Batteries

A battery that could be quickly refueled, like a car's gas tank, has joined the race to develop the first practical electric car. Westwood-based Luz International Ltd., which produces 95% of the world's solar electricity, said Thursday that the concept could help replace the polluting internal-combustion engine. Luz said it plans to demonstrate its battery--which uses a silvery liquid slurry to produce an electric charge--with a test run from Sacramento to Los Angeles early in 1992.

The new, high-octane iPhone 3GS is loaded with features that could light up your life -- but its battery isn't one of them. Buyers are finding that the device, introduced two weeks ago, has trouble making it through a workday without a rest stop at the electrical outlet. It's proving to be something of an Achilles' heel on Apple Inc.'s flagship device, more than 1 million of which were sold in the first weekend.

Unless battery technology improves dramatically, most experts doubt that electric vehicles will overtake gasoline-powered cars. Batteries are often the most expensive component in an EV and also the most difficult part to construct. Many rely on increasingly costly rare-earth metals, pushing up the overall cost of the car. Few have the range that gasoline users want, usually powering the car for less than 100 miles on a single charge. The batteries with more capacity tend to be much heavier and bulkier, weighing down the vehicle and leaving less room for passengers.

Executives at Quallion, a lithium-ion battery maker, believe they can provide an energizing jolt to the Southern California economy if they're able to secure a slice of the $2 billion in stimulus funds aimed at developing batteries for hybrid cars. The Sylmar company, owned by California philanthropist and serial entrepreneur Alfred Mann, has already made believers out of the California Energy Commission, several members of Congress and the city of Palmdale.

NASA canceled a major experiment aboard space shuttle Discovery on Saturday--the release of six metal balls--because of a dead battery in the ejection system. "The best thing to do is to call it quits at this point with that experiment and go ahead and bring it home," said flight director Milt Heflin. Space debris researchers wanted to track the orbiting balls with radar and telescopes to fine-tune their instruments and improve their ability to track small objects.

Texaco Inc. and Energy Conversion Devices Inc. plan to mass-produce nickel metal hydride car batteries for hybrid and electric vehicles. The companies say nickel metal hydride batteries have twice the power and four times the life of regular lead acid car batteries. Made mostly of hydrogen and nickel, the batteries are "completely recyclable," said Bill Wicker, senior vice president of Texaco.

Scottish scientists have found a way to make cheap, rechargeable lithium batteries that could one day be used in appliances ranging from mobile phones to electric cars. The new batteries replace the toxic ingredient cobalt, now used in the electrodes of such batteries, with manganese, which is less poisonous and much cheaper. Chemists Robert Armstrong and Peter Bruce of the University of St Andrews reported their findings in today's issue of Nature.

Duracell Inc. announced Thursday that it is recalling two models of lithium camera batteries because of an assembly defect that can cause severe overheating and in some cases damage cameras. The batteries affected by the recall include all Duracell XL Lithium camera batteries with the model number DL123A or DL223A and labeled "Made in USA." The DL123A is a three-volt specialty battery, while the DL223A is a six-volt specialty battery.

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. recalled 6,000 batteries used in its Panasonic notebook computers on concerns that they might burst into flames. Osaka, Japan-based Matsushita is the third manufacturer to recall power cells in a month. Dell Inc. and Apple Computer Inc. in August said they would replace about 6 million lithium ion laptop batteries made by Sony Corp. because they might overheat.

Spurred by their growing infatuation with electronic toys and games, hobby equipment and gadgets, Americans spend some $2.3 billion each year for batteries, according to a report from a marketing communications concern. Paradoxically, according to the New York-based Howard Marlboro Group, while electronic technological advances have accelerated battery sales, consumers do not buy their batteries in stores that sell electronic equipment.