Non-rechargeable batteries contribute to garbage and add dangerous toxins to waste making them an environmental threat. Rechargeable batteries have long been touted as safe or at least better for the environment but when you do not find a socket outdoors the entire praise falls flat.

It is in these circumstances that people look for those AA and AAA 1.5volts options that once used can be chucked into the bin. A rechargeable solution that needs no electric socket would also be a great option. But until now, it has been a far-fetched dream.

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The mysterious Baghdad Battery is arguably mankind’s very first device to produce usable levels of electricity, similar to a battery. But it’s true, an inefficient battery.

While many believe Benjamin Franklin to be the father of electricity, history goes back more than two thousand years when Ancient Greeks discovered that rubbing fur on amber causes an attraction between the two.

But did humans actually discovered electricity long before history books tell us?

Probably created in Mesopotamia during the Parthian or Sassanid period (around 200 – 250BC), the Baghdad Battery is comprised from a number of artifacts that include a five-inch-long (13 cm) clay jar with a copper cylinder that encases an iron rod.

All shrouded in myth, the Baghdad Battery is actually an odd thing, an enigma.

However there is a hypothesis that when the jar is filled with water that contains a common acidic agent like lemon juice or vinegar to surround the iron rod, it would form an electrochemical pair and the acidic agent could help produce an electric current. But a very weak electric current.

Actually, speculations have it that a priest or a healer sensed the electrical tingle, didn’t understood it but still used it for electro-acupuncture. And also for religious purposes, because it was discovered that when linked in series, the cells indeed had sufficient power to electroplate a small token.

So could that be the first sign to electricity?

Yesterday I wrote about homes having their own wind power. Today, I came across an article where Toyota is planning to develop batteries for homes to run off of.  Now if, the wind power could charge the batteries, we might really be on to something.

Toyota Motor Corp. is working with Toyota Home to devise a power storage system to be used by as early as 2011. A home power system will be more practical for plug-in hybrid cars due out by 2010.

Their goal is to

1. design a device that costs hundreds of thousands of yen
2. is small enough to fit in the home or be placed outside
3. can store electricity during off-peak night hours
4. can store power generated by solar cells
5. can make power available for lighting and other uses in the home during the day
6. be a high-speed charging device that can power up plug-in cars.

Toyota’s prototype uses lithium ion batteries and can store some 5 kilowatt-hours of electricity. This is enough to meet the daytime energy needs of the average household.

But, can you drive the house?

Only then would Toyota REALLY have something.

Source: Nikkei (sub req)

Lithium ion batteries that are in the market today are already being hailed as major breakthroughs and are helping both the automobile industry as well as the electronic field in producing gadgets that are smaller, lighter and far more efficient than ever before.

But how about turning that up a couple of notches by creating cell phones that are fully charged in a matter of a few seconds and electric cars that can challenge an F1 vehicle for the top speed? As astounding as that sounds, the researchers at the famous Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) are moving ahead in that direction.

A couple of material experts at MIT have been in the process of designing a new Li-Ion cell that unlike traditional li-ion batteries, charge up faster and can even discharge energy in one single burst when needed. They’ve used a Lithium Phosphate coating to the existing batteries, the experts have succeeded in creating nano-scale tunnels for the swift movement of the electrons.

Considering that it’s just an enhancement to a technology that is already commercial, we’re expecting it to hit the market in the coming years.

Source: AFP
Image by kqedquest

The 2009 Detroit Auto Show just opened gates to press and there’s good stuff for eco-minded people. GM just officially unveiled their beautifully styled, sleek, and clearly aerodynamic Cadillac Converj.

It’s a two-door front-wheel-drive coupe extended range electric concept that uses E-Flex technology – now known as Voltec, that is expected to deliver a 40-mile range from a set of lithium ion batteries (16-kWh T-shaped battery that takes less than 3 hours at 240V/8 hours at 120V to charge) and a four-cylinder gasoline engine-generator.

As for how powerful it is, consider 120 kW and a 273 lb-ft torque. There’s no word on production yet, but our guess is it won’t hit the streets before 2012.

Hit the jump for a big gallery with the new Cadillac Converj, and the press release.

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Usually, the annual MacWorld keynote speech always brings in some goodies for the eco geeks. This year they managed to please everyone by announcing that new battery in the all-new 17-inch MacBook Pro is now 60% more efficient.

The battery is expected to run for more than 8 hours on a single charge, allows more than 1000 charges (that’s like 5 years) and is recyclable. It sure sounds green to me, but there’s more to it. It also got an EPEAT Gold award for being arsenic, BFR, mercury and PVC free.

Other than these, there’s also a smart chip within the battery that deal with each cell to make adjustments to the current for each cell, making it last three times longer than the industry’s standard. And did we mention that the battery is just as thing and just as light?

Though the user is still not able to change the battery itself, we think Apple has taken a big step forward. Don’t you?

Photo via Gizmodo : Live @ Macworld

John McCain wants to save fuel and reduce emissions. (Don’t we all?)  If elected he is willing to earmark $300 million to encourage innovation on a new car battery. I wonder if he couldn’t just buy the technology from Toyota for about half that price. That $300 million is equal to everyone in the United States ponying up $1. McCain wants to do better than Toyota’s hybrid technology.

McCain says the battery should have the “size, capacity, cost and power to leapfrog the commercially available plug-in hybrids or electric cars.  My administration will issue a Clean Car Challenge to the automakers of America, in the form of a single and substantial tax credit based on the reduction of carbon emissions. For every automaker who can sell a zero-emissions car, we will commit a 5,000 dollar tax credit for each and every customer who buys that car.“

A $5000 tax credit? Will that go for anyone buying the Honda FCX Clarity? McCain says that if the US can do Thomas Edison, the Wright brothers, Apollo moon landings, silicon chips and the Internet, then surely we can do a zero emission battery.

“For all the troubles and dangers our energy vulnerability presents, we know that we can overcome them, because we have overcome far worse problems and met far greater goals.”

So, what do you think? Does America have what it takes?