Long-Life Batteries


Harry Valentine has a degree in mechanical engineering from Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada specializing in thermodynamics (energy conversion) and transportation technology. He has worked as a technical journalist for the past 10-years and has more than two decades of research in the transportation industry.


Until very recently, the short useable life expectancy of electrochemical batteries and their high replacement cost deterred companies engaged in inland waterway transportation from investing in electrical vessel propulsion. New developments in grid-scale vanadium-oxide flow batteries and in molten metal battery technology now offer the sector batteries capable of delivering 15 to 20 years of service.


Ongoing development in electrical battery storage technology seeks to increase both the storage density along with useable life expectancy. For stationary application, large grid scale batteries combine large physical size, low storage density and greatly extended useable life


expectancy. The sheer size, weight, low storage density along with low tolerance to vibration and jolts makes these batteries unsuitable for railway and road transportation applications. However, maritime vessels that operate at low speed along inland waterways and that do short-distance passenger excursion and sightseeing service have comparatively low power requirements and can be partially recharged during short layovers.


A waterway vessel sailing at a speed of 12-miles per hour along a narrow channel requires 3.375-times the propulsive energy as the identical vessel sailing at eight miles per hour. There are jurisdictions where hydroelectric power and nuclear- electric power sells at a fraction of


62 | The Report • September 2019 • Issue 89 BY HARRY VALENTINE


the price per kilowatt hour as diesel fuel for propulsion engines. During overnight off-peak periods when market demand for electric power is minimal, it becomes feasible to recharge grid-scale energy storage technology at far below market prices, including batteries aboard vessels that are assigned to daytime short-distance maritime operation.


COMPETING LONG-LIFE BATTERIES


Cell-CubeTM is the manufacturer of the long-life vanadium oxide flow “redox” battery that recharges the electrolyte and that offers a deep-cycle recharge-discharge capability of 20,000-cycles. Each unit is built to the same dimensions as 40-foot shipping containers and offers 200kW to


in Waterway Transportation Prospects for


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