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Technology Stocks : VALENCE TECHNOLOGY (VLNC) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: jim heger who wrote (24921)	9/21/2001 4:53:54 PM
From: rli123	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 27311

This is an article from the Cleveland Plain Dealer: cleveland.com Cheaper phone battery also greener 09/20/01 Winn L. Rosch Special to The Plain Dealer Like most other people, you probably consider yourself safety conscious and environmentally aware. You would never wittingly tote around toxic waste, let alone shove it into your ear. But if you have a cell phone, you'll probably do both sometime today. The hazardous materials aren't in the phone itself but mixed in the stew of chemicals that make up its batteries. Most cell phones use lithium-ion batteries. Lithium has a relatively clean bill of health. It's even the basis of a drug used in treating mental illness. But standard lithium-ion batteries depend on another chemical element to carry out their reactions, cobalt, a known carcinogen. Although the cobalt is sealed safely inside the battery, toss out a dead cell-phone battery, and you're adding hazardous waste to some landfill. Worse, conventional lithium-ion batteries can be volatile. Without elaborate protection circuitry, overcharging a lithium-ion battery can lead to overheating, fire and explosion. And today's lithium-ion batteries are costly, about twice as expensive as nickel-metal hydride cells of the same size. Our society - or at least the engineers who've designed it - tolerate, even venerate, lithium-ion batteries because they are the best we've got. No other technology stores energy more efficiently and effectively. Ounce for ounce, lithium-ion cells store twice the energy of older cell types, nickel-cadmium or nickel-metal hydride. Batteries are unlike the other cell phone health concern, radiation, which some folks fear may fry, scramble or poach their brains. Your cell phone can't work without radiation, but the cobalt can be removed. At least one company is doing something about it. Valence Technology in Henderson, Nev., has found an economical way to substitute phosphates for cobalt in lithium batteries. No cobalt means fewer toxic elements and less chance of pollution from spent cells. "Phosphate is dirt. It's found in nature," said Stephan Godevais, president and chief executive of Valence. "Because of those characteristics, it is the most environmentally friendly battery chemistry out there." The choice of phosphates also eliminates the chance of fire and explosion. "The material we use is a free-radical scavenger," Godevais said. "You can use it to stop a fire." Valence cells, moreover, not only act like dirt, they're as cheap as dirt. Lithium cells made with phosphates not only store nearly as much energy as cobalt-based cells, but also cost about the same as nickel-metal hydride cells, Godevais said. "Bottom line, we came up with technology that delivers close to cobalt performance but at a cost 30 to 40 percent lower and with safety and environmental characteristics not found today," Godevais said. Valence already has made prototype cells that prove the concept. The company expects full production early next year. The world is not standing still, and other battery developments are promised soon. The most intriguing is the fuel cell, which consumes fuel such as alcohol to directly generate electricity. Although many companies have said commercial fuel cells for small electronic devices will be available within a few months, none has entered production. Godevais is skeptical that small fuel cells will prove to be an economical alternative soon, although they have long-term potential. "The real question is when fuel cells will come," he said. "Phosphates will be a bridge from what we have today to what fuel cells can deliver."