New Fuel Cell That May Enable Electric Aviation
- Editor OGN Daily
- 9 hours ago
- 1 min read
Clever boffins at MIT have developed a fuel cell that packs three times as much energy as today’s best batteries, offering a lightweight option for powering trucks, planes, or ships.
The powerful new cell was developed by researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and is fuelled by liquid sodium metal - an inexpensive and widely available substance - which passes through a porous electrode before chemically reacting with oxygen to produce electricity.
The researchers found that the cell carries around three times as much energy per unit of weight as the lithium-ion batteries used in most electric vehicles.
MiT’s Yet-Ming Chiang, who helped develop the prototype, admitted that it would not pack enough punch to power large intercontinental jets, but could be an enabling technology for regional electric aviation. It could also be “revolutionary” for marine and rail transport, he added. “They all require very high energy density, and they all require low cost. And that’s what attracted us to sodium metal.”
As an added benefit, if the final product, the sodium bicarbonate, ends up in the ocean, it could help to de-acidify the water, countering another of the damaging effects of greenhouse gases.
“We expect people to think that this is a totally crazy idea,” said Chiang. “If they didn’t, I’d be a bit disappointed because if people don’t think something is totally crazy at first, it probably isn’t going to be that revolutionary.”
Members of the research team have already formed a company, Propel Aero, to develop the technology. It is currently housed in MIT’s startup incubator, The Engine.