Estimates of the cost and energy consumption of aluminum-air electric vehicles

Conference · Sat Nov 01 04:00:00 EST 1980

OSTI ID:6873115

Cooper, J F

Economic costs and primary energy consumption are estimated for general purpose electric vehicles using aluminium-air propulsion batteries within the time frame of the 1990's (earliest possible date of introduction). Critical assumptions were: aluminum production at efficiencies at least as high as those of the best currently operating industrial installations; competitive performance automobiles with gasoline or diesel fuel economies at least as high as those of the best currently-available vehicles-13.5 to 19.3 tonne-km/liter (35 to 50 gross ton-miles/gal-fuel); and aluminum-air battery discharge efficiencies at least as high as those obtained with electrodes available prior to the start of the present alloy development program. For an aluminum-air fuel economy of 36 tonne/km/kg-Al (optimized low-gallium alloys), a total refueling cost of 5.6 cents/km (1979$) was estimated for a 1.27 tonne vehicle. This is equivalent to $2 to 3/gal for automobiles of the same weight with fuel economies of 13.5 to 19.3 tonne-km/liter. Critical to the cost estimate is the assumption of anode slab production directly from the product of a reduction cell by low cost casting and shearing operations. The total primary energy consumption was estimated to be 1.3 to 1.7 kWh/km (coal) for the electric vehicle, which corresponds roughly to the energy cost of the automobiles using liquid fuels synthesized from coal. The energy consumption is 30 to 70% greater than the reference automobile using petroleum-derived gasoline. The cost of the battery (including air-electrodes) was estimated to be about $30/kW including 30% markup over producer's cost; or $36/kW, if electrodes are used with 0.25 mg/cm/sup 2/ Pt loadings. (LCL)

• Research Organization: California Univ., Livermore (USA). Lawrence Livermore Lab.
• DOE Contract Number: W-7405-ENG-48
• OSTI ID: 6873115
• Report Number(s): UCRL-84445(Rev.1); CONF-8010159-1(Rev.1)
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

25 ENERGY STORAGE
250900 -- Energy Storage-- Batteries
29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY
290200 -- Energy Planning & Policy-- Economics & Sociology
33 ADVANCED PROPULSION SYSTEMS
330300* -- Advanced Propulsion Systems-- Electric-Powered Systems
AIR
ALUMINIUM
CAPITALIZED COST
COST
ECONOMIC ANALYSIS
ECONOMICS
ELECTRIC BATTERIES
ELECTRIC-POWERED VEHICLES
ELECTROCHEMICAL CELLS
ELEMENTS
ENERGY CONSUMPTION
FLUIDS
FORECASTING
GASES
METAL-GAS BATTERIES
METALS
OPERATING COST
PRODUCTION
VEHICLES