Quant e-Sportlimousine Runs On Liquid Electricity

Electric cars are all the rage among the jet set crowd, and the Quant e-Sportlimousine is a big, bold electric luxury car with a liquid electric battery. The NanoFLOWCELL technology gives this high-powered electric luxury car a range of up to 373 miles with two full tanks of the liquid electric fuel, and four electric motors give it hypercar-like acceleration.

Liechtenstein-based nanoFLOWCELL has developed a liquid electrolyte system that is part battery pack, part fuel cell. Redox flow cell technology itself isn’t new, but it’s been too heavy and too slow to discharge for automotive applications. By combining their efforts with Germany’s Bosch Engineering though, nanoFLOWCELL thinks their new battery system has serious potential for the auto industry.

The list of specifications for the Quant e-Sportlimousine is impressive, no doubt, with four electric motors churning out some 644 horsepower and peak torque of…wait for it…8,555 ft-lbs. This motivates the 5,000 pound luxury limo from 0 to 60 MPH in just 2.8 seconds, which is where the “Sport” moniker comes in. Top speed of Quant’s second concept is supposedly over 236 MPH, though I doubt this concept will ever move faster than its handlers can push the luxury four-seater. That said, it’s quite the looker in my humble opinion, and I’ll take any chance I get to put gullwing doors on a car.

This concept isn’t really meant for production though. Instead, it’s a showcase for the nanoFLOWCELL technology, which can “exchange” the fuel rather than recharge it in a matter of minutes. MIT developed a similar liquid battery system, which could make the transition from combustion cars to electric vehicles a whole lot easier for the average consumer. A road-going prototype is planned for the end of the year, and by 2015 the company hopes to homologate the technology into other vehicles.

Is the nanoFLOWCELL another piece of vaporware, or can flow cell technology bring a new recharging dynamic to electric cars?

Source: nanoFLOWCELL

A123's Spinoff, 24M Technolgies, Garners $16 Million to Further Flow Battery Innovation

Flow battery

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Last week, advanced battery company A123Systems announced that it was spinning off a new venture called 24M Technologies, which would focus on more unorthodox energy storage innovations, including grid-scale flow batteries.

One of the reasons it decided to release the new entity into the wild was so it could raise a substantial amount of funding for its projects. Now it has, banking $10 million in a first round of venture funding and a $6 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy’s ARPA-E program.

24M started off as a development program inside A123, focusing on high energy density storage systems for plug-in vehicles and electrical grids. Like many of its competitors — huge corporate giants and startups alike — the company was striving to develop grid-scale solutions that could better integrate and distribute intermittent sources of renewable power, like wind turbines and solar arrays. Now that 24M is on its own, A123 will concentrate its focus on vehicles once again.

24M will be investigating how to make lithium-ion and flow batteries more feasible for grid-scale applications (illustration of technology above). Flow batteries, in particular, are well suited for large storage needs because they operate so similarly to fuel cells. Comprised of a series of large tanks, they circulate electrolytes that allow them to continually recharge. In their current form, they are far too big for vehicles.

It’s clear that 24M is working on experimental and emerging technologies — products that may not reach commercialization for up to a decade. This is where ARPA-E, the Energy Department’s funding initiative, aimed at backing bold, high-risk, high-reward projects, really shines. The new company seems to be up its alley, especially considering how much money it has already shelled out to other flow battery innovators like ReVolt Technology. It will be partnering with MIT and Rutgers to produce results over the next several years.

24M’s recent round of funding came from Charles River Ventures, and A123Systems investor North Bridge Venture Partners.

Source: All Cars Electric