Making Alkaline Batteries Out of Old Lead Acid Batteries

chucklechuckle, har - har... "He says"... they are making corrosion cells (that's what lead-acid batteries, carbon-zinc batteries, alkaline batteries, etc ARE!) ... but exhibiting NO corrosion, eh...?!

Of course, to be PRECISE, an individual anode-cathode (with electrolyte) combination is a "Cell"... and, a "Battery" is a combination of 2 or more such cells producing current in unison. ... "OK", enuf lafter. Sure, there are ways to design such animals so that they can be regenerated (or recharged) by pumping electrons back INTO the unit following a period of discharge, which in effect reverses the corrosion process that released the electrons (current flow) in the first place. Hybrid car designers and multitudes of other interested businesses are racing in the search for that holy grail of batteries, that will outperform all others. This guy (in what you read) claims to have found a material that consists of nothing but 100% free / unlimited / self-regenerating bottomless-pit of electrons. Aluminum...? [don't think so...] Check-out other CR4 discussions on the topic, such as:

http://cr4.globalspec.com/thread/12947#newcomments and others...

I, for one, am not even *tempted* to seek-out the article which you reference (no link provided, tsk-tsk)... just seeing the address: "Freeenergynews..." was enough to provide my morning chuckle!

The referenced electrolyte was alum in water ,not aluminum.

Freeenergynews.com is a truly great site, although I can understand how you might be put off by the name. Most of the articles relate to genuine technologies that are in use now. The other stuff is over my head, and some of it is a joke. Please take a look at it though.

I found that Edison initially used alkaline batteries. Jaylenosgarage.com has a video of an antique electric car that Jay owns. It even came with its own charging apparatus. I believe it still uses the original batteries!

Thanks for the reply.

"I believe it still uses the original batteries!"

Not so hard to believe, so does the one pictured below, owned/driven by a friend of mine. It's a 1916 Rausch & Lang.

Pretty great! In looking at the time line of automotive technology, I can see us using some very neat electric cars in the near future.

Thanks,

Ron

"OOoooppps!"... my 'bad'. Rarely do I jump to conclusions ~ this was certainly such a doosey! Prematurity-aside, there are countless combinations from which to effect a current flow from corrosion-cell design. The 'trick' is to achieve economic viability, along with safety and environmental friendliness. The original post here stated "no corrosion", NEGLECTING to mention that the article SPECIFIES (strictly) "no corrosion on the terminals". Therin laid the root of initial disbelief.

As a matter-of-fact, I have a 12V lawn-tractor battery sitting in my garage, awaiting disposal. I highly suspect that after appropriate cleaning, neutralizing and other such checks & preparations, the addition of the (sodium aluminum silicate) electrolyte will, in fact, produce a potential across the cells ... and, it will be interesting to perform a load test to see how much (if any) additional life can be extracted from an otherwise "1/2 dead" battery.

Being that it's Friday ... I still enjoyed the morning chuckle...

I did not notice the difference about the lack of corrosion being on the terminals, but doesn't it stand to reason that if there is no corrosion on the terminals, that there is less corrosion internally? Otherwise why are the batteries still good after 90+ years. I am a novice at this stuff. Not trying to compete with anybody. Maybe these batteries have been reconditioned many times, but I have not seen that mentioned.

Thanks for the education. I remember using soda pop to clean the oxidation off of batteries, or a baking soda solution. Looking forward to your experiment.

Follow-up to my previous post ~ on my way out (shopping), I visited a neighbor, and acquired 2 additional "test-beds". I now have 3 contenders for acid-to-alkaline conversions.

Upon scouring the Wal-Mart shelves, I did, in fact, find the Alum ... However, it was not exactly (as the article had stated) "SOooo Cheap!". Wal-Mart only had little 1oz jars (in the spices section) for $2.38+tax per ounce! I wasn't ready to spend $30 on this quite-uncertain experiment ... I'm sure that with a little patience I will find a bulk-rate quantity of the powder, and then procede.

"Until then"...

Amazon.com has HUMCO alum powder at 12 oz. for $19.08 which works out a bunch cheaper...

Did you ever try the experiment? Would love to know the results.

All the best,

Ron