Two green technologies emerge from Panasonic

1) Panasonic Develops Direct Methanol Fuel Cell System
With High Power Output and Durability
- 100 W-class portable generator to be developed and field tested in fiscal 2012 -

2) Panasonic Develops High-Capacity Lithium-Ion Battery Cells
That Can Power Laptops and Electric Vehicles

Lateral-Stripe Type SOFC System: its Demonstration Test Starts

Durability of the lateral stripe cell stack has been remarkably improved.
The durability test of the cell stack bundle was tested. From the test res

2010 Global Market Analysis/Survey on Green-Energy Materials

Fuji-Keizai, a leader in the marketing business in Japan, announced the results of the worldwide market research on green-energy materials.
The market research report describes a market analysis in the fields of those materials from two aspects of the material market and the corporate strategy, and foresees the market trends up to 2015.
The tile of the market research report is "The whole Picture of Green-Energy Material Market 2010".
(The title is my literal translation and may be different from that by Fuji-Keizai.)
Green-energy materials: defined, by Fuji-Keizai, as every material which will lessen the environmental load and will be found in various types of environment-friendly devices, such as solar batteries, rechargeable batteries, LEDs, and organic ELs.
(The definition translation is based on my interpretation of the definition expression written in Japanese.)

Research -1
The following 60 green-energy materials were researched:
.........
Research-2
The research was made on the corporate strategies of 36 companies which seem to have entered those fields.
.........

For more details visit Fuji-Keizai or here.

Electrolyte solution in use for the next generation 5-V class Li-ion battery

To increase the cruising distance of the electric vehicle, it is necessary to increase the energy density of the Li-ion cell. Research efforts are being vigorously made on new materials to increase the electrode energy capacity and the operating voltage worldwide.
Specially Appointed Prof. Dr. Fujinami, et al., Shizuoka University have developed an organic electrolyte, which operates under high voltage of 4 V, which is increased by 1 V when compared with the conventional battery cell. The organic electrolyte is the first in the world.
The electrolyte has a property of flame retardant, leading to increase of safety.
An additional advantageous feature of the organic electrolyte is that it uses boric acid. This material is cheap. The result is battery cost reduction.
Details of the study will be presented in the Battery NEDO session, which will start from November 30, 2009.
Electrolyte solution:
This unique electrolyte solution was formed in a manner that different electrolyte solutions are mixed to form a liquid, and lithium salt was dissolved into the liquid.
The electrolyte solution exhibits high ion conductivity and its lithium ion transport number is large.
(Written based on press release from NEDO)

Basic technology for using “lithium metal” for negative electrode

The research of the electrode materials for the lithium ion cell is currently in full flood. Lithium metal has been considered as the ultimate negative electrode material and studied for long time. The Li-ion cell capacity decreases for a relatively short time of period because of presence of the lithium metal deposition called lithium dendrite through the charging/discharging operation. For this reason, the lithium metal has not been used for the negative electrode of the Li-ion cell.

Prof. Dr. Kanemura et al. Tokyo Metropolitan University succeeded in developing a unique separator which inhibits the dendrite from growing.
In the experiment, no decrease of the cell capacity was observed after more than 2000 charge/discharge cycles. This fact leads to considerable increase of the energy density of the Li-ion cell and the cruising distance of the car carrying the battery. The researchers have successfully developed a production process capable of mass-producing the separators at low cost.

New technology for inhibiting dendrite growth:
Many studies have been made on the lithium dendrite deposition.
Most researchers have considered that the major cause for the dendrite deposition is that the lithium metal non-uniformly deposits on the negative electrode.
Dr. Kanemura et al. have developed anew a separator having a unique structure called a 3DOM structure, which enables the lithium metal to uniformly deposit on the negative electrode. The reversible charge/discharge capacity, when the unique separator is used, was 1000m Ah/g. The figure is about 3 times of the graphite materials currently used. Further increase of the reversible charge/discharge capacity is theoretically allowed. It was confirmed that no performance deterioration occurred after the charging and discharging operations were repeated.
(Written based on press release from NEDO)

Rechargeable battery: Its remarkable performance improvements, ensured by recent research results

NEDO’s research/development project on the next generation battery systems steadily progresses. Recently, NEDO announced four innovative battery cell technologies, which had emerged from the project.
Those technologies are:
1. Basic technology for putting “lithium metal” into practical use
– By Prof. Dr. Kanemura, Tokyo Metropolitan University
2. Electrolyte solution in use for the next generation 5-V class battery
- By Specially Appointed Prof. Dr. Fujinami, Shizuoka University
3. High capacity Li-ion cell using ionic liquid-electrolyte
- By Associate　Prof. Dr. Komaba et al., Tokyo University of Science
4. Magnesium ion rechargeable battery
– By Saitama Industrial Technology Center
Details of the study will be presented in the Battery NEDO session, which will start from November 30, 2009.

Under strong demands of lowering carbon emissions and finding the best solutions to the limited resource problems, the clean and renewable energy is treated as a social subject. In this circumstance, the rechargeable battery has become one of the key devices.
The automobile has started to change its drive source from the internal combustion engine to an electric drive source. The rechargeable battery is one of the electrical drive sources, and the fuel cell is another prospective electrical drive device.
The rechargeable battery has another important function to level the output powers of the solar power generator and the wind power generator, which greatly change depending on weather and day and night. A watchful eye must be kept on this near-future key technology.
(Written based on press release from NEDO)

Kerosene-fueled 3-kW SOFC system, successfully co-developed

An SOFC power generation system using kerosene available on the market.
It has successfully generated electric power of 3 kW (at DC terminal).
It is designed mainly for small business applications.
It is co-developed by the following three companies:
1) Japan Energy Corporation (JOMO)
2) Sumitomo Precision Products Co., Ltd.
3) NGK Insulators, Ltd. (NGK)

Rough specifications
Rated output power: 3 kW
Primary fuel: kerosene sold on the market
Operating temperature: 750 deg. centigrade
Cell stack: passage-contained cell stack (manufactured by NGK)
Features
1) Start-up kerosene burner (developed by JOMO)
2) Efficient kerosene reforming process (developed anew by JOMO)
3) Cell stack of high power generation efficiency (developed anew by NGK)
4) Sophisticated heat management (developed anew by Sumitomo Precision)

The companies will evaluate the performances such as power generation efficiency, further increase the power generation efficiency, and reduce the size of the SOFC system, and has a plan to demonstrate the SOFC system in a real-load environment, aiming at commercializing the kerosene type SOFC system
(written based on press release from Japan Energy Corporation)
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