Chapter 214 Unexpected Discovery

Chapter 214 Unexpected Discovery

Chapter 214 Unexpected Discovery
As the Chinese New Year was approaching, the company's affairs had been arranged and Jiang Miao did not have much to deal with, so he had been doing research in the laboratory.

January 1th is the Great Cold in the lunar calendar.

Shuya called him and asked him to come over.

Entered Shuya’s microbiology laboratory.

He saw Shuya standing next to a dozen experimental battery boxes.

"Aya, what's the matter?"

Shuya saw him coming and handed him a copy of the data she had just tested: "You'll know once you take a look."

Jiang Miao took the folder, looked through it carefully, and raised his eyebrows: "You actually researched this kind of thing."

Shuya smiled and explained, "I saw that you have been worried about the future overcapacity of soybean production in the past few months. I also wanted to help you solve this problem, so I wanted to see if I could use soybeans as food for the electric bacteria. I didn't expect to get such a surprise."

Putting down the folder, Jiang Miao carefully observed the experimental battery boxes in front of him.

At the same time, I was also listening to Shuya explain some specific situations.

"I used straw powder, soybean powder, and agar powder to make a special gel, added electricity-generating bacteria, and other auxiliary trace agents to allow the electricity-generating bacteria to maintain a relative growth rate..."

"The best version currently has a power generation capacity of 334 watts per cubic meter, a stable maintenance time of 160 hours, a theoretical power generation of 53.44 kWh, and an actual power generation of about 48 kWh..."

Judging from these data, this technology seems to have only one-third the power generation capacity of the previous version studied by Jiang Miao.

But what really surprised Jiang Miao was that a special nanostructure was formed inside the gel as the electricity-generating bacteria grew and multiplied.

This nanostructure is similar to a large fungus such as mushrooms, but its interior is densely packed with honeycombs.

Shuya originally planned to study this honeycomb gel to see if it could be reused by adding nutrient powder again.

However, the experimental results were unexpected. The honeycomb gel to which nutrient powder was added for the second time generated abnormally low levels of electricity.

However, those electric bacteria normally consumed the nutrients in the nutrient powder.

This result aroused Shuya's interest. She re-examined the honeycomb gel and found that its structure could actually store electrical energy.

The initial research showed that the upper limit of power storage capacity per cubic meter of honeycomb gel was about 150 kilowatt-hours.

Later, Shuya brought more than a dozen experimental assistants to conduct in-depth research on the various physical and chemical properties of honeycomb gel.

It was found that honeycomb gel that had been dried and inactivated could be stacked a second time by adding new gel.

The current stacking limit is 3 times. After each stacking, the energy storage nanostructure of the honeycomb gel will increase by about one-fold, that is, the upper limit of energy storage per cubic meter is increased to 450 kWh.

However, the discharge power of this thing is not high, currently only about 1600 watts. Once fully charged, it can discharge continuously for 281 hours.

Shuya had been trying to find a way to improve its ability to discharge quickly, but after more than a month, she still had no idea, so she finally asked him to come and take a look.

"You have experimented with things like temperature, light, and pH. Although they can be changed, the magnitude of the change is not significant." Jiang Miao began to think.

To be precise, he opened the identification panel and carefully observed the honeycomb gel.

These nanostructures are formed after the apoptosis of electricity-generating bacteria. Even after apoptosis, these structures still retain some characteristics of electricity-generating bacteria.

Suddenly he thought of a possibility: "Aya, you can try to increase the oxygen concentration."

"Oxygen concentration? Is it to increase its redox reaction? Let me try it." Shuya thought for a while, and then arranged for the experimental assistant to start the experiment.

As more and more oxygen was introduced into the honeycomb gel, the power generation of the gel soared.

However, soon the entire gel burst into flames.

The experimental assistants, who were well prepared, quickly began to put out the fire according to the operating manual.

Shuya was not too surprised. After all, if oxygen was introduced into the battery and the discharge amount really increased, there was a high probability that it would catch fire.

She looked at the experimental data intently.

When the oxygen concentration reaches 45%, the discharge power reaches its maximum, which is 4725 watts; when the oxygen concentration reaches 53%, the discharge power drops to 3529 watts, and the gel begins to self-ignite.

Jiang Miao, who was standing by, saw all the details of the entire discharge process through the identification panel. He found that the oxygen concentration could indeed increase the discharge power of the honeycomb gel, but it caused great damage to the gel's energy storage nanostructure.

This is also an expected result.

After all, increasing the oxygen concentration is to increase the efficiency of the redox reaction. When something is oxidized, its structure will definitely change. Jiang Miao didn't pay much attention to this. His real purpose was to see the discharge characteristics of these nanostructures and how they achieved discharge.

And during the intense reaction just now, he saw the answer he wanted.

This structure uses phosphorus atoms and nitrogen atoms to allow electrons to migrate quickly in a special nanostructure, thereby achieving a discharge effect. Its structure is somewhat similar to the electric muscle cells of electric eels.

Under the guidance of Jiang Miao, Shuya and a dozen experimental assistants finally completed the discharge power regulation technology of honeycomb gel before the Chinese New Year.

This technology uses soybean oil as a buffer (other vegetable oils with high freezing points can also be used) and adds potassium chloride. By simply adjusting the wavelength of the LED light, the discharge power of the honeycomb gel can be freely switched from 0 to 96 kilowatts.

As for its service life, according to Jiang Miao's estimation after identifying the panel, it can achieve about 600 high-efficiency discharges. After more than 600 discharges, its nanostructure will begin to fail, and its storage and discharge capabilities will drop sharply.

The charging power of the honeycomb gel can also be switched between 0 and 96 kilowatts.

However, its charging loss rate is slightly lower than that of lithium batteries, at about 3-7%.

Its discharge loss rate is also 3∽7%.

The self-discharge loss is about 0.2∽0.8% per month.

Its low-temperature operation is actually affected by the soybean oil inside the gel. Once the soybean oil solidifies, its discharge power will drop sharply to only about one-tenth; if it is in a sub-solidified state, that is, between zero degrees and minus sixteen degrees Celsius, its discharge power is about one-half.

Fortunately, once the gel starts discharging, most of the electricity loss during the power generation process will be converted into heat energy and released, causing the inside of the gel to heat up rapidly.

Therefore, if you want to use gel as a battery in the northern region, you must install an insulation layer and a quick heater in the winter. By quickly heating it and utilizing the self-heating effect of the gel, it can maintain efficient operation at all times.

However, there is a troublesome part about this design. That is, in summer, the insulation layer on the outside of the gel must be removed in time. Otherwise, once it is running, its core temperature will reach about 46 degrees Celsius. It must be exposed and its core temperature must be lowered to between 20 and 30 degrees Celsius through air cooling or water cooling.

These shortcomings do not reduce the value of gel batteries.

After all, its power storage capacity can reach 450 kWh per cubic meter, and its weight is 1.5 tons, which is equivalent to an energy density of 0.3 kWh per kilogram.

What is the level of this energy density?
The energy content of lithium iron phosphate is around 0.16-0.2 kWh per kilogram.

Semi-solid-state batteries are around 0.28∽0.4 kilowatt-hours per kilogram.

All-solid-state batteries are around 0.5∽0.7 kilowatt-hours per kilogram.

In other words, the energy density of gel batteries is similar to that of semi-solid batteries.

However, gel batteries have a characteristic, that is, their production cost is very low. Their core raw materials are discharge bacteria, soybean oil, potassium chloride and other auxiliary trace elements, plus electrodes and shells. Calculated at the current market price, the cost per cubic meter is about 3500 yuan.

This cost can easily beat the 3 per ton cost of lithium iron phosphate, not to mention the solid-state battery which costs an average of over 20 per ton.

And gel batteries are environmentally friendly!

When gel batteries are scrapped, soybean oil can be recycled to make biodiesel, and honeycomb cells can be crushed and used as organic fertilizer. Not only do we not have to worry about environmental pollution or spend a lot of money on waste disposal, we can also earn back part of the cost.

Although it can only be charged and discharged 600 times, which is much weaker than the 2000 or so times of lithium iron phosphate, this thing is extremely cheap.

The cost of producing one ton of lithium iron phosphate can produce 8.5 cubic meters, or 12.75 tons, of gel batteries.

If it is scrapped, it won’t hurt to replace it.

Other batteries require various rare elements, which increases production costs while also increasing the risks of the industrial chain. After all, the domestic reserves of many rare elements are insufficient. Once there is any disturbance abroad, production costs will soar.

The core raw materials of gel batteries are soybeans, straw and potassium chloride, which are not in short supply in China.

Of course, the benefits of gel batteries are still good for the energy storage industry.

After all, the combined loss rate of charging and discharging is only 6-14%, which means that for a charge of 10 degrees, the discharge is about 8.6-9.4 degrees, which is more advantageous than the current pumped-storage reservoir. The upper limit of the pumped-storage reservoir is only 10 degrees of charging and 7.5 degrees of discharging.

As for its application in mobile power supplies for vehicles, it is definitely possible.

However, considering the maximum charging power of gel batteries, it can only reach 96 kilowatts, and there is no way to achieve fast charging in a few minutes.

Therefore, it is more suitable for battery replacement mode rather than charging mode.

When the battery power of a vehicle is almost consumed, you can directly replace the battery to avoid the trouble of charging.

As things stand, gel batteries have an energy density of 450 kWh per cubic meter. For an ordinary family car, 150 kWh of power is enough, so there is no need to design the battery so large.

However, large trucks, engineering vehicles, inland transport ships and the like require relatively large amounts of electricity.

(End of this chapter)