Survey of rechargeable battery technology

Abstract

We have reviewed rechargeable battery technology options for a specialized application in unmanned high altitude aircraft. Consideration was given to all rechargeable battery technologies that are available commercially or might be available in the foreseeable future. The LLNL application was found to impose very demanding performance requirements which cannot be met by existing commercially available battery technologies. The most demanding requirement is for high energy density. The technology that comes closest to providing the LLNL requirements is silver-zinc, although the technology exhibits significant shortfalls in energy density, charge rate capability and cyclability. There is no battery technology available ``off-the-shelf` today that can satisfy the LLNL performance requirements. All rechargeable battery technologies with the possibility of approaching/meeting the energy density requirements were reviewed. Vendor interviews were carried out for all relevant technologies. A large number of rechargeable battery systems have been developed over the years, though a much smaller number have achieved commercial success and general availability. The theoretical energy densities for these systems are summarized. It should be noted that a generally useful ``rule-of-thumb`` is that the ratio of packaged to theoretical energy density has proven to be less than 30%, and generally less than 25%. Data developed for this project confirm the usefulness of the general rule. However, data shown for the silver-zinc (AgZn) system show a greater conversion of theoretical to practical energy density than would be expected due to the very large cell sizes considered and the unusually high density of the active materials.