Working Air Battery

[Mk1]

@all

I got this link , with zinc ribbon and many more goodies http://www.rotometals.com/Zinc-Wire-s/42.htm

But we have to come to a conclusion the surface area is greater on the ribbon, this will make it better then any round wire. Using flat wire will always make stronger battery , the next step would be bigger and bigger wire .

I really think we should look into using sheet metal , we could cut it then to any desired size and bend it to any shape we fantasized , power could also be calculated by the contact area .

By having flexible material , we could double triple the power generated by Lasersaber battery .

Mark 

[capthook]

These rods hold one roll of magnesium ribbon perfectly.

Didn't see this... answers the question of how much magnesium used:

2 batteries in series = 1.5v x 2 amps = 3 watts
Magnesium 2 x 25g = $7 wholesale - $14 retail

So, for how long until the batteries produce 50% power and need refurbishing?
This equals 2.25 watts avg. output.
$10 consumables ($7 wholesale plus $3 misc)

2.25 watts x 444 hours = 1 kWh
444 hours / 24 hours = 18.5 days
$10/$0.12 (grid) = 83
83 x 18.5 days = 1537 days or 4.21 years of output required without replacing any materials of the airbatteries to equal the cost of grid power.
(however, this doesn't even include the initial capital costs of the supporting structures ie: carbon rods etc)

Edit:
Factor in the cost of the rods and it's more like 9 years.
No way will they work for 4-9 years without replacing the materials.
4 months maybe, but not years.

It's a neat idea, but an expensive one that would require either a drastic increase in ouput or decrease in cost to be practical.

[markdansie]

Great posts everyone.
I am looking at doing it as a plate like a car battery so it is easy to replace the manesium plates. It is all to do with the surface area. magnesium itself raw is $3 per kilogram or 3 cents per gram. lets double or even triple that to have it processed into plates. it will never proberbly compete with grid but for portable power applications would have a lot of potential.
How long they last will be interesting and it may be a matter of removing the oxide that builds up rather than replacing the magnesium that often. Food for thought.
When compared with the cost of lithium batteries or other recharbale batteries that have a limited life span let alone the cost of charging and the inconvienience i tink these will win hands down
the true advantage would come if these we to trickle charge other batteries. For camping and other infrequent use items it would be a winner.
There are literally thousands of applications for this. Think of an electric motor scooter that still retianed the normal batteries but had some of these charging. Everytime you stopped or wasnt using it it would be charging itself.
Anyway I think it is exciting
mark

[markdansie]

http://www.cleanteam.ch/blog/tag/magnesium-battery

[capthook]

it will never proberbly compete with grid but for portable power applications would have a lot of potential.
When compared with the cost of lithium batteries or other recharbale batteries that have a limited life span let alone the cost of charging and the inconvienience i tink these will win hands down
the true advantage would come if these we to trickle charge other batteries. For camping and other infrequent use items it would be a winner.
There are literally thousands of applications for this. Think of an electric motor scooter that still retianed the normal batteries but had some of these charging. Everytime you stopped or wasnt using it it would be charging itself.

Portable power = energy density
That's the 'power' of lithium-ion, lot's of juice in a small/light-weight package = 128 wh/kg

Taking the scooter idea as an example:

2kWh per 45 miles (http://www.gizmag.com/yogo-electric-scooter-removable-battery/14764/)

Lithium battery = 22 kg

So if you wish to recharge the battery overnight, you need to replace:
2kWh/8 hours = 250 Watt charger

Using the current airbattery discussed here:

250 watts/ 1.5 watts per cell = 166 cells

What is the weight per cell?  1.5kg?

1.5kg x 166 cells = 250kg = $5,810 ($35x166)

Result: spending $5,810 on 250kg on airbatteries to recharge your 22kg scooter batteries.
(10x the weight of the scooter batteries and 2x the cost of the entire scooter)