APPLICATION OF MAGNESIUM-AIR BATTERY FOR HYBRID SOLAR-CAR

Jun Saitoh, Hiroyuki Obara

Cathode active material using the oxygen generation principle was discovered in the 18th century. Air depolarized batteries has been popular since the 1930's. This paper investigates the history of technologies and application examples of Air depolarized batteries and magnesium-air batteries. A magnesium ?air battery is an electrochemical cell that uses an anode made from magnesium and an external cathode of ambient air. We face environmental problems and resource depletion. To make the battery do not use rare metals and low environmental impact are required. There is a possibility that magnesium-air battery, which is expected as one of the next-generation batteries spreads as an environmentally-friendly battery by Circulation of resource using renewable energy. We developed a chemistry-powered-vehicle “Miraikanai” by energy system combining solar photovoltaic cells and magnesium air battery. As a result of running test, “Miraikanai” ran for 550km in the daytime in 3 days (25 hours total). It is suggested that magnesium can be one of the energy carrier and the hybrid systems combining renewable energy and sustainable energy is feasible.

The Journal of Education for History of Technology

Japan Society of Education for History of Technology

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