It's floated up in my memory that diesel-electric submarines used banks of lead-acid cells too. Despite the hydrogen problem and the substantial risk that a reaction between sulphuric acid and seawater generates chlorine.
Andy
I thought one 'advantage' of nickel-iron is that it turns into a hydrogen generator when full, with no damage to the cell? In other words you can dump any energy into it and it'll store what it can as a battery, and vent the rest (I assume you need to keep it in water).
There are plausible applications of it for energy storage: the battery itself becomes your electrolyser. Short term demands come from the battery, and you store the generated hydrogen for longer term demands. I assume you need a fuel cell for turning that back into electricity, but you don't need fancy mollycoddling of the battery because overcharging is not a problem.
Theo
You're probably right. It's just that the one I saw was NiFe (I'd also expected it to be Lead Acid). I would think that not many have heard of NiFe batteries, generally associating nickel with cadmium or hydride where batteries are concerned. I was surprised to find that they are still in use.
Yers indeed, I knew that but had forgotten it. There mist be some reason why nickel iron never caught on in general. But military hardware is built to different safety standards. I believe the average life of a spitfire was 60 hours .
Pilots in the Napier Sabre equipped Typhoons and Tempests ran on oxygen all the time, because the cockpipt was always filled with carbon monoxide.
Take a supercharged experimental racing engine, some cannon and rockets, and strap a basic airframe round it all, and squeeze a pilot in somehow.
Yes. That is what puzzles me, if they were so good why did they never become standard?
Aren't modern IC car batteries no longer lead acid?... ...<ten minutes later> no. they are all lead acid, but made differently. Except for NiMh and Li-ion which we knew about already
In case you are interested, for next time you are at Halfords
The flooded battery is a wet cell battery. It’s typically made of 6 cells with a liquid electrolyte solution of sulfuric acid and water and supplies a voltage of 12.6V at full charge.
It’s a reliable battery for starting engines and provides enough electrical energy to power standard vehicle accessories. However, the electrolyte solution needs to be topped off periodically, and it must be installed vertically to prevent spillage.
This wet cell battery also experiences a substantial reduction in battery life if it’s discharged below 50% of its depth-of-discharge (DoD).
It’s usually sealed and maintenance-free.
The silver calcium battery is more resistant to corrosion and more resilient at high temperatures, so it has a longer lifespan in hotter climates.
However, the silver calcium battery needs a higher charging voltage and can deteriorate quickly from sulfation (damage of battery plates).
The EFB battery is an optimized, higher-performance wet cell battery. It uses a liquid electrolyte solution, but it’s a sealed battery, designed to take on twice the cycling endurance.
The EFB battery can provide about 85,000 engine cranks compared to the
30,000 of conventional flooded batteries. It was introduced as a lower-tier option to the AGM battery for durability and performance, often used in cars with simple start-stop technology.
Gel cell batteries were developed as a non-spillable version of a flooded battery. They’re a type of VRLA battery and are also known as dry cell batteries.
The gel battery is similar to a flooded battery, but calcium replaces the antimony in the lead plates and silica is added to the electrolyte solution, turning it into a gel. It has an increased cycle life and is more resistant to vibration and shock.
You can still find the gel battery on the market, but advancements in AGM batteries have limited its application.
The AGM battery is a VRLA battery designed to support higher electrical energy demands in modern vehicles. It’s similar to a wet cell battery, but a fiberglass separator (a “glass mat”) absorbs the electrolyte solution and keeps it in place.
This battery type performs better than its flooded and gel cell counterparts.
It can charge up to 5 times faster and withstand 3 times more cycle life than a conventional battery. It can also cycle down to 80% of its DoD.
The AGM battery is ideal for vehicles with automatic start-stop applications and with braking energy recovery. However, it can cost
40-100% percent more than conventional batteries.
The deep cycle battery is a type of lead acid battery and can be flooded or sealed. It uses a thicker battery plate in its cells and has a denser active material.
The deep cycle battery type is designed for sustained power with a lower current draw over extended time periods. It’s better suited to recreational vehicles, golf carts and marine vehicles — which is why it’s also called a marine battery.
You’ll often find the lithium ion battery in a hybrid or electric vehicle (EV). The Li Ion battery can store more energy and has faster charging times. It’s also lighter than conventional batteries, which is essential for the electric car. Less weight means more travel distance on one charge.
While a lithium ion battery pack does cost far more than lead acid batteries, they last longer. Most manufacturers grant a 5 to 8-year warranty on their lithium EV batteries, but they can be expected to last between 10-20 years.
Lithium ion battery parts are recyclable, which is another advantage making it a good option for the environmentally conscious.
The NiMH battery (nickel-metal hydride) is often used in hybrid vehicles but is successful in some electric cars. This hybrid battery has a longer life cycle than the lithium ion or lead acid battery.
However, they have a high self-discharge rate, are expensive, and generate a lot of heat at high temperatures. This is why the NiMH battery is less effective for the rechargeable electric vehicle and is focused on hybrid cars.
Now that we’ve covered some common car battery types, let’s go over some FAQs.
I went round the factory from school. I think they were much more expensive that Lead/acid ones, but were smaller and lighter. They were mainly used in aviation because of their light weight. (this was the 1950s)
That's a good question. They were first made by Edison, and although he was very successful, he was known to back a loser on occasion (eg vs Tesla in the AC/DC battle).
There's some info here:
(snipped for brevity).
Some interesting info there. I'm not sure which battery my 7-years old Jazz uses, but although it never fails to start, the autostop-start hasn't worked for a couple of years. I get a visual popup on the screen of a battery with a line through it when it is supposed to be working. I reckon the software has been set up wrongly, with too high a voltage requirement for the autostop-start function (mind you it could just be faulty as it often pops up a visual showing it's the air-conditioning being on which is responsible. It hasn't been on for months...).
IIRC... NiFe was in widespread use, until the railway thing. A survey of backup batteries found pretty much all the NiFes were dead, whereas many of the lead acids were still serviceable. That basically ended them AIUI. Wrongly, as NiFes can stay in use far longer than lead acids. NiCd is a similar animal.
I see, thanks!
Railway thing?
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