New Mars Forums

Official discussion forum of The Mars Society and MarsNews.com

You are not logged in.

Announcement

Announcement: This forum is accepting new registrations by emailing newmarsmember * gmail.com become a registered member. Read the Recruiting expertise for NewMars Forum topic in Meta New Mars for other information for this process.

#26 2023-11-06 19:56:21

Calliban
Member
From: Northern England, UK
Registered: 2019-08-18
Posts: 3,793

Re: Lithium Sulfur batteries

Agreed Kbd512.  I suspect that the Li-S battery resembles the Na-S battery, but using lithium instead of sodium.  Na-S batteries consist of a liquid sulphur layer floating atop a liquid sodium layer.  From memory, the sulphur forms the cathode.  This battery arrangement has a lot of advantages.  The materials involved are not rare.  Energy density is comparable to Li-ion.  The downsides are high temperature operation, highly corrosive polysulphur oxidation states that eat away the casing eventually resulting in leaks.  When the battery leaks liquid sodium or lithium, the result is a severe fire.  This is why these batteries tend to be used for large scale static applications, with individual units built in a pen, seperated from its neighbours by concrete fire barriers.

The fire hazard severely limits what can be done with this type of battery.  We wouldn't want them in ships.  They are definitely a bad idea for cars or home energy storage.  They are often used for grid frequency control.


"Plan and prepare for every possibility, and you will never act. It is nobler to have courage as we stumble into half the things we fear than to analyse every possible obstacle and begin nothing. Great things are achieved by embracing great dangers."

Offline

Board footer

Powered by FluxBB