Battery Collaboration

Appropriate Technology Collaborative

This aid organization is apparently building these batteries for third world applications. http://apptechdesign.org/

From Tom Kimmel of SACA:

May 15, 2011 Dear Marcin, With regards to iron / nickel batteries there is a fellow in the Ann Arbor, Michigan area working under the organization “Appropriate Technology Collaborative” that is thinking of using this type of a battery in Central America. He says that you can haul in the components and then weld them together on the spot. That they are too large and heavy for vehicular use, and that is not the issue for stationary power. I met the fellow and have written him but he does not respond. You may be able to extract some information out of him. The organization is doing the right thing. I just have not visited their operation to see if they are good at what they are doing.

A little while ago I emailed these people through their blog, see the nickel iron battery research page linked to below. Someone answered just yesterday:

Hi Gregor- We made a couple proof of concept models but put the project on hold because of the toxicity of nickel oxide.

We have since set up a protocol similar to handling lead. We may put a team on NiFe again.

Good luck!

John Barrie

-gregor

Another reply from John:

Date: Tue, 17 May 2011 13:02:49 -0400 Subject: Re: AppTechDesign Contact Form: From: john@apptechdesign.org To: gregorfolouk@hotmail.com

HI Gregor-

I sent a response from my cell phone but didn't see it in my sent folder here at the office.

We have had some interest in the NiFe battery recently.

We were concerned with using nickel oxide which is toxic. We did a lot of research on nickel oxide, price, availability etc and put the project on hold.

We did make some batteries with the metals nickel and iron but got pretty disappointing results. They do work but the energy density is about 1/4 of what is expected from a NiFe battery.

After consideration we are looking to re-visit NiFe batteries. The idea of a permanent battery is very appealing.

Good Luck

John

John S. Barrie Executive Director The Appropriate Technology Collaborative 1100 North Main Street Suite 107 Ann Arbor, MI 48104 ph: 734.668.4811 www.apptechdesign.org Contact Me Facebook Twitter Flickr

On Fri, May 13, 2011 at 2:08 AM, Gregor Folouk <gregorfolouk@hotmail.com> wrote:

   Gregor Folouk <gregorfolouk@hotmail.com> wrote:
   Hello,

   I am  volunteering with the organization Factor E farm.  I found your page on
   the development on nickel iron batteries.  Factor E farm is now doing the same,
   developing a nickel iron battery.

   Can you share with us the progress and research documentation however little or
   much there is?  It could be very helpful and reduce duplicated effort.

A reply from whoever runs nickel-iron-battery.com.:

Great project ... good luck with it.

Ian

gregor folouk wrote: > Hello there, > > I didn't get your name off you website at > http://www.nickel-iron-battery.com/. I am coming from > openfarmtech.org. We are developing an open source nickel iron > battery. Just thought I'd give you the heads up, and please > contribute to the project if you can. The wiki page is here : > http://openfarmtech.org/wiki/Nickel-Iron_Battery