(This post isn't about a measure unit).
We're living now in what seems to be the beginning of a new revolution with the electric batteries, devices and vehicles, that, according some articles and news I've read, can change our lives, and the economy of many industries and countries as we now know.
We're living now in what seems to be the beginning of a new revolution with the electric batteries, devices and vehicles, that, according some articles and news I've read, can change our lives, and the economy of many industries and countries as we now know.
According the knowledge that has arrived until our days, civilizations like Chineese, Egipts, Mesopotamian and Greeks identified the effects of electricity in some materials. Even, according some investigators, the Olmec civilization.
For instance, the greek Thales of Miletus, on VI centuary before christ, observed that rubbing fur or wool on amber, could attract lightweight objects, such as feathers. In fact, electron means amber in ancient greek.
Many centuaries past until the rediscovering of electricity, and the evolution of phisics in this field.
The electric batteries exists since XVIII centuary, but haven't been enought efficient - combination of prize, size, power, lifetime, low charging time, low manufacturing cost, non polluting, not danger for human - to be used massively in medium or big devices and machines. This is the threshold that seems to be overcomed nowadays further and further.
The massive use of electric batteries in small devices like watches, toys, ... have been common since the fifties, sixties or seventies of the XX centuary, including with bigger devices like laptops; but only science fiction or rare experiments could show us its use on vehicles or big machines.
During the XX centuaty, the use of oil derivates spread all over the world, with many products that make our lifes better, and have allowed us develop as a civilization with many technological discoveries. But, seems that there are less and less profitable and high quality oil reserves, and the demand continues growing. For instance, some scientists say that most of the best quality oil reserves will run out in a few years, and the rest isn't enought good for producing some products like diesel, or can't be extracted easily, what implies higher costs.
All this, have involved return our attention point into the electric batteries, and other alternatives of energy storing.
Is the fast evolution since the end of the the XX centuary, of all these alternatives, improving the tuple of efficiency, and the evironmental, ecological and healthy awareness, that nowadays, 2018, seems that the industry and politics starts to live a new revolution.
We can see more and more electric devices, hybrid and electric cars and motors, drones, scooters, bikes, ... All these with batteries more and more efficient year by year.
Is that combination of factors that make more efficient a battery, which is living a crazy revolution, with new discoverings and improvements in all fields. And drives the changes for using improved electric batteries replacing totally or parcially the previous technologies.
There are new materials to create batteries, and this also has economical and geostrategic implications, according where the mines of these minerals are located, because a very large demand of them it's estimated.
We'll see what will happen in the future, but probably many technologies will coexist for many years, avoiding dependence on one or two. Lately some news speak about solid state batteries, even with graphene as the future.
The energy that a battery can store, we can see in the specifications kWh:
kWh (Kilowatt hour) = kW·h = kW h = 3.6 MJ
The specific energy, is the energy per unit mass, and many batteries have this measure in kJ/kg or MJ/kg. Some equivalences:
There are new materials to create batteries, and this also has economical and geostrategic implications, according where the mines of these minerals are located, because a very large demand of them it's estimated.
We'll see what will happen in the future, but probably many technologies will coexist for many years, avoiding dependence on one or two. Lately some news speak about solid state batteries, even with graphene as the future.
The energy that a battery can store, we can see in the specifications kWh:
1 kWh = (1000 J * 3600 s ) / 1 s = 3600000 J = 3600 KJ
1 kWh ≈ 3412 BTU (British Thermal Unit) ≈ the thermal energy produced by 0,1 Nm3 (in normal conditions) of natural gas
1 kWh ≈ 3412 BTU (British Thermal Unit) ≈ the thermal energy produced by 0,1 Nm3 (in normal conditions) of natural gas
kWh (Kilowatt hour) = kW·h = kW h = 3.6 MJ
kcal/g = 4.184 MJ/kg (SI equivalent)
kWh/kg = 3.6 MJ/kg (SI equivalent)
Btu/lb (pound) = 2.326 kJ/kg (SI equivalent)
References:
https://www-spof.gsfc.nasa.gov/Education/Mhelect.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Specific_energy
https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vatio-hora
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Specific_energy
https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vatio-hora
