News in Science

Humble battery 'deserves more research'

Australia Day Awards There should be major research establishments devoted to battery technology, says an electrochemist who is being honoured this Australia Day.

Dr David Rand, Chief Research Scientist Emeritus at CSIRO Energy Technology has been awarded a Member of the Order of Australia medal for his service to science and technological developments in the area of energy storage, particularly rechargeable batteries.

"We rely on batteries for nearly everything - from mobile phones to emergency power in hospitals," he says. "So I find it very strange that not more emphasis is put on establishing a fairly major effort in battery research and development."

"Everybody pushes their own science, but this I think is rather a serious oversight."

Rand says research on batteries is important because they can help humanity shift away from fossil fuels to more sustainable energy sources.

"Most of the renewable energies are intermittent and require storage," he says.

And batteries can also make our use of fossil fuel more efficient, adds Rand.

For example, he says, relatively affordable batteries, such as the CSIRO UltraBattery can be used in "stop-start" hybrid electric vehicles to reduce fuel use and emissions in congested cities.

"In these vehicles, when you stop at the traffic lights or stop in a traffic jam, the engine goes off and then the battery is used to start it again," says Rand.

Lithium challenge

Rand says the more electricity required to propel a vehicle, the more energy a battery needs to be capable of storing.

This will require a shift to lithium ion batteries - larger versions of those currently used in laptops and mobile phones, he says.

But as recent incidents involving Boeing's Dreamliner remind us, lithium ion batteries can go into "thermal runaway" and present safety problems if not properly controlled.

"Lithium batteries are the future but they still need a colossal amount of work," says Rand, adding they also need to be made cheaper.

He says another electrochemical challenge is making hydrogen fuel cells affordable and more reliable.

"Hydrogen fuel has been the dream since Jules Verne and Captain Nemo went 2000 leagues under the sea," says Rand. "But unfortunately production, distribution, storage and use of hydrogen has got very serious problems."

Rand says solving many of these problems requires people with thorough training in electrochemistry, and he is concerned about a global trend away from electrochemistry having its own specialist field.

Background

Rand was researching fat blooms in dark chocolate at a Unilever when he was head-hunted to do a PhD on fuel cells at the University of Cambridge. His study set him up for a job at CSIRO and he set sail for Australia in 1969.

"I landed exactly when man was walking on the moon," says Rand. "But I didn't know they'd even gone there at the time because we had been on a 10 pound voyage from hell."

Rand has spent most of his working life with CSIRO, researching improvements to the lead acid battery, with funding from the lead industry.

Among other things he helped develop hybrid car batteries, a sealed car battery that does not require the addition of water, and batteries that can be used to store solar power, useful in remote areas and for storing vaccines.

"There was a lot of military work too, which we won't go into," adds Rand.