Battery Collaboration

Overview
Collaboration opportunities for the GVCS Battery.

Appropriate Technology Collaborative
This aid organization is apparently building these batteries for third world applications. http://apptechdesign.org/

From Tom Kimmel of SACA:

May 15, 2011 Dear Marcin,  With regards to iron / nickel batteries there is a fellow in the Ann Arbor, Michigan area working under the organization “Appropriate Technology Collaborative” that is thinking of using this type of a battery in Central America. He says that you can haul in the components and then weld them together on the spot. That they are too large and heavy for vehicular use, and that is not the issue for stationary power. I met the fellow and have written him but he does not respond. You may be able to extract some information out of him. The organization is doing the right thing. I just have not visited their operation to see if they are good at what they are doing.

A little while ago I emailed these people through their blog, see the nickel iron battery research page linked to below. Someone answered just yesterday:

Hi Gregor- We made a couple proof of concept models but put the project on hold because of the toxicity of nickel oxide.

We have since set up a protocol similar to handling lead. We may put a team on NiFe again.

Good luck!

John Barrie

-gregor

Another reply from John:

Date: Tue, 17 May 2011 13:02:49 -0400 Subject: Re: AppTechDesign Contact Form: From: john@apptechdesign.org To: gregorfolouk@hotmail.com

HI Gregor-

I sent a response from my cell phone but didn't see it in my sent folder here at the office.

We have had some interest in the NiFe battery recently.

We were concerned with using nickel oxide which is toxic. We did a lot of research on nickel oxide, price, availability etc and put the project on hold.

We did make some batteries with the metals nickel and iron but got pretty disappointing results. They do work but the energy density is about 1/4 of what is expected from a NiFe battery.

After consideration we are looking to re-visit NiFe batteries. The idea of a permanent battery is very appealing.

Good Luck

John

John S. Barrie Executive Director The Appropriate Technology Collaborative 1100 North Main Street Suite 107 Ann Arbor, MI 48104 ph: 734.668.4811 www.apptechdesign.org Contact Me Facebook Twitter Flickr

On Fri, May 13, 2011 at 2:08 AM, Gregor Folouk  wrote:

Gregor Folouk  wrote: Hello, I am volunteering with the organization Factor E farm. I found your page on   the development on nickel iron batteries. Factor E farm is now doing the same, developing a nickel iron battery. Can you share with us the progress and research documentation however little or   much there is? It could be very helpful and reduce duplicated effort.

A reply from whoever runs nickel-iron-battery.com.:

Great project ... good luck with it. Ian gregor folouk wrote: > Hello there, > > I didn't get your name off you website at > http://www.nickel-iron-battery.com/. I am coming from > openfarmtech.org. We are developing an open source nickel iron > battery. Just thought I'd give you the heads up, and please > contribute to the project if you can. The wiki page is here : > http://openfarmtech.org/wiki/Nickel-Iron_Battery

On jun 3 I emailed the youtube user noonco, who has a video up in which he makes a nickel iron battery. He got back to me the same day and said he will have a battery design completed in a few weeks, so someone needs to check back then. Have set a reminder. -- I have been emailing retailers of the batteries (and should email the mfgrs directly) to determine the performance characteristics of existing commercial batteries. Will try to get those exchanges up soon. Basically they charge/discharge efficiency and detailed information about the failure modes is apparently just not available from the manufacturer. I got some documents which are in the library section of the main nife page though.

Interestingly, the zappworks batteries are actually just rebuild original batteries from the Edison battery company. Most of the retailers are selling the changhong batteries.

--

Recipe for ...
Iron (anode) Plate To make the iron anode, first mix 6 1/4 grams of iron oxide with 1 1/4 gram of ammonium chloride, then add distilled water a drop at a time until a stiff paste results. The mixture will give off ammonia gas and will turn to a   white color. Working quickly, smear the paste well into a 1½ x 6-inch piece of No. 20 or 30 close mesh iron or copper wire screening. It will take about a day for the paste to thoroughly set and harden on the screen, or you can hasten it by placing it in an oven set at no more than 130°F. When dry, lay screen in a solution of ammonium chloride (12½ grams to   6 oz. of water), for about 1½ hours to harden it further. This completes the anode plate. Nickel (cathode) Plate To make the nickel cathode, first mix 6 1/4 grams of nickel oxide with 1 1/4 gram of ammonium chloride, then add distilled water a drop at a time until a   stiff paste results. The mixture will give off ammonia gas. Form this plate directly on the surface of a 1½ x 6-inch. piece of .015 inch or thicker nickel screen, which has been cleaned thoroughly with emery cloth. Working quickly, smear this paste well into a 1½ x 6-inch piece of No. 20 or 30 close-mesh nickel wire screening. It will take about a day for this paste to thoroughly set and harden on the screen, or you can hasten it by placing it in an oven set at no more than 130°F. When dry, lay screen in a solution of ammonium chloride (12½ grams to 6 oz. of water), for about 1½ hours to harden it further. Fill a wide mouthed jar or a 1000 ml. Beaker with 32 oz. of distilled water. Dissolve 9¼ grams of sodium hydroxide (lye) in this water and add 1 gram of   common table salt. Sodium hydroxide is hard on the hands and clothes in its concentrated form, so don't handle the crystals with your fingers and always add the crystals to the water slowly. Mark the iron oxide plate negative and nickel oxide positive now to avoid mistakes. Connect a battery charger or car storage battery to the plates, negative to iron oxide plate and positive to the nickel oxide plate, also a   direct current ammeter or digital multi-meter and a l0-ohm 25-watt resister is added in series with the forming current. Turn on the forming current and adjust the variable resister so that only 1 ampere of forming current flows. It is important that you observe polarity right at the first charge. Connecting the negative lead to the iron oxide plate and the positive lead to the nickel oxide plate. This charge must be (2 or 3 hours), because the iron oxide plate must be converted to metallic iron. It doesn't matter if   the plates gas in this forming charge. Attach the cathode and anode plates to a strip of wood to test them. Fill another 13-oz. glass tumbler with about 9 oz. of distilled water and slowly dissolve 3 oz. of sodium hydroxide in this to form the electrolyte of the iron-nickel cell. Suspend the plates in this liquid. Now your cell is   complete. Cell voltage on open circuit will be right around 0.75 volts for this iron-nickel Edison cell.

http://www.diyelectriccar.com/forums/showthread.php/edison-batteries-25958p3.html

when you need some nickel sulfate just make it on slow cooking some nickel metal in 35% sulfuric for a week and boil out the excess acid and let dry out real slow and you get some nice crystals green and clear as glass I posted a photo on the main photo page-ed and no potatos or carrots in the stew! http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/edsworkshp/message/59

Hi folks I am going to make my nickel plating tank larger and the cost of chemicals are a little high so I was thinking of making my own.I   have made small amounts but I picked up some nickel at a good price and got an old large slowcooker at a yard sale and have made up 4 pounds in the last 36 hours of nickel sulfate 6 h20 and 2 pounds of   nickel chloride 6 h2o.that dont sound like much but it is about 150 bucks it cost me to make $2.56 a pound so that is 15.38. 2 pounds of   nickel metal makes 8.98 pounds of nickel sulfate.I placed a photo of a    bag 2.5 lbs of this material in the end of the miscellanious photo album-ed http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/edsworkshp/message/179 I think that the iron oxide needed (black rust) in powder form can be bought from art supply stores as a black pigment.