Aluminum—oxygen batteries for space applications

✍ Scribed by Marilyn J. Niksa; Douglas J. Wheeler

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 1988
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 349 KB
• Volume: 22
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0378-7753
• DOI: 10.1016/0378-7753(88)80020-x

✦ Synopsis

An aluminum-oxygen fuel cell is under development at ELTECH Systems Corporation. Several highly efficient cell designs have been constructed and tested. Air cathodes catalyzed with cobalt tetramethoxyporphyrin have demonstrated more than 2000 cycles in intermittent use conditions. Aluminum alloys have operated at 4.2 kW h kg-' at 200 mA cmm2. A novel separator device, an impeller fluidizer, has been coupled with the battery to remove the solid hydrargillite discharge product. A 60 kW, '720 kW h battery system is projected to weigh about 2200 lb for an energy density of 327 W h lb-'.