Another way to store power besides batteries? There hazardous to the enviroment...?

Question

This is for green thinking people. I dont think there is a solution, but id give it a shot. With all the talk of electric vehicles, im wondering if there is another alternative than batteries? They are quite hazardous to the enviroment. If all cars converted from oil to electric, the next problem would be properly disposing of all these batteries.

Answer 1

You can compress air in a big tank and then run an alternators of it (just like a pneumatic motor). The size and strength of the tank and the power of the compressor would determine the amount of stored energy. In the US they have sealed cavities in mountains and compress huge amounts of air in there. If you require energy on the move then google for "air car". very interesting developments in that sector. These cars ar being built in India and will be on the market soon.

Answer 2

Capacitors.

A company called Eestor is developing a supercapacitor that is expected (hopefully) to deliver much greater energy density than the chemical batteries we currently use, and can be charged in much less time.  They have even got the attention of Lockheed Martin, a government contractor.

They might be worth watching.

Answer 3

one would hope that we'd learn to recycle and reuse those battery components.  i don't see an alternative.

30-40 years ago, there was a proposal to use flywheels on buses in the Italian hills.  but i never heard any more of the proposal.  it's my guess that the idea is just too dangerous.  if such a vehicle were in an accident, with the heavy flywheel really rev-ed up, the kinetic energy stored in that wheel would be worse than burning gasoline.

Answer 4

Banks of mighty superflywheels can be built and accelerated by the electricity. When the power is needed the movement of the superflywheel is used to deliver that power.

There is an option of using a combination of neutron and electromagnetic  enhancement to speed up hydrolysis of water into hydrogen and oxygen which can be stored separately then reunited in a fuel cell to recover the power. This is much more economical than using just hydrolysis, such that it is able to return almost all the power put in.

Water can be pumped to the top of a tall dam ready to be released through a hydro power plant when power is needed.

Answer 5

The disposal system we have working now does a good job. Battery acid is not such a bad chemical.

HCL very bad and strong acid.

Caustic soda a very strong base.

If u mixed the two together what do u have. Check it until; its PH is 7 and it is nothing but table salt and water.Mother nature does this all the time ,it is why the oceans are salty.

Answer 6

I invested in rechargeable batteries and a very good recharger about 4 years ago...I haven't bought a battery since and the rechargeable batteries hold their charge much much longer than the throw aways...And they're recycleable .. :-)

Answer 7

Some rechargeable batteries contain heavy metals, and can pose a disposal problem.  Those types of batteries are typically used as replacements for single charge dry cells and for powering hand tools.  They are pretty much obsolete  with the advent of lithium ion batteries.

R & D is being on on bringing rechageable lithium-sulfer batteries to the market.  This type of battery is much more efficient than the current ion batteries, and manufacturing is inexpensive.  To give you a good comparison, a bank of Li-SO2 batteries weighing 4 pounds would be equil to a 40 pound lead acid battery.

I would like to see the Society of Automotive Engineers develope standards for battery configurations.  If the industry developes batteries in an ad hoc fasion, we'll wind up with a selection of different battery packs similar to the ink jet cartridge market, expensive to replace, and not open competition.  Standardization would also help in keeping costs down in the secondary reconditioning industry.

Answer 8

1)let the next generation worry about it

2)build a big rocket and sent it into space

Answer 9

Batteries *can* be recycled, but cars can also be run off compressed air, flywheels, or even liquid nitrogen.  

http://www.dmoz.org/Science/Technology/E...

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1...

http://www.aa.washington.edu/AERP/CRYOCA...

Answer 10

Good question!

If plants can do it, why can't we?

Plants store sunlight as food!!!

Answer 11

Modern Li-ion batteries are much less hazardous to the environment and use much less resources in mining & manufacture than infernal combustion engines, exhaust cooland & transmissing systems, and the lead-acid starter batteries, .

Also they are easy to recover & recycle (unlike petrol, oil, anti-freeze etc) http://www.altairnano.com/markets_energy...

Toyota already put a premium on buying back old hybrid batteries.

Answer 12

Fuel cells,but have to keep using them,as reactive energy most be used. Ford had idea but if you went on vacation not using car would overheat resulting in fire. 1994-96 I think.

Answer 13

Does this mean you'd rather stick with internal combustion engines than electric cars?  Oil's dangerous.  At least with batteries, we wouldn't have to go to war with other countries to make sure our source of fuel is safe.  Plus you can recycle batteries.