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- From: hudgins@sklib.usask.ca
- Subject: CNNS sci-tech report (laptop batteries)
- Message-ID: <30AUG92.18435445@sklib.usask.ca>
- Sender: news@access.usask.ca (USENET News System)
- Nntp-Posting-Host: sklib
- Organization: University of Saskatchewan
- Date: Sun, 30 Aug 1992 18:43:54 GMT
- Lines: 37
-
- This is in reply to a posting by:
-
- cloos@theory.TC.Cornell.EDU (James H. Cloos Jr.)
-
- > I caught the video but nothe audio of the story on what seemed
- > to be a revolutionary (well, evolutionary at any rate) battery
- > that will has an energy density high enough to allow significantly
- > better laptop computers--and palmtops as well, I would hope.
-
- The program was rebroadcast Sunday Aug 30 at 10:30 a.m CST, and here is a
- semi-transcription/summary (done with a pause button and an HP95LX).
-
-
- The Zinc-Air Battery:
-
- The new Zinc-Air battery developed by AER Energy Resources of Atlanta
- provides eight hours of laptop operation from four batteries, weighing
- 1.5 lbs, as opposed to 5 lbs of current Nicad batteries. The company
- plans to begin marketing the battery pack this fall. Mark Schimpf says
- "we have the advantage that one of the raw materials is oxygen from
- the air, and we don't have to carry that around. ... Zinc is a metal that
- has a very high specific energy and is very light in weight." The company
- says its battery pack can run a laptop up to 20 hours on a single charge.
- Zinc-air batteries are currently used in hearing aids, but are not
- rechargeable. They discharge slowly. The new rechargeable version
- consists of zinc, oxygen and an electrolyte. The zinc and air react
- through the electrolyte to power the equipment, and the charging process
- reverses this process inside the battery. The company hopes that the
- lighter battery may lead designers to improve equipment: to add features
- like colour screens and faster processors that are power-hungry. It also
- plans to adapt the batteries to other consumer products like camcorders
- and cellular phones.
- ---------
-
- Bill Hudgins
- Systems Librarian: University of Saskatchewan Libraries
- Hudgins@sklib.usask.ca
-