Metal-air battery and operating method of the metal-air battery

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11764427-B2
Application number	US-202117353979-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 22, 2021
Priority date	Jan 11, 2021
Publication date	Sep 19, 2023
Grant date	Sep 19, 2023

Abstract

A metal-air battery includes: a cell module configured to generate electricity by oxidation of a metal and reduction of oxygen and water; a water vapor supply unit configured to supply a first water vapor to the cell module; a moisture storage unit configured to supply a first moisture at a first flow rate to the water vapor supply unit; and a condensing unit configured to supply a second moisture at a second flow rate to the water vapor supply unit by condensing the water vapor condensed from the cell module.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A metal-air battery comprising:
a cell module configured to generate electricity by oxidation of a metal and reduction of oxygen and water;
a water vapor supply unit configured to supply a first water vapor to the cell module;
a moisture storage unit configured to supply a first moisture at a first flow rate to the water vapor supply unit; and
a condensing unit configured to supply a second moisture at a second flow rate to the water vapor supply unit by condensing a second water vapor condensed from the cell module.

2. The metal-air battery of claim 1 , wherein the second flow rate is determined according to a recovery rate of the condensing unit, and the first flow rate is configured to increase as the second flow rate decreases.

3. The metal-air battery of claim 2 , wherein the recovery rate of the condensing unit is 0.5 or more and less than 1, and the moisture storage unit stores 0.1 liter or more to 6 liters or less of moisture per 1 kilowatt-hour of an output energy of the metal-air battery.

4. The metal-air battery of claim 3 , further comprising a first fluid interrupting unit configured to interrupt a flow of the first moisture at the first flow rate, which is communicated from the moisture storage unit to the water vapor supply unit.

5. The metal-air battery of claim 4 , further comprising a controller configured to control whether to open or close the first fluid interrupting unit according to the second flow rate of the second moisture transferred from the condensing unit to the water vapor supply unit.

6. The metal-air battery of claim 1 , further comprising a pump configured to apply a negative pressure to the cell module to recover the second water vapor from the cell module.

7. The metal-air battery of claim 1 , further comprising an air purification module configured to purify air supplied from outside of the metal-air battery and to provide purified air to the cell module.

8. The metal-air battery of claim 1 , wherein the cell module comprises:
an anode unit comprising a metal;
a cathode unit configured to use oxygen and water as an active material; and
a solid electrolyte layer disposed between the anode unit and the cathode unit.

9. The metal-air battery of claim 8 , wherein
the cathode unit comprises a porous composite conductive material, and
the porous composite conductive material comprises a lithium titanium oxide, a lithium manganese oxide, a lithium cobalt oxide, a lithium manganese nickel oxide, a lithium nickel manganese cobalt oxide, a lithium nickel oxide, lithium iron phosphate, lithium iron manganese phosphate, a lithium lanthanum titanium oxide, lithium aluminum titanium phosphate, a lithium lanthanum manganese oxide, a lithium lanthanum ruthenium oxide, a reduction product of the composite conductive material, or a combination thereof.

10. The metal-air battery of claim 9 , wherein the composite conductive material comprises an inorganic material having any one of structures of perovskite, anti-perovskite, layered structure, spinel, or NASICON type.

11. The metal-air battery of claim 8 , wherein the solid electrolyte layer comprises a metal ion conductive material.

12. A method of operating a metal-air battery, the method comprising:
purifying external air introduced into an air purification module to provide purified air;
supplying a first moisture from a moisture storage unit to a water vapor supply unit at a first flow rate;
supplying the purified air from the air purification module and a first water vapor from the water vapor supply unit to a cell module configured to generate electricity by using oxidation of a metal and reduction of oxygen and water;
recovering, by a condensing unit, a second water vapor from the cell module to provide a second moisture; and
supplying the second moisture from the condensing unit to the water vapor supply unit at a second flow rate, wherein
a flow rate of the water vapor supplied from the water vapor supply unit to the battery module is determined by a sum of the first moisture supplied from the moisture storage unit at the first flow rate and the second moisture supplied from the condensing unit at the second flow rate.

13. The method of claim 12 , wherein the cell module comprises:
an anode unit including a metal;
a cathode unit that uses oxygen and water as an active material; and
a solid electrolyte layer arranged between the anode unit and the cathode unit.

14. The method of claim 12 , wherein the second flow rate is determined according to a recovery rate of the condensing unit, and the first flow rate increases as the second flow rate decreases.

15. The method of claim 12 , further comprising interrupting the flow of the first moisture communicated from the moisture storage unit to the water vapor supply unit via a first fluid interrupting unit at the first flow rate, wherein
an opening/closing of the first fluid interrupting unit is determined according to the second flow rate of the second moisture transferred from the condensing unit to the water vapor supply unit.

16. The method of claim 14 , wherein a recovery rate of the condensing unit is 0.5 or more and less than 1, and the moisture storage unit stores moisture of 0.1 liter or more and 6.0 liters or less per 1 kilowatt-hour.

17. The method of claim 12 , further comprising applying a negative pressure to the cell module to recover the second water vapor from the cell module.

18. The method of claim 12 , wherein
the cathode unit comprises a porous composite conductive material, and
the composite conductive material comprises a lithium titanium oxide, a lithium manganese oxide, a lithium cobalt oxide, a lithium manganese nickel oxide, a lithium nickel manganese cobalt oxide, a lithium nickel oxide, lithium iron phosphate, lithium iron manganese phosphate, a lithium lanthanum titanium oxide, lithium aluminum titanium phosphate, a lithium lanthanum manganese oxide, a lithium lanthanum ruthenium oxide, a reduction product of the composite conductive material, or combination thereof.

19. The method of claim 18 , wherein the composite conductive material comprises an inorganic material having any a perovskite structure, an anti-perovskite structure, layered structure, a spinel structure, or a NASICON structure.

20. The method of claim 12 , wherein the solid electrolyte layer comprises a metal ion conductive material.

Assignees

• Samsung Electronics Co Ltd

Inventors

• Lee Hyunpyo
• Choi Kyounghwan
• Kim Mokwon
• Park Jungock

Classifications

• H01M12/08 Primary

  composed of a half-cell of a fuel-cell type and a half-cell of the secondary-cell type · CPC title

• B01D53/0454

  Controlling adsorption (controlling temperature swing adsorption B01D53/0462, controlling pressure swing adsorption B01D53/047) · CPC title

• B01D53/261

  by adsorption · CPC title

• H01M8/04164

  by condensers, gas-liquid separators or filters · CPC title

• H01M8/04141

  by water containing exhaust gases · CPC title