Refueling Electric Cars with Liquid Electrolytes

Refueling Electric Cars with Liquid Electrolytes


A group of Purdue researchers want to streamline the process of recharging electric cars using a liquid fuel packed with more electrolytes than Gatorade.

At present, the biggest hurdle to the mass proliferation of electric and hybrid vehicles is the required infrastructure. Every pure electric and hybrid vehicle has a finite range, and unless your route happens to take you near one of the few recharging stations throughout the country, you can only stray so far from home.

And the long-fabled nationwide infrastructure for electric cars is a political minefield.

Enter Purdue University professor John Cushman, who recently co-founded Ifbattery LLC (IF-battery) to commercialize a new energy storage system that uses an electrolytic fuel to refill electric cars as quickly as going to the gas station.

“There continues to be strong challenges for industry and consumers of electric or hybrid cars," Cushman recently said. "The biggest challenge for industry is to extend the life of a battery's charge and the infrastructure needed to actually charge the vehicle.”

"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," Cushman said.

And the spent battery fluids? Sent to solar farms, wind turbine installations, or hydroelectric plants for re-charging.

It sounds audacious, but no more so than Elon Musk’s plan to cover the entire US and Canada with “Supercharger” stations to swap out Tesla batteries (or recharge them to 50% within 20 minutes).

The new technology also eliminates “membrane fouling,” which can “limit the number of recharge cycles and is a known contributor to many battery fires.”

A more feasible “refueling” method could make electric cars accessible to the average consumer, who can’t afford a short- and long-range vehicle (or whose average commute or occasional trip doesn’t fall within an EV’s range).

And anything that enables the mass proliferation of electric cars (without binding legislation) is a win in my book.

 


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