17 comments

  • mshafir 19 hours ago ago

    Thank you for this, as somebody with almost no background in chemistry, I can now appreciate just a bit more the complexity that goes into battery development. Where does one learn about this?

  • ambicapter 17 hours ago ago

    Glad I finally have a name (flow battery) for a concept that I've been wanting to be made for a long time (liquid batteries).

    • tveita 16 hours ago ago

      You might find the home made batteries of this guy interesting as well https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eq7fR9ISuCw

    • somat 16 hours ago ago

      Flow batteries specifically are liquid, or more accurately fluid, there can be gas flow batteries, where the chemical sub-products are pumped in and out of the cells.

      They tend to be large utility scale things that look like a chemical plant, correction, are a chemical plant with electrical storage as the product.

      Liquid electrolyte batteries have been a thing from when batteries have been invented. But not much work has been done to really scale it up.

    • sfn42 16 hours ago ago

      It's not a new idea, they already exist.

      A huge redox-flow battery is currently under construction in Switzerland https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/climate-solutions/switzerland-b...

  • stuaxo 17 hours ago ago

    Cyanide batteries... hmm..

    • philipkglass 15 hours ago ago

      Ferrocyanide is not dangerous. Sodium ferrocyanide is used as an anti-caking agent in table salt. It's considered safe for this use in both the US and the EU, e.g.:

      https://ec.europa.eu/food/food-feed-portal/screen/food-addit...

    • BenjiWiebe 15 hours ago ago

      *ferrocyanide Less toxic than cyanide.

      Potassium ferrocyanide: 1.6g/kg LD50 Potassium cyanide: 5mg/kg

      So cyanide is approx 320 times more toxic.

  • 15 hours ago ago
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  • kakacik 18 hours ago ago

    To give the answer its the cyanide part... which I knew already when looking at the title, without having much clue about underlying chemistry.

    Good luck selling batteries full of some variant of cyanide to general public, i can almost imagine it working till people hear that keyword.

    • somat 16 hours ago ago

      The public is not going to buy a flow battery anyway.

      Or perhaps they will, but only when public is taken in the context as in public utility or public city. But individuals are not going to buy a flow battery, it is a chemical plant.

    • psd1 17 hours ago ago

      Somewhat true, but consumers are buying vast quantities of lithium batteries and carrying them in their pockets. Those things are eager to catch fire and emit hydrofluoric acid.

      You can have safe battery chemistry or useful battery chemistry. (Not an expert, open to correction.)

    • jjk166 8 hours ago ago

      Yeah, just like no one would ever buy a lead-acid battery.

      I don't think many people are concerned about their batteries being safe for ingestion.

    • BenjiWiebe 15 hours ago ago

      Have to abbreviate it as FCN. Cyanide is ~320 times more toxic than ferrocyanide.

    • greenavocado 17 hours ago ago

      There are plenty of battery customers besides the usual suspects

  • theturtle 19 hours ago ago

    [dead]