A new burst of energy has reinvigorated the battery industry in the last year, and the catalyst for much of the renewed focus is the unlikely spectre of flaming laptops.
The stories are now legion. There was the Dell notebook that burst into flames during a conference in a hotel in Japan and another that caught fire in a truck in Nevada. That one caused ammunition in the glove compartment to ignite, which in turn set fire to the gas tank, blowing up the vehicle. Recalls became widespread: Dell, Hewlett-Packard and Acer, among others, issued warnings that the lithium ion batteries in their notebooks could overheat and turn into a conflagration.
In most instances, the problem was put down to metal particle impurities in the cells that caused a short. While only a handful of batteries were involved, the recalls forced computer manufacturers to take back millions of notebook batteries. And a moribund industry that hadn't shown much innovation or initiative to tackle the problem of overwhelmed batteries suddenly powered up its R&D departments and declared full steam ahead.
It's not just burning laptops that are driving the new urgency in battery research. Consumers crave more power, especially as they wield wireless laptops containing more energy-sucking applications. Laptop batteries have come a long way since the mid-1990s, when 30 minutes of word processing would be enough to drain them. These days, depending on the applications in use (graphics programs and DVD movies soak up a huge amount of power), batteries can last as long as eight hours.
But as wireless becomes the standard, neither consumers nor computer manufacturers are satisfied with the current longevity of batteries that are required to run longer than ever without another power source. "I think it is one of the biggest issues on the table," says Timothy Humphrey, Lenovo's director of battery technology in Raleigh, North Carolina. "The performance of batteries is No. 1, because these devices are not going to go back to being wired."
According to industry insiders, it was the battery recall that sparked the critical look at current battery technology. "Lithium ion battery technology hasn't advanced much because there just isn't a lot of attention paid to it," says Richard Shim, an analyst with the research firm IDC. "I think the recent battery recall is a big wake-up call because there hasn't been a lot of quality standards around battery technology. Everybody has their own idea of how good it should be or what the specifications should be."
It isn't just metal particle impurities in the cells shorting the batteries. Last month, Lenovo issued a recall after the computer company discovered that the physical dimensions of the batteries in one of its notebooks—when dropped at a particular angle and hit on just the right spot—would dent it, causing a malfunction and overheating.
Despite its problems, lithium ion has its defenders. "Lithium ion is a very solid chemistry," says Sara Bradford, director of the energy and power supply team for the American consultancy firm Frost and Sullivan. "It had some bad press and bad luck recently [but] it has a lot of life left in it. I still think it's going to be a prime choice for typical battery chemistry."
Lithium ion replaced nickel cadmium and hydrate batteries (in and of themselves the first rechargeable batteries) in the late 1990s. While the former technology still runs a lot of equipment (particularly power tools), the density of nickel made it difficult to make a thin, lightweight battery system. The third-lightest element, lithium lends itself well to being moulded into small units. That ability to fit into portable devices, along with its relatively recent appearance, is what still makes lithium ion a desirable technology.
Certainly, many firms see the potential in the technology and are working on more powerful, longer-lasting lithium ion batteries which, along with nickel batteries, make up a $7.5 billion market worldwide. At Boston Power in Massachusetts, founder and CEO Christina Lampe-Onnerud is singing the praises of their forthcoming lithium ion battery, Sonata. Among the features is a faster charge—30 minutes—about 80% capacity, and greater longevity of up to three years rather than the current standard of two to three months for laptop batteries (based on a computer that runs solely on a battery without another power source).
Lampe-Onnerud likens Sonata to a high-end car, where all the pieces are tuned to synchronize in the exact same split second. She says Boston Power is "fine-tuning" the chemicals in its battery to make it as efficient as possible. "I think lithium ion batteries will be around for a long time," Lampe-Onnerud says. "I think the grade of lithium ion that we have experienced in the past 15 years has been remarkable, but it's only the first level of innovation. With lithium ion, we have only scratched the surface of what that technology can do."
