It seems like I see headlines every few months that a lab somewhere has created a paper-thin battery made out of unicorn horn which charges instantaneously when exposed to the sun and will run for a thousand years without recharging, and then it turns out to only work at absolute zero or to become unstable when three of them exist in the same area code or to emit radiation that kills anything smaller than a muskrat on contact.<p>I'm glad we've got labs researching battery technology, since I think that's one of the most important areas of research we can develop today. But forgive me if I'm skeptical until I see something show up on the shelves.
This is one of those daytime fantasies we all have while daydreaming. Except, even when I'm really fantasizing, I never actually dream of things as ludicrous as this press release talks about.<p>What is it about battery technology that seems to attract the nutty companies? You don't see claims like this about CPUs, Monitors, Network Cards, etc... It's always batteries for some reason.<p>And one of Carbon, Graphene, or Buckyballs always makes an appearance as well in these press releases. It would be nice to see a new material take the stage as the "10x faster to recharge, recyclable, energy dense, environmentally safe" battery technology that will solve all our problems.
<i>world’s first and only organic carbon material</i><p>Organic = made of carbon. At least it meant that originally. Now the consumerized term meets "Carbon."<p>That said, I hope this works out. New battery tech rarely ever does, though.
lithium batteries are also special because of their light weight. This says it has an 'energy density' which is 'comparable' (density by mass or volume?). Vague enough for me to infer it can't compete on weight.
Over 3,000 charge/discharge cycles...<p>"Reliable – first ever high performance battery that meets consumer lifecycle demand, rated for more than 3,000 charge/discharge cycles."
Looks like it is actually carbon-lithium. Kudoz to danmaz74.
It does not stop to fancy me - why do we all need this stuff?
When Philips introduced thin Li-ion batteries, moldable to any shape 10 years ago, it took about a year or two for the industry to accept this innovation. Japanese inventors will probably license production to a larger producer. But if organic cotton only has its unique properties if grown on Okinawa, there will be no mass-production, I am afraid.
Some of this inventor's existing patents:<p><a href="https://www.google.com/patents/US7052802?dq=ininventor:%22Kaname+Takeya%22&hl=en&sa=X&ei=hZZ8U5f2M8WDqgbv9IKICg&ved=0CEUQ6AEwAg" rel="nofollow">https://www.google.com/patents/US7052802?dq=ininventor:%22Ka...</a>
I'd love to see advancement in battery technology, I am surprised its never the established manufactures coming up with such innovations.<p>However this is still vaporware:<p>"Power Japan Plus will begin benchmark production of 18650 Ryden cells later this year at the company’s production facility in Okinawa, Japan"<p>Plenty of people have improved battery technologies, the issue has always been scaling up the process in a cheap enough way. If these batteries cost too much then its back to the drawing board.
People have adequately discussed why charging time isn't a particularly significant concern in batteries right now. My concern about these batteries is different: so far as I can tell, they're up to ten times heavier than lithium ion. That's a killer issue for cars. Literature in support of carbon lead claims that this is offset but the cooling and electronics needed for lithium, but I strongly doubt this.