IBM touts "game-changing" lithium-air battery project

IBM has stepped up its push into the clean tech space with the announcement it is working on a major new research initiative designed to produce batteries with ten times more capacity than today's lithium-ion batteries.

The company confirmed yesterday that a team at its Almaden lab in San Jose, California is working on a new type of the lithium-ion batteries that are widely used in laptops and electric cars, known as lithium-air systems.

IBM has provided scant details on the nature of the research project, but engineers are confident that the technology could boast storage capacities that are up to ten times greater than the most sophisticated lithium-ion batteries now available.

Lithium-air batteries are still in their earliest stage of development, but they typically pair a lithium anode with an air cathode that supplies oxygen. The arrangement is thought to offer the highest level of energy density that can be safely achieved with a metal-based battery and also remove the need for dense lithium cobalt oxide.

Sharon Nunes, vice president of IBM's Big Green Innovations program, said that such high density batteries would not only drastically extend the life of current battery powered technologies, but could also significantly improve the resilience and reliability of energy grids.

"High density, scalable energy storage technologies are emerging as the greatest game changer for this new era of renewable energy sources and smarter grids," she said. "Today, the vast majority of the world's oil is burned for transportation. Energy sources such as wind and solar power, fluctuate continuously. We believe the solution may lie in the development of an efficient, affordable energy storage network."

The company said that should the project prove successful it will look to license the resulting designs to independent battery manufacturers.