Electric car battery scientist is honoured

Published on Tuesday 7 February 2012 00:00

A SCOTTISH academic whose work could be the next big leap forward in the development of electric cars has been honoured with a UK Science Award.

Professor Peter Bruce, of St Andrews University, is working on a new type of battery he believes may be able to deliver the “holy grail” of fuelling an engine to run for 300 miles without stopping. The lithium air battery, which uses oxygen, could also help Scotland store and make greater use of energy from wind and wave power.

Prof Bruce said: “It is rewarding to work in an area where you feel your contribution might be something which will be help advance human kind.”

At the moment, electric cars can drive for about 170km before they need recharging.

Prof Lesley Yellowlees, chairman of the selection panel, described Prof Bruce as a “brilliant scientist”.

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Niebiosa tam sa naprawde nieskrzydlowe ludzie tam

Tuesday, February 7, 2012 at 11:05 AM

I have seen the case made for the battery system to be "swapped" when you go into a future "fuel station". The battery would be standardised across makes, and the facility would swap a charged unit for your depleted one. This would then be charged up ready for swapping. In this way, dropping into your local fuel station might not take much longer than simply filling up as we do now. These ideas are in the early stages. The petrol station we know now, did not bloom fully fledged. Early motorists would drop by the nearest chemist for a tin of Petroleum Spirit, in the very early days. Of course, we now have a complete supermarket on the fore court, and you sit there waiting for someone to do the weekly shop before paying for the petrol, and letting you have your turn at the pumps, but that is another issue

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wee-scamp

Tuesday, February 7, 2012 at 11:03 AM

#5 What would be a step in the right direction is for more effort to be put into developing alternative liquid fuels that can be used in our existing vehicles rather than developing an entirely new and expensive technology. The IC engine works, we understand it and it doesn't depend on the Chinese to provide all that rare earth material for motors. EVs are fine for local short distance commuting but not for longer distance travel. Academics love this stuff. The rest of us have our feet on the ground.

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WJohn

Tuesday, February 7, 2012 at 10:59 AM

Good for him. It will also help store electricity generated by solar panels and have a more immediate use in hybrid vehicles and vehicles using regenerative breaking. Presumably such a battery would be much lighter than any equivalent battery, thus further increasing the efficiency of vehicles.

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The Hiker

Tuesday, February 7, 2012 at 10:27 AM

Very interesting story, and good news indeed. #3. You are of course correct in saying that it will still take considerably longer to re-charge the batteries, than fill a convential tank with fuel, but it's a step in the right direction. One little irritation though, at the start of the article it speaks in miles, (which is still the official unit of distance on the road, in the UK), and later speaks in kilometres...... One or the other please, but not both!!! Perhaps of course the Scotsman's got an inside line to the government, and next week the government will announce that we're switching to kilometres.! Ha ha ha....

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samcoldstream

Tuesday, February 7, 2012 at 10:02 AM

Energy Luddites must find this news very depressing? Imagine ALL these Scots inventors out there who are beavering away finding innovative ways of extending the battery life of electric cars, and one hundred and one other ground breaking green designs.

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wee-scamp

Tuesday, February 7, 2012 at 09:40 AM

IBM has been trying to develop a Lithium Air battery for a long time and there are others around the world looking at the technology as well. So its not new and of course still needs recharging which will take considerably longer than filling up a car with a liquid fuel.

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McNasty

Tuesday, February 7, 2012 at 08:56 AM

This is brilliant. It makes electric cars a really practical alternative. I love it. Well done Professor Bruce.

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antiparasite

Tuesday, February 7, 2012 at 02:21 AM

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