Block’s Indicator of Sustainable Growth

by Ray Block

 At a time when the world recession is increasingly looking more like a depression than simply a big recession, there is not much optimism about, with traditional industries and economies going backwards. It is for that reason that I keep getting excited, when I see new inventions morphing into major innovations that can change our future.

Readers of this blog will see the almost constant reference to renewable energy developments, and why I am so enthused. As an economics student so many years ago, I was brought up on Keynes and Schumpeter. But it was to Schumpeter’s Business Cycles, that I became keen on economic history and Kondratieff.

Schumpeter didn’t create the term “creative destruction.” But he certainly popularised it to describe the process of transformation, that accompanies radical innovation, leading to new industries destroying the value of established companies. Instances are the web destroying the value of traditional newspapers, and dynamic changes in progress to motor vehicles and energy.

Technology Review, published by Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) reported only a few days ago (March 11 2009) about research by the materials science department at MIT that may revolutionise a lithium-ion battery to allow it to recharge quickly, that is in seconds rather than hours.

If you apply this to the potential for rapid development of the electric motor vehicle, which is going to be a big thing in the next decade or two to replace the internal combustion engine and its dependence on gasoline, rapid discharging and recharging of the preferred lithium-ion battery could be the answer to our prayers.

The work led by Professor Gerbrand Ceder, along with graduate student, Byoungwoo Kang puzzled at the way the best high power lithium-ion batteries have very high energy densities to enable them to store large amounts of charge. But they also have relatively slow power rates –being sluggish at gaining and discharging that energy.

Ceder’s research extended over the last five years. By changing the way the battery is made, a new surface structure was created allowing the lithium ions to move quickly around the outside of the material.

The researchers modified an electrode material lithium iron phosphate, which directed the lithium ions towards particular faces of crystals within the material. They also included extra lithium and phosphorus. “This helps form a layer of diphosphate, a material known for its high lithium-ion conductivity.”  

A new small battery was devised, allowing it to be “fully charged or discharged in 10 to 20 seconds.” Ceder believes the battery could be marketed within two to three years.

Just imagine in the near future, you could drive your electric car into a service re-charging station and charge your battery in less minutes than it would take to drink a cup of coffee.