Mobile broadband has changed the world massively. The older desktop computing is going away and is being replaced by smartphones, cloud computing and apps. The internet is the most powerful tool for seeking knowledge and communicating with the world. It has become such a powerful tool that anything out there that doesn’t require physical interaction can be achieved by using the internet. Having the internet in the hand via a smartphone has changed the way we learn things and communicate with the world. Creating the smartphone, the most important gadget in the world, was the pinnacle of achievement for many of the gadget makers couple of decades back. Just about anyone from Nokia, Microsoft, Apple, Palm and Research in Motion (RIM) tried to create a gadget that gives the full featured internet. The matter was settled with Apple’s introduction of iPhone back in 2007. Ever since the landscape has changed with the old guards Palm dying, Nokia being eaten by Microsoft while Blackberry (RIM) on life support. The new entrant Google with Android dominated the smartphone world with its all operating system which can cater to the needs of the phones ranging from high end specifications to cheap low end specs. Apple, HTC, Samsung, LG and Lenovo are churning out phones with newer cameras, faster processors and better resolutions.

While the internet opens the gates to the virtual world where things can be achieved without physical presence, the real world requires physical presence. Which means humans need to travel to reach destinations, and constantly be in motion. The transportation of the humans in current times relied on automobiles of all sorts. We use automobiles to commute to work, shop groceries, visit friends. There are many types of these automobiles two wheel bikes to three wheels auto-rickshaws to four wheeled cars. Many of these automobiles were invented, innovated in many parts of the world. The Americans made them easy to make with their assembly lines. The Germans made fine machines with tight specifications. The Japanese made cars that lasts long. The Koreans are making them cheaper. Just like in the smartphone world, the cars are getting smarter and in some cases wiser too. Automobile makers are racing to perfect the technology which lets the car driven by a computer i.e. driverless cars which will change the automobile industry completely.

The automobile features, specification engine, transmission and suspension technologies have improved over the decades. The smartphones though relatively young compared to the automobiles are innovating fast. We can search for an address on the smartphone but we cannot tell the smartphone to talk to the car which can take us to that address. This will take time to achieve. Forget expecting the smartphone to take us to a destination, it’s difficult for it to live on its battery for 24 hours! The battery technology has not evolved to keep these gadgets running longer. In case of the automobiles, we now have electric cars and hybrid cars that are fast selling and competing with the gasoline / diesel based ones. The one big problem for the automobiles is the same the smartphones are facing. The battery is most important to the electric and hybrid cars. For smartphones, it’s about how long a battery lasts, for the automobiles it’s how far a car can go. It is all about the battery and the battery technology is what the world is working on now.

The simple solution for increasing the capacity of the battery lies in increasing the size of it. Just as a larger fuel tank holds more gasoline a larger battery holds more charge. But increasing the size of the battery will cause issues to the design of smartphones and the automobiles. Increasing the size increases weight and volume. Both these changes will result in performance and efficiency. Many companies are finding innovative ways to cram more ions (electrons) without increasing the size of the battery. It’s just not about pushing more electrons inside a small compartment and pushing them fast i.e charging, it is also about safety. Storing more electrons or charging them fast will test the physical limitations of the battery construction. The battery might crack and lose charge and also might catch fire. We have seen the Lithium Ion batteries in the Boeing Dreamliner plane catching fire. Scientists across the world are working to solve these issues. They want to create a battery that is safe, light, small, and sustainable.

Recent advancements in battery technology are promising. The popular Lithium ion battery is made up of a Graphite anode. Changing the anode from Graphite to Lithium will result in accumulating more charge thus increasing the battery capacity. Lithium is lighter material than Graphite with more power density than the Graphite. Such a change will lead to a small and lighter battery that gives more power. There is a small problem with it, during the charging process the ions gather near the Lithium anode forcing it to expand resulting in cracks to the battery. The cracks will result in the ions escaping the battery creating a short circuit. The scientists at Stanford are using nanotechnology to solve the cracks near Lithium anode. They are creating carbon domes around the Lithium anode. These domes are called nano spheres. Adding these domes will create a honeycomb like structure. Layers of these structures create a film which contains the ions around the Lithium anode. The result is a battery with no cracks and no short circuit. They hold charge longer, which means more charge cycles. The new battery will last longer yet retains most of the charge as opposed to the current batteries that operate at half the capacity after few months of use.

The Magnesium ion technology is different to the Lithium in terms of payload of electrons. In the lithium(Li+) ion batteries single electron flows between anode and cathode while in  the magnesium battery (Mg2+) two electrons flow. Put simply, we have double the numbers of compartments for the same train. However there is a small problem of too many electrons crowding the area inside. Scientists in Berkley University are working to resolve this issue by showing a simulation which proves that the performance will not be affected by the crowded ions. Apart from Berkeley University scientists, researchers in  Taiwan’s National Cheng Kung University (NCKU) are working on Magnesium battery technology.They claim that the next generation Magnesium batteries will replace Lithium batteries. Magnesium is cheaper than Lithium. So cost of making the battery will go down as it becomes a standard material in place of Lithium. Magnesium is less flammable than the Lithium making it a safer material. It is entirely possible that the cheaper Magnesium batteries will replace Lithium ion batteries.

Kraftwerk, a German company is working on creating a battery based on a fuel cell. The regular batteries get charged by an electric outlet. Which means they have dependency on existing alternate current. This fuel cell based battery does not require charging from an electric outlet. It creates its electricity using Liquified Petroleum Gas aka Natural Gas. Chemical reaction inside the fuel cell using the Butane will result in the Hydrogen combining with Oxygen to create electricity. The water vapour along with carbon dioxide are released as an exhaust. Not depending on the electric charging makes it a disruptive technology. Availability of  Butane via small cigarette lighter makes it affordable. At present it is only used for charging smartphones. Much more iterations will help make bigger batteries for the automobiles.

The Dual Carbon battery is another promising technology. Japan’s Kyoto University did research on a dual carbon battery, both anode and cathode are made with carbon in 1970s.The researchers could not innovate the technology for commercial usage. 40 years later a startup company called Power Japan Plus teamed with the university to work on this old research. The little startup wants to make battery that is quick to charge,safe,runs longer and holds more power. Sounds ambitious, but if they succeed in commercializing the technology, we all gets benefitted.This will be a first battery which is fully recyclable as it is made with carbon as opposed to rare element like Lithium. There is no shortage of raw material required to build this battery, carbon is widely available element. The automobile industry can benefit more if this company can produce commercial grade dual carbon batteries. The company is management is filled with people who worked on Toyota’s Prius hybrid batteries. We might expect them to create a commercial battery in coming years. Solid Energy a commercial company which was spun out of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is making batteries with a very thin anode.Using a thin anode brings down the size of the battery significantly.The energy density of these batteries is 2 times more than a typical Li Ion battery. The company was founded based on Qichao Hu, a  researcher who was did his Phd at MIT. The prototype batteries are created in 2014. The company wants to create their batteries based on existing battery manufacture process. They expect to release batteries for gadgets next year and take the technology further to release car batteries in 2017.

It is important for India to invest in research of battery technology. The top universities can do research focused on chemicals used inside batteries. Spending research money on chemistry is relatively cheaper compared to nuclear,defense or space. Almost all of the battery technologies mentioned in this article were developed in the universities. Premier Indian colleges The Central Electrochemical Research Institute, Indian Institute of Chemical Technology, Institute of Chemical Technology can work with private corporations on research focused on providing a commercial battery. Government should provide special grants to research on battery technology. A shift in focus to actually make products albeit in lab conditions is the key to harvest our chemical engineering talent.If Universities can create new technologies in lab conditions, commercial production can be licensed to the big private companies. India always produced good chemical engineers over the years.Our private sector in chemical engineering is big. We make our own automobile tires, we make plastic and most importantly we know a thing or two about metallurgy.

Spending little money on battery technology will yield high returns. The fundamentals battery technology are same for the smartphones to cars. A battery is the most important thing one can do business on. A serious push by the government enabling partnerships between our premier colleges and foreign universities will help further in creating startup companies. Remember humans need food while the gadgets and cars need batteries. As for that really cool Butane fuel cell based pocket battery, I have other ideas, liquefying methane. anyone?

By Bhanu Gouda

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