Here's a spot-o'-news that's sure to get a certain volcano-climber to cream his panties.
It's an interview with the CEO of PowerGenix, a producer of Nickel-Zinc batteries that's supposedly from earlier this week, although a few of the comments he makes sound somewhat dated.
http://www.powermanagementdesignline.com/news/206905768
Two nickels worth of battery power --- The Interview
By Vince Biancomano
(03/25/2008 10:10 PM EDT)
Manhasset, NY Following the introduction of the silver-zinc battery as if on cue, rechargeable nickel-zinc batteries are here to challenge nickel-cadmium and nickel-metal-hydride for high power-density applications. "We're focused on nickel-zinc for its inherent safety, non-toxicity, and power-density," says Dan Squiller, CEO of PowerGenix and the company behind the new battery.
PMDL: Last month, the silver-zinc battery arrived to challenge lithium-ions in the portable electronics market, and now you've just announced the nickel-zinc for power tools and small vehicles. What's happening? And do you see lithium-ion still in the game for some power applications?
DS: Contrary to popular belief, lithium-ion is not going to take over the world. The rechargeable battery market is huge, and it is segmented. There are clearly applications where lithium-ion is the best chemistry in the world when you look at performance and cost. But there are large segments where it is not, and it will not be. So the way to look at nickel-zinc is the next generation replacement for Ni-Cad and nickel-metal hydride.
And the advantage that nickel-zinc has over those two chemistries is simple to understand. Our voltage is 1.6 volts, and nickel-metal-hydride and Ni-Cad are 1.2 volts. So right out of the block, we have a more or less 30 percent energy-density advantage, and 30 percent power density advantage. On the energy-density advantage, NiCd is maybe at 50 W-h/kg, NiMH can get to maybe 60 W-h/kg, and NiZn is over 100 W-h/kg. Lithium-ion is 100 to 150, depending on the labor and cost. On the power-density side, NiCd and NiMH are between 800 to 1000 W/kg, lithium-ion is 1500 to 2600, and NiZn comes in at about 2400. So the message there is that on a power-density metric, NiZn is a very very strong performer compared to anything else on the market.
The cost per watt-hour is about 40 cents for NiZn. The NiCd can go anywhere from 25 to 50 cents, NiMH is maybe 45 cents to 70 cents. It's less than half the cost of lithium-ion. From a performance-cost point of view, that's the niche, there's a lot of white space between where lithium-ion starts to compete with where we and NiMH and NiCd are.
There's two other factors. With NiCd, there's toxicity and recyclability issues. We've been tested against all the RoHS metrics and our cell passes them with flying colors. So we are certifiably "Green." And when Toys 'R' Us and Mattel make announcements that they are not going to be buying any more NiCd cells because of toxicity issues, cadmium poisoning, that's a big deal. This whole "Green" movement is nothing but a tailwind for us and a headwind for NiCd. And NiMH, because of the cost difference between NiZn and the fact that it doesn't have as good a low-temperature performance and a few other metrics, NiZn compares very favorably there. And NiZn is a 100 percent safe chemistry because it has an aqueous electrolyte.
Looks like Nickel-Zinc has yet again found a new champion to take another poke at the cat, or should I say frog.
The history of trying to bring NiZn batteries to the marketplace kinda reminds me of 'Michigan J. Frog', the singing, high stepping bullfrog.
Where everyone that comes in contact with it gets the gleam of dollar signs in their eyes but invariably fails to perform on cue.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michigan_J._Frog
I really do hope that PowerGenix has better luck with it than Evercel everdid.
A little competition can only be good news for us that it might force the lithium crowd to respond.
It's good to have choice, because having a choice means having freedom, & freedom is worship word.
I'm just a little troubled that the CEO seems to turn a blind eye to LiFePO4 & doesn't appear to be very familiar with his competition even in the NiMH arena that they're squarely targeting, which is why I think this is an older interview.
The bright side is that they already have in production & are selling AA & subC, something that was news to me.
If they really do come out with their D size for use in scooters as they plan to later this year I will definately give them a test drive.
Judging by the specs on their subC, the performance almost across the board looks to be about the same as NiMh, despite the boss's sell-job to the contrary
The higher 1.6V nominal is nice in that you would only need 30 cells instead of the 40 a 48V NiMH pack would require, but the amount of Watt-hours basically stays the same for a given size package.
The main benefits seem to be that for the same size Wh package it will be 25% lighter than NiMh & of course everything hinges on the price.
Nickel-Zinc should be considerably cheaper to produce but there's no guarantee that the savings will be passed forward.
In fact when asked in the interview about that, the response is that they will charge a premium for the supposed benefits where NiZn has an advantage over other chemistries.
Unfortunately technology has moved the goalposts farther away since whenever this interview was conducted & I think those advantages have since been gobbled up.
PowerGenix may find itself retreating to its last bastion on price right quick.
Oh well M.J., I'm afraid it's looking like you may get boxed up for another decade till the next sucker comes along to dust you off to perform the Michigan Rag one more time.
ZincFive, Inc. — Formerly EnSite Power, Inc. — Acquires PowerGenix to Globally Deliver Energy Efficient Nickel-Zinc
https://www.zincfive.com/nickelzinc-overview
[youtube]XW1IKuDoOoE[/youtube]
It's an interview with the CEO of PowerGenix, a producer of Nickel-Zinc batteries that's supposedly from earlier this week, although a few of the comments he makes sound somewhat dated.
http://www.powermanagementdesignline.com/news/206905768
Two nickels worth of battery power --- The Interview
By Vince Biancomano
(03/25/2008 10:10 PM EDT)
Manhasset, NY Following the introduction of the silver-zinc battery as if on cue, rechargeable nickel-zinc batteries are here to challenge nickel-cadmium and nickel-metal-hydride for high power-density applications. "We're focused on nickel-zinc for its inherent safety, non-toxicity, and power-density," says Dan Squiller, CEO of PowerGenix and the company behind the new battery.
PMDL: Last month, the silver-zinc battery arrived to challenge lithium-ions in the portable electronics market, and now you've just announced the nickel-zinc for power tools and small vehicles. What's happening? And do you see lithium-ion still in the game for some power applications?
DS: Contrary to popular belief, lithium-ion is not going to take over the world. The rechargeable battery market is huge, and it is segmented. There are clearly applications where lithium-ion is the best chemistry in the world when you look at performance and cost. But there are large segments where it is not, and it will not be. So the way to look at nickel-zinc is the next generation replacement for Ni-Cad and nickel-metal hydride.
And the advantage that nickel-zinc has over those two chemistries is simple to understand. Our voltage is 1.6 volts, and nickel-metal-hydride and Ni-Cad are 1.2 volts. So right out of the block, we have a more or less 30 percent energy-density advantage, and 30 percent power density advantage. On the energy-density advantage, NiCd is maybe at 50 W-h/kg, NiMH can get to maybe 60 W-h/kg, and NiZn is over 100 W-h/kg. Lithium-ion is 100 to 150, depending on the labor and cost. On the power-density side, NiCd and NiMH are between 800 to 1000 W/kg, lithium-ion is 1500 to 2600, and NiZn comes in at about 2400. So the message there is that on a power-density metric, NiZn is a very very strong performer compared to anything else on the market.
The cost per watt-hour is about 40 cents for NiZn. The NiCd can go anywhere from 25 to 50 cents, NiMH is maybe 45 cents to 70 cents. It's less than half the cost of lithium-ion. From a performance-cost point of view, that's the niche, there's a lot of white space between where lithium-ion starts to compete with where we and NiMH and NiCd are.
There's two other factors. With NiCd, there's toxicity and recyclability issues. We've been tested against all the RoHS metrics and our cell passes them with flying colors. So we are certifiably "Green." And when Toys 'R' Us and Mattel make announcements that they are not going to be buying any more NiCd cells because of toxicity issues, cadmium poisoning, that's a big deal. This whole "Green" movement is nothing but a tailwind for us and a headwind for NiCd. And NiMH, because of the cost difference between NiZn and the fact that it doesn't have as good a low-temperature performance and a few other metrics, NiZn compares very favorably there. And NiZn is a 100 percent safe chemistry because it has an aqueous electrolyte.
Looks like Nickel-Zinc has yet again found a new champion to take another poke at the cat, or should I say frog.
The history of trying to bring NiZn batteries to the marketplace kinda reminds me of 'Michigan J. Frog', the singing, high stepping bullfrog.
Where everyone that comes in contact with it gets the gleam of dollar signs in their eyes but invariably fails to perform on cue.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michigan_J._Frog
I really do hope that PowerGenix has better luck with it than Evercel everdid.
A little competition can only be good news for us that it might force the lithium crowd to respond.
It's good to have choice, because having a choice means having freedom, & freedom is worship word.
I'm just a little troubled that the CEO seems to turn a blind eye to LiFePO4 & doesn't appear to be very familiar with his competition even in the NiMH arena that they're squarely targeting, which is why I think this is an older interview.
The bright side is that they already have in production & are selling AA & subC, something that was news to me.
If they really do come out with their D size for use in scooters as they plan to later this year I will definately give them a test drive.
Judging by the specs on their subC, the performance almost across the board looks to be about the same as NiMh, despite the boss's sell-job to the contrary
The higher 1.6V nominal is nice in that you would only need 30 cells instead of the 40 a 48V NiMH pack would require, but the amount of Watt-hours basically stays the same for a given size package.
The main benefits seem to be that for the same size Wh package it will be 25% lighter than NiMh & of course everything hinges on the price.
Nickel-Zinc should be considerably cheaper to produce but there's no guarantee that the savings will be passed forward.
In fact when asked in the interview about that, the response is that they will charge a premium for the supposed benefits where NiZn has an advantage over other chemistries.
Unfortunately technology has moved the goalposts farther away since whenever this interview was conducted & I think those advantages have since been gobbled up.
PowerGenix may find itself retreating to its last bastion on price right quick.
Oh well M.J., I'm afraid it's looking like you may get boxed up for another decade till the next sucker comes along to dust you off to perform the Michigan Rag one more time.
ZincFive, Inc. — Formerly EnSite Power, Inc. — Acquires PowerGenix to Globally Deliver Energy Efficient Nickel-Zinc
https://www.zincfive.com/nickelzinc-overview
[youtube]XW1IKuDoOoE[/youtube]
