LATEST BATTERY TECH OFFERS A CLEAN FIX

Hardly a month goes by when DPM isn?t presented with a new breakthrough in battery technology The latest comes from a Texas group called EEStor that claims of an energy-storage technology that will replace the electrochemical batteries that are being used in hybrid-electric and pure-electric vehicles. What the company claims to have invented is a battery-ultracapacitor hybrid based on barium-titanate powders. The claim is that the battery will far outperform the best lithium-ion batteries in energy density, price, charge time, and safety. And it also packs 10 times the punch of lead-acid batteries at half the cost without using any toxic materials or chemicals.

Much like capacitors, ultracapacitors store energy in an electrical field between two closely spaced conductors, or plates. When voltage is applied, an electric charge builds up on each plate. Ultracapacitors purported advantage over traditional electrochemical batteries is that, unlike batteries, ultracaps can completely absorb and release a charge at high rates and in a virtually endless cycle with little degradation.

While the claims have still to be proven the breakthrough - on face value - has the potential to radically transform the car industry that is already looking for an electric renaissance. And if the battery lives up to expectation it could threaten the next-generation lithium-ion makers that are partnering with a plug-in hybrid storage system for General Motors.

Andrew Burke, an expert on energy systems for transportation at University of California is skeptical, but hopes that the technology turns out to be better than he thinks it is. EEStor?s executives are keeping tight lipped keeping a low profile tell the media that they want the company's innovations to speak for itself. One weakness is with energy storage. Compared with lithium-ion batteries, high-end ultracapacitors today store 25 times less energy per pound.