# Radical battery concepts..



## JRP3 (Mar 7, 2008)

Reminds me a bit of the "Flow" battery, without the pumping.


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## PhantomPholly (Aug 20, 2008)

A bit, but the dependency on the liquids remaining separate because of density (ergo on gravity) means that it must remain fairly stationary to work.

Still, it would be great to have reliable power at home for a change. I live in the Atlanta metro, you would think things would work - but even small storms knock it out.


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## ithinkidontknow (May 14, 2009)

I remember reading somewhere about an all gas battery with very similar engineering to this. They said that the gas was highly ionized and because of that was able to hold a significant charge. However, I cannot remember what the battery chemistry was exactly and I cannot seem to find what I am looking for online. The only problem, from what I read is that in the prototype that they built, the equivalent of a car battery in capacity and voltage, was the same size as a refrigerator. They said that the idea was that the gas was extremely efficient at holding a charge and therefore energy could be stored there for a long time without any losses. Possibly a solution to our less than robust energy grid.


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## PhantomPholly (Aug 20, 2008)

Gas would certainly be disadvantageous from a density perspective. Unless there were some kind of separator, I can't envision how such a battery might work - it seems they would just blend and then there would be no way to separate positive from negative.

Well it's all cool stuff and hopefully they will get decent car batteries soon...


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## david85 (Nov 12, 2007)

A polymer membrane could keep them separate if it was engineered properly. A plastic shopping bag for example is permeable with helium but will still hold air.

Similar materials were developed for hydrogen fuel cells to separate oxygen from ambient atmosphere. If the energy and power potential is there, I have no doubt a separator material could be developed if needed. This assumes that the different fluids do not separate on their own and are not different densities.

A gelling agent could also help stabilized the fluids.

Can't argue with the simplicity though. If its real.


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## PhantomPholly (Aug 20, 2008)

I agree - even something as simple as slosh baffles might work for about anyone other than "The Transporter." Just enough stabilization so that gravity isn't offset by mixing.


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