High-energy batteries coming very soon

Current is generated by the reaction of zinc with air

Reportedly, a Swiss company called ReVolt announced it has developed zinc-air batteries that are capable of recharging. In addition, this very technology could store three times the energy of the well-known lithium-ion batteries that we find in our laptops, costing merely half as much. ReVolt of Staefa, Switzerland, was founded in 2004 aiming at marketing this battery design which is based on the technology developed by SINTEF, a scientific institute in Norway.

Allegedly, ReVolt has received 24 million Euros in investments already with James McDougall, company’s CEO, claiming they have overcome the key issue with zinc-air rechargeable batteries – they stop working after a few charges.
The relatively slow development on the battery field over the years inevitably leads to a sluggish mobile innovation. Users would love to have a very powerful CPU housed in a laptop, which does not have stop working after 20 minutes.

The zinc-air rechargeable batteries basically use oxygen from the air to generate current. In addition, with the help of binding agents and gelling, the single-use batteries can be used again. Reportedly, engineers have tested the new technology for up to 100 cycles, but are confident that the devices will eventually be capable of up to 500.

What we see here, is a technology which could make notebooks more powerful and less expensive. Moreover, the zinc-air batteries are supposed to be environmentally friendlier as they do not posses all the toxic materials in the now in use lithium-ion ones.

Allegedly, small hearing aid and cell phone batteries are expected in 2010. Apparently, all we have to do now is to wait.