Zinc Air Fuel Cell Licensed To Power Electric Vehicles

Zinc Air Inc. (ZAI) announced that it had obtained exclusive rights from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory for the zinc air fuel cell (U.S

. Patent 5,434,020) invented by John Cooper, a retired Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory chemist.

A fuel cell is typically similar in operation to a conventional battery, although they have some distinct physical differences. Primarily, a fuel cell is an electro-chemical device wherein the chemical energy of a fuel is converted directly into electric power. The main difference between a conventional battery and a fuel cell is that, unlike a battery, a fuel cell is supplied with reactants externally. As a result, whereas a battery is discharged, a fuel cell never faces such a problem, as long as the supply of fuel is provided.

The zinc air fuel cell consumes zinc metal and atmospheric oxygen, and produces a reaction product consisting of a liquid suspension of zinc oxides and potassium zincate in an alkaline electrolyte.

Refueling is accomplished by replacing the spent electrolyte with fresh electrolyte and zinc pellets.

During discharge, zinc pellets fall continuously from the overlying hopper into a narrow opening at the top of each cell. Because the cell gap is only a few times larger than the particles, the particles do not close packeven when subjected to strong vibrations. Electrolyte flows upward through the cell and hopper to remove heat and reaction products.

"At the moment, most in the auto industry are currently looking to lithium batteries as the power solution for electric vehicles, but those batteries are manufactured primarily outside of the United States and are not cost effective for widespread use," said ZAI Co-Founder and President Dave Wilkins. "There is enough readily available zinc just in the United States to produce billions of these batteries," he continued.

Zinc Air Fuel Cell Licensed To Power Electric Vehicles

By: InfoGreen

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