California startup NDB, Inc. announces breakthrough in new battery technology

[twelveoclockglock]

Summary

California startup NDB, Inc. announced yesterday that they have made groundbreaking strides in their development of a self-charging battery that derives energy from radio-isotope decay. They also announced partnership with two companies which will be working with them to beta-test the technology.

 

Quotes

Quote

 NDB, Inc., creator of the first and only universal, self-charging, proprietary nano diamond battery (NDB) that provides up to thousands of years of charge, today announced completion of two successful Proofs of Concept tests of the NDB battery at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and the Cavendish Laboratory at Cambridge University. NDB's battery achieved a breakthrough 40% charge, a significant improvement over commercial diamonds, which have only 15% charge collection efficiency. NDB also announced its first two beta customers, including a leader in nuclear fuel cycle products and services and a leading global aerospace, defense and security manufacturing company. Development of the first NDB commercial prototype battery is currently underway and will be available later this year.

 

My thoughts

While this seems too good to be true, the concept of recycling waste from nuclear energy production into cheap, portable power is incredibly exciting. It could be extremely beneficial in medical technology, in low-power implants such as pacemakers and hearing aids. If it is scale-able, it could usher in a new dawn of consumer devices that never need to be charged. Imagine an Echo Dot that can be placed anywhere in your home without needing a single cable, or earbuds that never lose their charge. Applications in micro-mobility devices and electric vehicles are even more exciting, although this may be pushing the boundaries of rational optimism. At the very least, this tech is an avenue towards reducing nuclear waste. 

 

Sources

https://techcrunch.com/2020/08/25/self-charging-thousand-year-battery-startup-ndb-aces-key-tests-and-lands-first-beta-customers/?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAN7XiB5nvSIjyRgBAQwF-tftSWPMooB8V-_1pUXSb5xaA6fbtLtoSx9wH1_ZHZfncW-0MY586loppvoG09HzZf3fJissJO1bSyXe7pljpPskWdrgZyRQNQXNfLMFnxFU0pKFG6r6tpSmURdsYhJgjf5l0wlssCLAwPho4DWm0JCo

 

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/ndb-inc-announces-major-technological-120000841.html

 

https://newatlas.com/energy/nano-diamond-self-charging-batteries-ndb/

 

https://ndb.technology/

 

[IronSoldier]

I look forward to having this in my phone in 2178. Sounds like another "break through" that never makes it to product development.. let alone end consumer devices. 

[Quinnell]

Just now, IronSoldier said:

I look forward to having this in my phone in 2178. Sounds like another "break through" that never makes it to product development.. let alone end consumer devices. 

Honestly this is probably the reality of this product.  I hope we're wrong though.  Batteries are a major reason why Solar Power isn't as cost-effective or practical as fossil fuel energy.

[DrMacintosh]

Ahh yes, my iPad will finally be able to power itself so long as my iPad is also technically a small nuclear reactor....

[spartaman64]

RTGs are sort of inefficient or rather TEGs in general but i guess if you just need a little electricity its fine. edit just saw they use carbon 14 instead of plutonium im curious what sort of power these can produce

 

edit: apparently it is not an RTG and doesnt rely on heat/thermal couples arrays to generate electricity

[straight_stewie]

14 minutes ago, twelveoclockglock said:

although this may be pushing the boundaries of rational optimism. At the very least, this tech is an avenue towards reducing nuclear waste. 

The NRC might have more than a few things to say about this.

We'll see how the politics play out.

I'm willing to bet, however, that this becomes a technology relegated to military and space hardware, and we never get to see any of it.

On the other hand, if the marketplace becomes competitive, and therefore efficiency improved and hardware proliferated, this could push us pretty darn close to a K(1) civilization, which will surely bring about tons of other advancements. If providing power for things becomes as simple as soldering on a surface mount device, well, that will have a huge impact.

[spartaman64]

4 minutes ago, DrMacintosh said:

Ahh yes, my iPad will finally be able to power itself so long as my iPad is also technically a small nuclear reactor....

unless you are fine with getting irradiated I dont think it would charge an ipad much

[HarryNyquist]

Quote

proprietary

Lame.

Also, isn't this a RTG like they use on spacecraft? If this ISN'T vaporware then this could be a very very good thing. Especially if it's using "waste" material.

Double also, from the techcrunch source:

Quote

and only requires access to open air to work

That might be a problem for smartphones and other expected-splashproof/waterproof electronics.

[spartaman64]

16 minutes ago, HarryNyquist said:

Lame.

Also, isn't this a RTG like they use on spacecraft? If this ISN'T vaporware then this could be a very very good thing. Especially if it's using "waste" material.

Double also, from the techcrunch source:

That might be a problem for smartphones and other expected-splashproof/waterproof electronics.

but those ones use plutonium which generates much more heat than carbon 14 so idk how much energy this would produce. and RTGs generate electricity from heat and heat isnt a desirable thing to have in a smartphone. the more i think about this the more i doubt it would be useful for anything other than ultra lower power devices 

[Tech Enthusiast]

"New breakthrough in battery tech",... again! And.... again! .... aaaaand again.

 

We have had like two dozen breakthroughs since we last changed what we use today, no?

[twelveoclockglock]

3 minutes ago, spartaman64 said:

but those ones use plutonium which generates much more heat than carbon 14 so idk how much energy this would produce. and RTGs generate electricity from heat and heat isnt a desirable thing to have in a smartphone

I had similar questions when I head about this. RTGs have been around for decades, how is this news? From NDB's website, it seems as though rather than using the heat relased during decay to drive a Peltier device or Sterling engine as a Radio-isotope Thermal Generator does, they are in essence directly capturing the electron emitted during decay and storing it in a supercapacitor to produce an electric current.

[dizmo]

Great! Now how long before the start up is purchased by a larger company, who either shelves it so they can continue selling their products, or develops it into defense equipment, where we won't see it for decades, if at all?

[TetraSky]

Cool, ping me up when they actually release this crap.

They can make as many breakthrough as they want in a lab, it means nothing if it never hit the store shelves in a product. How many of these new fangled battery tech have we seen announced in the last couple years? And how many have actually been released commercially... Next to none as far as I can recall. Or at least, none that I've seen in the news after their initial press hype.

[CarlBar]

The fact that they're not naming the companies they're working with is a huge red flag. Don't get me wrong the basic concept is cool. But the fact that there's no production date and it's unclear how major their partners really are makes this a huge what if thing.

[jagdtigger]

If something is too good to be true....

 

[e22big]

we know for a while that the word is moving toward a solid state battery with a much higher charge circle and energy density so that wasn't too far from reality

[CarlBar]

38 minutes ago, jagdtigger said:

If something is too good to be true....

 

 

Who is he, never heard of him?

[Doobeedoo]

Cool, yet on consumer side it will be same'ol'samo for who knows how long. 

[Athan Immortal]

I keep hoping one of these breakthroughs will actually come to something, mainly for cars.

 

300 miles of range is enough for most people on the planet, but range anxiety comes from the lack of infrastructure that there is for fuel. I really believe if energy density could get up another hundred wh/kg and have the ability to give people a car with 500-600 miles of range without recharge it would lift that block in people's minds.

 

Sadly I've been watching stuff like this for a decade. I need to check up on that graphite battery that could charge in seconds, pretty sure that's the one that they make the joke about "It can do anything, except get out of the lab."

[WereCatf]

Just like literally every other "breakthrough battery technology", there are plenty of lofty promises and zero evidence presented. I am not holding my breath.

[Mark Kaine]

Thoughts:

 

I knew what's up after reading "Californian startup"  

[StDragon]

14 hours ago, spartaman64 said:

RTGs are sort of inefficient or rather TEGs in general but i guess if you just need a little electricity its fine. edit just saw they use carbon 14 instead of plutonium im curious what sort of power these can produce

1.21 gigawatts? At least you won't have to worry about finding plutonium at a corner drugstore.

[StDragon]

14 hours ago, spartaman64 said:

unless you are fine with getting irradiated I dont think it would charge an ipad much

If it's alpha, you're ok. It won't go far, and will get converted into heat. Beta is a problem, and gamma requires lead or thick concrete shielding. Of them all, gamma is the worst; so 100% assured that won't be emitted by a consumer product, or beta for that matter.

[Bombastinator]

So nuclear batteries.  The 50’s are back.  Nuclear batteries are not a new idea.   There is an issue with nuclear batteries:  they produce a constant supply of power and then are depleated.  These things are not rechargeable.  Also they are very specifically time based. They produce energy at a constant rate and then stop.  Whether you use them or not. This would be handy for something like a pacemaker which uses energy at a constant rate.  Would be pointless for something like a cellphone that doesn’t though.  Would also mean that any device that used one would die unrecoverable after X time period no matter if it was used or not.

[jagdtigger]

8 hours ago, CarlBar said:

 

Who is he, never heard of him?

https://www.eevblog.com/about/

 

(Its odd that you dont know him, im sure his videos were linked several times in these kind of news topics.)