Refuel An Electric Car In Minutes, Not Hours

Researchers at MIT have come up with an idea to run batteries that on a rechargeable liquid called "Cambridge Crude."

The technology would allow drivers of electric cars to simple swap discharged liquid fuel with charged liquid fuel literally in minutes.

According to the MIT, the batteries are powered by semi-flow cells, which uses charged particles that are floating in a liquid electrolyte between two containers--one for storing energy and one for discharging energy. This separation apparently results in a 10-fold improvement of energy density, which could provide much greater ranges for electric cars or cheaper and much smaller units. Because of this high energy density, the system does not need to rapidly to deliver its power. “It kind of oozes,” said Yet-Ming Chiang, a professor at MIT.

There is a good chance that we will be seeing this technology in the real world soon. MIT professors Chian and Craig Carter have founded 24M, a company that licenses the technology from MIT. 24M has received $16 million in funding to bring Cambridge Crude to market. Reduced=-scale prototypes for electric cars are expected to be available before 2014.