QUOTE=paul;541776]I charge my motorized bicycle at work lol. I do agree with biknut however, this is only just beginning, ibm is working on a new battery called a lipo air, 1/10th the size of lifepo4. 1/10 the weight and 10 times the power. many company's in a race for the best battery's, the lipo air they have working however only good for a few charges, I personally look forward to the future, this is ground floor. as far as battery disposal that is a problem right now however I think that will change in the future just like it has for cell phone battery's and computer battery's, they have drop boxes for them all over the place to be recycled[/QUOTE]
I was part of a 5 man team at Duracell that developed and pattented the process for making the cathode of advance lithium air battery that this IBM battery is using. It was developed to improve the production quality of hearing aid batteries. We exceeded our project goal as it didn't just cut down on production loss, it increased capacity and allows for more odd shaped batteries that still make the most capacity use of the space/mass. We knew at the time that this technology would be used to advance other batteries in the future for many years. My name is on the patents but I get no money because Duracell owns it. I think it's odd that IBM was developing an lith/air battery for cars though since it's not really a practical choice. Funny, I just happen to work for IBM now, wish they pulled me into the project.
One thing that I take pride in from my time with Duracell is that I made the cathodes that were in the lithium ION batteries that were in the first mars rover. Those batteries worked for far longer than expected. I didn't design the battery, just made the cathodes.