Could this be the breakthrough needed for a practical electric plane?

[Anymouse]

Saw this on CNN's Web page. It's still a bunch of years away, if it ever happens, but I like the idea of an electric car getting 500 miles off of a 5 minute charge. I'm wondering what you can do with this in an airplane.

BTW... I agree with Perry's statement in the last line.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/09/07/electric.car.batteries.ap/index.html


(text deleted -- see link)

Last edited by Ron Levy; September 10th, 2007 at 08:08 PM. Reason: Plagiarism

And because Levy edited my post, no one will ever know what the article was about.

 

[poadeleted20]

What's it weigh? And can it be accidentally flash-discharged as well as flash-charged?

 

[etsisk]

whoowee! I'd get some of 'em in a heartbeat! Get me an electric motor and stick that sucker on a glider!!!!

 

[gismo]

First, there are a lot more problems to solve in creating a capacitor with 400 times the energy density of the current technology than the dielectric (the stuff between the plates). That kind of energy in capacitive form will generate significant forces between the plates which can lead to all sorts of mechanically induced failure modes. And then there's the safety issue. We're talking about the potential energy of a tankful of gasoline that could be explosively released when any portion of the two plates manage to contact each other. And even if all that were solved, charging such a device in 5 minutes would take something like 2-3 MEGAWATS of power. Even at a high delivered voltage like 500 V that's 4000-6000 Amps.

IMO this "invention" is nothing more than a scam like attempt to suck in investment capital from fools.

 

[Ghery]

First, there are a lot more problems to solve in creating a capacitor with 400 times the energy density of the current technology than the dielectric (the stuff between the plates). That kind of energy in capacitive form will generate significant forces between the plates which can lead to all sorts of mechanically induced failure modes. And then there's the safety issue. We're talking about the potential energy of a tankful of gasoline that could be explosively released when any portion of the two plates manage to contact each other. And even if all that were solved, charging such a device in 5 minutes would take something like 2-3 MEGAWATS of power. Even at a high delivered voltage like 500 V that's 4000-6000 Amps.

IMO this "invention" is nothing more than a scam like attempt to suck in investment capital from fools.

I got the same impression reading the article. How do you dump that much energy into the capacitor in a short period of time? Lots and lots of current. And a "wire" that can carry 6000 Amps isn't small. I remember the isophase busses coming off the generators at Lower Granite Lock and Dam. 135 MWatt 3 phase. 13.2 kV. About 5900 Amps per phase. I don't think that's going to be installed in my house!

 

[wbarnhill]

I still want to know why there hasn't been more work pushing the lightweight wankel engine into the aviation market...