GE Will Build an Advanced-Battery Plant (sodium)

[kristopher]

GE Will Build an Advanced-Battery Plant
The new facility in upstate New York will make sodium-based batteries for hybrid trains and other vehicles

By Reena Jana

General Electric (GE) said on May 12 that it would invest $100 million in a battery manufacturing plant in upstate New York, which will produce sodium-based batteries for hybrid trains and other vehicles. The venture, a new business for the company's GE Transportation unit, should bring in $500 million by 2015 and $1 billion a few years later, says Chief Executive Jeffrey Immelt.

The move promises to create 350 factory jobs as well as help stimulate the sluggish regional economy near GE's research and development headquarters in Niskayuna, N.Y., when the factory opens in mid-2011. GE has applied for economic-stimulus funding from the U.S. Energy Dept. to underwrite the effort. "A public-private partnership can help us accelerate this," says Immelt.

Mark Little, GE's director of global research, estimates that thousands of supply chain, construction, and service jobs could also be created to support the plant. The factory will make batteries based on a proprietary sodium-and-nickel-chloride formula and tightly controlled manufacturing process that the company invented about five years ago. Little says GE has 30 patents on the technology, which stores energy produced when a vehicle brakes...

http://www.businessweek.com/innovate/content/may2009/id20090512_722534.htm?chan=top+news_top+news+index+-+temp_news+%2B+analysis

[NickB79]

1. How do these compare to lithium-based batteries in terms of performance and storage?

Also, is this a wet or dry battery?

Interesting stuff.

[tinrobot]

2. Less, but still pretty powerful,

A sodium sulfur battery gets roughly 90-150wh/kg, while lithium ion is anywhere from 150-300wh/kg.

Sodium batteries are a lot cheaper, though. You can pull sodium out of seawater for almost nothing.

[kristopher]

3. Just guessing

They say "advanced" so they may have a new chemistry. Most likely though, they are planning something like the wiki article below. Japan has been doing a lot of testing with them (including on trains) since the mid90s.:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sodium-sulfur_battery

Cut-away schematic diagram of a Sodium-Sulfur battery. (image courtesy NASA John Glenn Research Center).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:NaS_battery.jpg


"A sodium-sulfur battery is a type of battery constructed from sodium (Na) and sulfur (S). This type of battery has a high energy density, high efficiency of charge/discharge (89—92%) and long cycle life, and is fabricated from inexpensive materials. Because, however, of the operating temperatures of 300 to 350 °C and the highly corrosive nature of the sodium polysulfides, such cells are primarily suitable for large-scale non-mobile applications such as grid energy storage.

The cell is usually made in a tall cylindrical configuration. The entire cell is enclosed by a steel casing that is protected, usually by chromium and molybdenum, from corrosion on the inside. This outside container serves as the positive electrode, while the liquid sodium serves as the negative electrode. The container is sealed at the top with an airtight alumina lid. An essential part of the cell is the presence of a BASE (beta-alumina sodium ion exchange) membrane, which selectively conducts Na+. The cell becomes more economical with increasing size. In commercial applications the cells are arranged in blocks for better conservation of heat and are encased in a vacuum-insulated box."

[eppur_se_muova]

5. Sodium-sulfur has been around a long time. WIKI: MOLTEN-SALT batteries!

OP states this is sulfur-NiCl2, a combination I hadn't heard of before but nothing unreasonable.

ON EDIT: A Na/NaCl-AlCl3-NiCl2/Ni has been around for awhile as well; this sounds closer to GE's description. (Wiki asks for improvements)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molten_salt_battery#ZEBRA_battery

[hunter]

10. "Sodium Metal Halide" batteries -- that's what these are.

Google will pull up some stuff with that.

[NickB79]

7. Just wondering how a 350C battery would be incorporated into a vehicle

What happens if the vehicle isn't used for a while and the battery cools off? Or the battery is used in cold climates?

[kristopher]

9. Not for autos

"So far, GE has invested $150 million in advanced-battery R&D, says Immelt. The sodium-nickel-chloride battery will help power GE's first hybrid locomotive, scheduled to hit the market in 2010. The company hopes to target both existing and new customers not only in the rail industry, but also in mining and shipping.

These new batteries aren't suitable for automobiles, however. Car batteries must not only store energy, but provide quick acceleration. To supply that market, GE has invested about $70 million for a 10% stake in A123 Systems, a Watertown (Mass.) startup that creates lithium batteries for electric plug-in cars."

[eppur_se_muova]

6. I notice they emphasize applications in locomotives rather than cars ...

this is almost certainly a reflection of a lower energy density per unit mass. Rail lines are restricted to lower grades much more than cars & trucks are, so mass is less of a handicap. Personal autos need the highest energy/mass ratios.

[Yunomi]

4. Sodium based...so,

these batteries will run on Olive Garden food?

[kristopher]

8. Nah

Soy sauce.