Lithium-ion battery beater to debut in 'major' laptop release

Left-field battery developer ZPower has signed up a "major notebook computer" manufacturer, which will release a laptop fitted with its silver-zinc power packs next year. Unsurprisingly, perhaps, ZPower isn't saying who it is. Still, it's a coup for ZPower, which has been trying to persuade the world for a few years now that …

[evilbobthebob]

If its so good

I hope laptop manufacturers produce silver zinc batteries that fit current laptops...that would be nice, but unlikely

[Big_Boomer]

So this new battery tech will be called...

SiZi?

AgZn?

Best yet is,.....ZnAg! <LOL>

Sounds like a Klingon with a bad cold.

[Anonymous Coward]

sounds good

Silinc

[Anonymous Coward]

LiS

Where are the Lithium Sulpher batteries for laptops? These are cheaper (material cost) than Li-Ion and claims have been made about a density of from 300-1000% greater. Which is better than a measly 30% of Zinc Silver.

[Anonymous Coward]

Apparently the name "AgZn" is already in use

And this article suggests the technology dates back to 1796:

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa5367/is_200407/ai_n21353399

[Anonymous Coward]

energy density?

30-40% greater by volume or by weight? Because silver and zinc are rather more dense than lithium.

[Anonymous Coward]

Inflammable.

This would be great for hybrid scooters and ebikes and so on. they always need more power density and not being able to blow up is good.

[Anonymous Coward]

Silver Ion

Silver Ion. Got to be the marketer's choice. Sounds valuable, and you can always melt down your batteries for cash if times get tough.

And just imagine the trouble other companies will have when their marketers demand that the engineers create Gold Ion and Platinum Ion technology.

[Anonymous Coward]

nitpick alert

>> gadget maker's

This should have been a plural possessive.

[David Lloyd]

LiS

Don't they operate somewhere above the 150 oC mark. A bit toasty no?

Mines the one with a smoking hole in the pocket...

[David Lloyd]

I stand corrected re. LiS

They do operate at ambient. 350 Wh/kg vs. about 160 for lithium ion supposedly. Nice.

[Ishkandar]

@evilbobthebob

More likely still is when a third party battery maker like GP (Gold Peak) will make them for the various laptops already in the market !! They already make replacement batteries for most mobile phone that retail for a lot less than the equivalent branded ones !!

BTW, I must state categorically that I do not own shares in GP although I wish I did !!

[Rich]

Contains water

"The battery contains water, so it's not inflammable"

Sambucca, Joan of Arc and the World Trade Centre all contain(ed) water. Doesn't stop them burning with enough provocation.

[Adrian]

And the downside is

if the battery contains more than 100ml of water you can't take it on the airlines - doh !

[Hate2Register]

That than

"a better rechargeable battery solution that lithium-ion"..

Oh good. That lithium ion. A harder word to type that than.

:)

[Neoc]

Technology name

Surely it should be I/O-Silver.

Away!

[Anonymous Coward]

How about ...

... Governments fund competitions and technology demosntration projects to push these things along? I mean, they'll happily give billions in subsidies to fossil fuel companies, so how about funding development/demonstrators/competitions for this kind of technology (and, while they're at it, solar, wind, geothermal, tidal, wave, etc.)?

[Anonymous Coward]

Usual Suspects..

hey the world goes on.. But the day I see a backwards Dinosuar like a car company announcing a new battery I might just fall of my chair...

I guess the only reason to invest is if you need too, and gasoline is cheap.

[Parax]

If its so Good..

They should put there money where thier mouth is and offer a warranty on the batteries! that should be enough to convince manufacturers they are serious..

[Anonymous Coward]

Hydrogen/Mercury

Good idea on these batteries... Replace the dangerous lithium. Just one problem - they can give off hydrogen - possibly even more dangerous than lithium. So we substitute one problem for another...

They also contain mercury.....

[Edward Rose]

@Parax

I suspect the biggest fear for a laptop manufacturer is supply and demand.

Never single source if you have the choice, and make sure your suppliers can more than meet demand.

[Anonymous Coward]

re. How about ...

But this battery isn't an energy production technology; its energy storage. This is only good for the environment if you have a cheap, green way of generating enough electricity in the first place.

I agree something should be done to promote technologies like this, maybe evaluate for military and other government applications where there's plenty of money available to support the R&D and a nice user base that can get it into mass production, perhaps in return a cut of the license fee for the technology. Above all we need to prevent the suppression of new technologies by their competitors.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: re: How about ...

Not wanting to start a flame war (no, really) .... but I never said they were energy production.

One of the "obstacles" often quoted by renewable energy naysayers is storage and portability (usually of electrical energy). Hence, if energy storage and portability technologies are improved - basically density (joule/kg), cost ($/joule) and scaleable form-factor - then using renewable sources becomes that much easier.

My main point is that Governments are happy to continue to subsidise (to the tune of billions) the use of fossil fuels - how about diverting some or all of that to a whole range of R&D, technology demonstrators and competitions to push these technologies along, particularly to "prove" to potential downstream manufacturers and users (who might otherwise be reluctant) how good they can really be.