With more than 250 million gas-guzzling, polluting cars on the road, gas prices through the roof and global warming, the idea of a zero emissions battery-powered car is certainly desirable.
Already, hybrid cars that use both batteries and gas are available commercially, but there are currently no cars that rely solely on batteries. One of the reasons is that the large lithium-ion batteries that would power electric cars generate lots of heat. Found in cell phones and laptop computers, lithium-ion batteries pack a lot of power into a very small battery. Their high energy density makes lithium-ion batteries susceptible to fire and may pose serious safety concerns. Hybrid carmakers solve this problem by fitting car battery cases with fans that blow excess heat away. But fans are complex and expensive, and if they fail, your batteries could have a major meltdown. Now, researchers at the Illinois Institute of Technology are working on a low-tech solution to this high tech problem – wax.
“When lithium-ion batteries are scaled up to the size needed to run a car, the heat they give off is very significant,” says Said Al-Hallaj, associate research professor of chemical & environmental engineering. “So much energy is released when the batteries are turned on that it becomes essential to remove this heat to keep the battery operating safe.” Conventional car batteries don’t have this problem because they contain water-based electrolytes which can’t burn. Lithium-ion batteries contain organic material that can vaporize and combust.
Al-Hallaj and his colleague Prof. J. R. Selman propose surrounding six or eight paper-towel sized lithium-ion batteries in wax. The wax would absorb the heat generated by the batteries, and at cold night with sub freezing temperatures, the heat from the melted wax would be returned to the batteries slowly to keep them from freezing.
“Its like ice in water – the ice keeps the water at a constant temperature as it melts,” says Al-Hallaj. “Only after the last ice cube has melted does the water temperature begin to rise.” By surrounding the batteries with slow melting wax (the “ice”), the batteries would be kept at a stable temperature because the wax would absorb the excess heat as it melts in the form of latent heat. When the car is switched off, the heat in the melted wax would be slowly transferred back to the batteries, preventing them from freezing in the winter.
The challenge is to design the battery pack with adequate amount of wax to absorb all the heat generated from the batteries during its operation period. So far, Alhallaj and Selman have worked out the details using computer modeling, but both are confident that their idea will work as expected. They are currently seeking funding to create their experimental battery pack and test it in the lab.Next time you light a candle, take a moment to think about the possibility of electric cars. With more than 250 million gas-guzzling, polluting cars on the road, gas prices through the roof and global warming, the idea of a zero emissions battery-powered car is certainly desirable.
Already, hybrid cars that use both batteries and gas are available commercially, but there are currently no cars that rely solely on batteries. One of the reasons is that the large lithium-ion batteries that would power electric cars generate lots of heat. Found in cell phones and laptop computers, lithium-ion batteries pack a lot of power into a very small battery. Their high energy density makes lithium-ion batteries susceptible to fire and may pose serious safety concerns. Hybrid carmakers solve this problem by fitting car battery cases with fans that blow excess heat away. But fans are complex and expensive, and if they fail, your batteries could have a major meltdown. Now, researchers at the Illinois Institute of Technology are working on a low-tech solution to this high tech problem – wax.
“When lithium-ion batteries are scaled up to the size needed to run a car, the heat they give off is very significant,” says Said Al-Hallaj, associate research professor of chemical & environmental engineering. “So much energy is released when the batteries are turned on that it becomes essential to remove this heat to keep the battery operating safe.” Conventional car batteries don’t have this problem because they contain water-based electrolytes which can’t burn. Lithium-ion batteries contain organic material that can vaporize and combust.
Al-Hallaj and his colleague Prof. J. R. Selman propose surrounding six or eight paper-towel sized lithium-ion batteries in wax. The wax would absorb the heat generated by the batteries, and at cold night with sub freezing temperatures, the heat from the melted wax would be returned to the batteries slowly to keep them from freezing.
“Its like ice in water – the ice keeps the water at a constant temperature as it melts,” says Al-Hallaj. “Only after the last ice cube has melted does the water temperature begin to rise.” By surrounding the batteries with slow melting wax (the “ice”), the batteries would be kept at a stable temperature because the wax would absorb the excess heat as it melts in the form of latent heat. When the car is switched off, the heat in the melted wax would be slowly transferred back to the batteries, preventing them from freezing in the winter.
The challenge is to design the battery pack with adequate amount of wax to absorb all the heat generated from the batteries during its operation period. So far, Alhallaj and Selman have worked out the details using computer modeling, but both are confident that their idea will work as expected. They are currently seeking funding to create their experimental battery pack and test it in the lab.
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