If you believe all the hype electric cars are on course to save the world. If we can ween ourselves off our gas addiction and onto a cleaner form of sustainable fuel we might just be able to save this big beautiful marble we live on. Problem is though, we’re entrenched into a system that uses gas to power itself. Any move to a cleaner fuel is going to need huge amounts of investment in new forms of infrastructure.
Researchers at Purdue University in Indiana think they have an answer to this problem. They are working on a technology that could provide an “instantly rechargeable” method that is safe, affordable and environmentally friendly. Current charging methods are based locally as they require large amounts of time, it is a huge “Time Commitment” for drivers says John Cushman who is a Professor at Purdue and co-founder of Ifbattery LLC.
The idea being developed at Purdue sees charged electrolyte fluids being used to re-energise spent batteries. This would give charging the battery in your car a process similar to that of filling your tank with gas. Spent fluids could be collected and taken to local solar farm, wind turbine installations or hydroelectric plants.
Cushman says:
“Instead of refining petroleum, the refiners would reprocess spent electrolytes and instead of dispensing gas, the fueling stations would dispense a water and ethanol or methanol solution as fluid electrolytes to power vehicles,”
These flow batteries are an exciting development and could lead to a proliferation of electric vehicles hitting the roads over the next few years. We all need power and whenever new techniques are discovered to provide in a clean and safe manner it should excite us all. All we need now is a similar sort of innovation for our mobile phone batteries and we’ll be set for a glorious future!
Via: Science Daily
