A new battery design unveiled by Massachusetts Institute of Technology could make electric vehicles a far more realistic proposition than the current offerings. It appears to represent a very significant advance in battery architecture with applications both for electric vehicles and grid storage.

It adopts a radically new approach to battery design, providing a lightweight and supposedly inexpensive alternative to existing batteries. The technology could make “refueling” such batteries as quick and easy as refuelling with petrol or diesel.

According to the press realease, the new battery relies on an innovative architecture called a semi-solid flow cell, in which solid particles are suspended in a carrier liquid and pumped through the system. In this design, the battery’s active components — the positive and negative electrodes, or cathodes and anodes — are composed of particles suspended in a liquid electrolyte. These two different suspensions are pumped through systems separated by a filter, such as a thin porous membrane.

One important characteristic of the new design is that it separates the two functions of the battery — storing energy until it is needed, and discharging that energy when it needs to be used — into separate physical structures. (In conventional batteries, the storage and discharge both take place in the same structure.) Separating these functions means it's possible to halve the size and the cost of a complete battery system, including all of its structural support and connectors. That dramatic reduction could be the key to making electric vehicles fully competitive with conventional vehicles.

Another potential advantage is that in vehicle applications, such a system would permit the possibility of simply “refueling” the battery by pumping out the liquid slurry and pumping in a fresh, fully charged replacement, or by swapping out the tanks like tires at a pit stop, while still preserving the option of simply recharging the existing material when time permits.

It's one of the most exciting technological developments I've heard about in a long time. And since the power would be 'pumped in' like traditional fuels, it could fit into the transport infrastructure very neatly. Congratulations to MIT!