Development of Sealed, Large-Format Silver-Zinc Batteries and Cells for Department of Defense Applications

摘要

BST Systems, Inc. has developed smart, sealed, safe large-format silver-zinc cells (100-365 Ah) that operate continuously at low, sub-atmospheric internal pressure. The patent-pending technology for smart sealed silver-zinc, and other aqueous batteries, utilizes a conventional recombination catalyst in conjunction with an automatic gas balancer (AGB) that enables stoichiometric recombination of all the hydrogen generated during cell operation. The AGB is incorporated in the cell, is electrically reversible, is powered by the cell, and is controlled by a sensor-regulated algorithm. Prototype cells and batteries have demonstrated continuous operation without releasing gas within a pressure range of -10 psig to +10 psig over typical silver-zinc lifetimes without maintenance. Negative gauge pressures have been observed on every cycle. In addition, the operation of the AGB has a <1% impact on the energy delivered by the cells and batteries.