A loud voice thundered from the lofty floors of the U.S. Patent and Trade Office, “patent 7,466,536 has been granted upon the earth.” All lightheartedness aside, the recent patent developed by Weir & Nelson (2008), on behalf of EEStor, could reign in the next era of disconnected electrical power. There are many forces at play when it comes to alternative energy and automobiles.  I am not going to get into the debate over electrical versus alternative fuels and hybrids; however, suffice to say that the majority of the scientific community lean towards all electric vehicles as having the most worthwhile impact on the planet. 

A great article on the promise of all electric vehicles over hybrids or alternatively fueled vehicles was written by Arnie Cooper (2008), in which he interviewed Elon Musk of Tesla Motors.  Tesla Motors has the only production, all-electric, full range (i.e. the range of a typical gas powered vehicle), and full speed (i.e. highway speed) automobile on the market. When Cooper asked, “Why not go hybrid?”, Musk replied:

We looked closely at developing a hybrid, but we decided it’s a red herring. If you stay purely electric or purely gasoline, you’re going to make a better car. As soon as you try to split the difference, you have something that’s neither fish nor fowl. A Prius is a weak gasoline car with a little bit of electric charge. And once you’ve used up the electric charge, you have an underpowered gasoline engine or a weak electric car. (Cooper, 2008)

Another argument that is often heard regarding all electric vehicles is that the cost of electricity is more than that of gasoline—per mile traveled.  Musk did the math on a 250 mile, all electric, trip in the Tesla and found that with California’s electricity rates (special rate for electric vehicles), the trip would only cost $5 (Cooper, 2008). I would argue that more investment needs to be put into alternative methods that power the electrical grid at a lower cost—followed by a push and get people into all electrical vehicles (instead of worrying about electricity prices right now).

Now on to the EEStor patent—the Electrical Energy Storage Unit , otherwise known as the EESU (Weir, R. D., & C. W. Nelson). The promise of this patent is truly revolutionary.  The foremost solution that this patent provides is the promise of a  low cost end product.  According to the patent (Weir, R. D., & C. W. Nelson) this is achieved by essentially using ceramic, aluminum, and plastic—all ultra low cost materials compared to the rare earth elements used in conventional batteries and fuel cells.  According to the Advanced Materials Website, the barium titanate (ceramic powder) can be purchased for as little as  $39.50/kg in bulk 50kg quantities (“Barium,” n.d.). The Polyethylene Terephthalate (plastic) goes for about $300/ton in the U.S. commodities market (“Polyethylene,” n.d.). Lastly, as of this writing, aluminum was trading for $1065/ton (“TheFinancials,” n.d.).  The EESU layers can even utilize a low cost screen printing method (Weir, R. D., & C. W. Nelson). This is all cheap stuff!  Mufson (2008), of the Washington Post , writes of the batteries currently being used, “Automobile experts estimate that the battery in a plug-in vehicle could add at least $8,000 to the cost of a car, maybe considerably more.” In contrast, the EESU is estimated to cost $2,100 as manufacturing ramps up (Hibbard, 2005). 

On existing electric cars, the ratio of “(battery weight) / (the weight of all other parts) ” has been very high, and this significantly affects the range of the vehicles.  The EESU only weighs 282 pounds, in comparison to Telsa’s 900 pound ESS (Toomre, 2007).  Another exciting feature is that, with a high capacity electrical connection, the EESU can be completely charged in 3-6 minutes (Weir, R. D., & C. W. Nelson). On the safety side, unlike Lithium Ion battery cells, the EESU does not have the risk of exploding when being charged or impacted (i.e. in an automobile accident).  We have all heard the Lithium Ion horror stories where someone’s cell phone or laptop catches on fire—burning white-hot.   One last feature that speaks to this pinnacle of technology innovation is its purported durability.  The most common and least expensive battery technology out today for vehicles (i.e. the lead-acid battery) has a lifetime of around 500-700 charge cycles (this is from fully dead to fully charged). An unsubstantiated claim from the Clean Break Web site cites a reliable source as saying, “…the EEStor technology has been tested up to a million cycles with no material degradation” (“What’s In Store,” 2008).

So, we have the plug-in Chevy volt hybrid that is widely expected to be from $35,000 to $40,000 (not available yet).  Next up there is the Tesla Roadster (fully electric and in production) at around $109,000. Last, but definitely not least, is the CityZenn (fully electric), based on the EEStor EESU, which is expected to be $30,000 and released in the fall of 2009 (Hutchinson, 2008).  The CityZenn’s top seed will be 78 Mph and will have a range of 248 miles (Hutchinson, 2008).

In addition to the tremendous promise the EEStor product provides the automobile industry, the patent creators suggest several other areas where the EESU technology would be well suited, such as: 

• Electrical storage for power generation plants supporting the power grid
• “Constant voltage” and “power averaging” storage solution for solar cells and wind power generators (Weir, R. D., & C. W. Nelson).
• Safe power packs for any consumer electronic devices and tools (note that the patent claims that the EESU has a higher power density than Lithium Ion—today’s predominant rechargeable storage technology—this is a good thing!).

(Weir, R. D., & C. W. Nelson).

 

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References

Barium Titanate (Barium Titanium Oxide, BaTiO3) powder. (n.d.). In Inframat Advanced Materials . Retrieved January 04, 2009, from http://www.advancedmaterials.us/5622-ON4.htm

Cooper, A. (2008, December 12). Charging Ahead. Popular Science . Retrieved January 04, 2009, from http://www.popsci.com/cars/article/2008-12/charging-ahead#

Hibbard, J. (2005, September 3). Kleiner Perkins’ Latest Energy Investment. In BusinessWeek - Business News, Stock Market & Financial Advice . Retrieved January 05, 2009, from http://www.businessweek.com/the_thread/dealflow/archives/2005/09/kleiner_perkins_1.html

Hutchinson, A. (2009, January 1). ZENN and the Art of the Electric Car. Toronto Life , p. 41.

Mufson, S. (2008, November 25). The Car of the Future — but at What Cost?; Hybrid Vehicles Are Popular, but Making Them Profitable Is a Challenge. Washington Post , p. A01.

Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET) Prices and Pricing Information. (n.d.). Retrieved January 04, 2009, from http://www.icis.com/v2/chemicals/9076425/polyethylene-terephthalate/pricing.html

TheFinancials.com Commodity Market Reports. (n.d.). In Stock, Commodity, Futures, Forex, Mortgage/Real-Estate and Treasury . Retrieved January 04, 2009, from http://www.thefinancials.com/commodities/GotoMarketReport.html?id=MarketBaseMetals_CMMetals.html

Weir, R. D., & Nelson, C. W. (2008). U.S. Patent No. 7,466,536 . Washington, DC: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

What’s in store for EEStor? (2006, January 19). In Clean Break . Retrieved January 05, 2009, from http://www.cleanbreak.ca/2006/01/19/whats-in-store-for-eestor-2/