Has Spanish company made major breakthrough in Graphene Batteries? (4th Update)
05/08/16 UPDATE #3 Here is an English version of their website. You can read for yourself what they are going to make with Graphene. Unfortunately it is a private company or you would be wise to buy stock in it. The owners are all going to become billionaires.
05/08/16 We are upgrading this rumor from 'speculation' to a very high 'strong' after doing further research on this company. It appears they are light years ahead of China and the USA and are able to manufacture Graphene batteries and other materials with Graphene now. Donald Trump says we don't win at anything anymore and he is right.
A China company owns 10% of this Spanish company. Where is the USA? Still tinkering with Graphene in the lab while this company is already going to market. Elon Musk is building that huge Giga-Factory out west to make Lithium Ion batteries cheaper and this Spanish company is going to put his battery factory out of business within 5 years. If he's smart he'll plow it under now. (Note: If you can understand Spanish watch the company video we added at the bottom of this rumor)
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| This chart shows the energy density of their Graphene batteries vs. Nickel-MH and Lithium-ion batteries. There is no comparison. And they recharge in minutes. |
04/26/16
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| If true, stick a fork in the internal combustion engine. |
Here are some additional claims Grabat makes for their batteries, all of which is achievable eventually, we are shocked if they achieved this already:
- Recharge time is less than 1-minute – much faster than filling your tank with gasoline
- The life of the graphene battery (ultracapacitor) is 4 times longer than a lithium ion battery
- It has a storage density of 1 kWh/kg (4 to 8 times more than a Li-ion battery)
- Its volume is 20% to 30% of that of a Li-ion battery (3 to 5 times smaller)
Grabat batteries will be used in homes, electric cars, motorcycles and electric bikes. The website showcases various applications.
For an electric bike, Grabat states on its website that a typical battery will have a storage capacity of 2 kWh, compared to 0.4 kWh in today’s battery powered bikes, and give a range of 150-miles, while weighing less than a Li-ion battery offering a 40-mile range.
For an electric motorcycle, range will increase from 60-miles to 200-miles with a 15.1 kWh Grabat battery whose mass will be only 30 Lbs compared to 78 Lbs for a typical 5.7 kWh Li-ion battery in today’s motorcycles.
For an electric car, range will increase over 4 times. So a current Tesla Model S that goes 250-miles between charges would go over 1,000 miles between charges. And recharge time would be 1-minute.
To store energy generated by residential solar panels, a typical Grabat home battery will have a capacity of 24 kWh and a mass of 48 kg. That’s 3.7 times more storage than the Tesla POWERWALL which only has 6.4 kWh of storage capacity and weighs 97 kg.
| We here at AR1.com were not aware that any company was close to manufacturing a 100% graphene battery economically. If this company's claims are true, we'll be surprised. However, if true, stick a fork in internal combustion engines, their days will soon be over. |
04/26/16
Graphene has long been touted as a material with near-miraculous properties. The incredibly tough, conductive, one-atom-thick carbon lattice offers promise for everything from electronics to bioengineering — as well as energy storage.
According to Graphenano and its subsidiary Grabat Energy, that potential is about to be realized.
In recent media coverage, the Spain-based company claims that it will not only be offering "graphene polymer cells" by the summer, but that it will have perfected the industrial processes to produce large quantities of high-quality raw material.
Its promises are very bold.
According to CEO and President Martin Martinez, Graphenano is producing batteries with energy densities of 1,000 watt-hours per kilogram — around five times that of current lithium-ion cells. A Tesla Model S equipped with these batteries would increase its range from 334 to 1,013 kilometers, he claimed.
MartÃnez also claimed that the new batteries are considerably lighter and safer than lithium-ion equivalents, saying researchers from TUV Rhineland showed that the batteries are "not prone to explosions like lithium batteries." What’s more, these revolutionary new batteries will retail at more or less the same price as their outmoded lithium-ion equivalents, he said.
Graphenano will be offering three types of batteries within months via its subsidiary, each composed of its graphene-based modular cells — one for electric bicycles, another designed for motorbikes, and a third for stationary domestic storage.
Full production will be underway by October, with Grabat’s projected 200 employees producing 80 million cells per year at the company’s factory in Yecla in the Spanish region of Murcia.
The business has secured a fair amount of financial backing. Chinese electrical transmission and distribution company Chint has paid 18 million euros ($20 million) for a 10 percent stake in the company.
MartÃnez and one of China’s richest men, Nan Cunhui, attended the recent press launch — along with Spain’s minister of industry. At the event, MartÃnez proudly displayed the company’s TUV certification alongside impressive-looking battery prototypes and a well-produced corporate video.
Unsurprisingly, the Graphenano phenomenon has attracted plenty of media interest in Spain. Heavyweight national daily El Mundo ran an enthusiastic article on the company. MartÃnez has appeared on both local and national radio, expounding the merits of graphene-based energy storage and repeating his claims for his batteries.
But do these claims stand up to solid scrutiny?
Professor Andrea Ferrari, director of Cambridge University’s Graphene Center and chairman of the executive board of the European-Union-funded Graphene Flagship project, is skeptical of the batteries. But he does think it's possible for a company to be producing large quantities of graphene for use in them.
Although producing "true" monolayer graphene is still highly expensive, there are other less-tricky-to-prepare types of graphene — such as platelets — that could be manufactured cost-effectively.
Uncertainty surrounds the true nature of Graphenano’s cells, or what industrial technique the company is using to produce graphene. Although MartÃnez alluded to gas deposition onto a copper substrate in a radio interview, he claims this is just one technique employed by the company. Graphenano did not respond to a GTM request for clarification.
So is it credible that a company can be weeks away from utilizing graphene to produce a better battery commercially? And if so, how much better could that battery really be?
Jesús de la Fuente, founder and CEO of the respected Spanish graphene company Graphenea, confirmed that research is being carried out into replacing carbon black with graphene in lithium-ion battery electrodes. However, he said, this would only bring about modest improvements in battery performance.
The real breakthrough, explained de la Fuente, could be in so-called "post-lithium-ion" chemistries — such as using graphene in the cathodes of lithium-sulfur cells. However, this type of technology is at least five years away from commercialization, he said. Anything even more innovative would likely be more than a decade away.
A number of influential blogs, such as Falacias Ecologistas, have been scathing in their assessment of the performance of Graphenano’s new batteries, using the Spanish expression "vendehumos," or snake-oil salesman.
A senior figure in the graphene industry, speaking anonymously, pointed out that if such a revolutionary product were being produced, the company would be flourishing a sheaf of patents and white papers. Neither Graphenano or Grabat has publicly produced either.
"To make such a breakthrough, you would need a huge team of researchers — at least a team of 100. This company says it has seven. There is no technical data and no support for their claims," said the source.
Furthermore, the TUV certificate, proudly displayed at both the company’s media event and on its Facebook page, just seems to be the front page of a test report upon closer inspection.
Maria BuendÃa Bazan, a spokesperson with TUV Rheinland’s Spanish marketing and communication department, said via email: "These companies are not certified by TUV Rheinland."
It is not impossible that Graphenano and Grabat could offer a groundbreaking product. But extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence — and that evidence has not yet been produced. Green Tech Media