South Korea successfully completed the road test of magnesium-air battery cars

The Korea Institute of Science and Technology has developed a technology that enables electric vehicles to travel up to 800 kilometers under the power of a complete battery, which is about the round-trip distance from Seoul to Busan.

　　 Korean scientists have completed the world’s first road test of a magnesium-air battery car. Magnesium-air batteries use magnesium as the anode and oxygen in the air as the cathode. It can drive medium and large power systems with high energy density, such as electric vehicles and emergency power supplies.

　　 Successful road test

　　 Korea Research Institute of Science and Technology announced that one of its teams has successfully completed driving tests on cars powered by magnesium-air batteries. Dr. Cho Byung-won of the Institute’s Energy Convergence Research Center led the project. Magnesium-air batteries are 5 times the energy held by lithium batteries of the same size and require shorter charging time. If a car powered by a magnesium-air battery system runs at the same level as a traditional gasoline-powered car, it will have a greater energy density than the current electric car model.

　　magnesium-air battery

　　 Magnesium-air battery is known for its high energy density. However, the reaction efficiency of the magnesium anode is low and the response speed of the air cathode is also slow. This means that although the magnesium-air fuel cell can store a lot of energy, it is still limited in converting the energy into actual power. In order to solve this problem, the team of the Korea Institute of Science and Technology used a variety of substances to change the chemical composition of the magnesium anode and air cathode, and improve the efficiency and speed of the reaction. In the end, the energy capacity of the team's magnesium-air battery doubled that of traditional batteries.

　　 And the charging time of the battery is only 10 minutes, only need to replace the magnesium plate and salt water electrolyte. However, it is too early to say that magnesium-air batteries have been applied to electric vehicles. There are still many difficulties to overcome before commercialization. The biggest problem is cost. The fuel cost of the current magnesium-air battery car model is three times the cost of a gasoline-powered car. Dr. Cho Byung-won said that although the current fuel cost is still very high, once battery technology and magnesium hydroxide recovery technology are developed, the subsequent cost is expected to be greatly reduced, and the commercialization of magnesium-air electric vehicles can still be achieved.