Airbus dropping lithium-ion batteries in A350s

October 2012 image from Toulouse, southern France, shows tail of Airbus long-haul A350 XWB (eXtra Wide Body) under construction at Airbus European aircraft maker's final assembly line (FAL) plant. / Getty

NEW YORK Airbus says it is dropping lithium-ion batteries from its new A350 airplane because of uncertainty surrounding the technology that has led to the grounding of Boeing's 787.

The European plane maker said it has decided to revert to conventional nickel-cadmium batteries for the A350. The plane is a wide-body long-range jet rival to the 787 and is expected to make its first flight around the middle of the year.

Airbus says it does not expect the battery switch to lead to a setback in the A350's schedule.

• U.N. moving against batteries like the ones on Boeing 787 Dreamliners: AP
• Second Boeing 787 flight test "uneventful"
• Boeing: 787 Dreamliner deliveries could be delayed

"Airbus considers this to be the most appropriate way forward in the interest of program execution and A350 XWB reliability," spokeswoman Mary Anne Greczyn said.

Federal officials grounded the 787 last month because of problems with its lithium-ion batteries that caused one fire and forced another plane to make an emergency landing.

Airbus noted the A350 uses batteries in a different setup than the 787, making it unlikely that it would face the same problems. Its A350 flight-test program would still go forward with lithium-ion batteries.

But because the causes of the problems with the 787 batteries remain unclear, Airbus decided to make the switch "to optimize program certainty," Greczyn said. Airbus is a unit of Netherlands-based EADS NV.

The Wall Street Journal first reported on Airbus' decision to drop the lithium-ion batteries, noting the incidents with the 787 have led to industry uncertainty about future safety standards for the technology.

[BrianFraser]

There is a possibility that dendrites could be a cause of overheating.

A process for getting rid of dendrites during battery charging was invented over 50 years ago. It is a combination of electropolishing combined with ordinary charging. See http://scripturalphysics.org/qm/adven.html#ChargingWith_AC/DC_waveform
quoted below:

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"Process and apparatus for renewing exhausted primary, more particularly dry, electric cells or batteries," Ernst Beer, June 26, 1956. ( http://www.freepatentsonline.com/2752550.pdf )

Some interest by NASA ( http://pages.ripco.net/~marnow/uk/NASA_Vargo_Start.html ) :
". . . it is well known in the plating field that periodic current reversal methods can plate coatings at a much faster rate than can be done by conventional direct current methods. It is further known that the reverse-current part of the charging cycle will tend to act as a depolarizer. Use of this technique should lead to significantly higher battery-charging rates. Furthermore, a problem with dc chargers is that the electrode material is plated on as a loose, spongy mass which often falls off and ultimately leads to battery failure. The current characteristic of this battery charger is similar to that used in electropolishing circuits and because of this characteristic, electrode material should be replated as a smooth, hard surface (ref. 1), thereby contributing to increased reliability and long life." (Brief Investigation of an Asymmetrical Alternating-Current Battery-Charging Technique by Donald J. Vargo)

From the original patent, http://www.freepatentsonline.com/2752550.pdf :
" . . . a current is passed through the cells or batteries to be treated, consisting partly of alternating current and the remainder of direct or pulsating direct current. For charging or renewing normal commercial cells or batteries, the treating circuit can therefore include a rectifier with a very considerable leak (50-90%) or a rectifier bridged by a resistance. . . . Experiments with dry hearing aid batteries and pocket lamp batteries have shown, that by a treatment according to the invention the life of such batteries can be lengthened to 20 to 30 times the normal life."

The process was originally intended for primary batteries, which were not intended to be recharged. This technology comes from the 1950s and can easily be done today, even by hobbyists (or as a science fair project). Wouldn't you like to have rechargeable batteries that last 20-30 times normal? Do you think that there would be a market for such a charger? Especially for car batteries . . .? For home power plants . . .?
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Charging with an asymmetric waveform might be easier on the batteries, extend their lifetimes, and avoid fires.

[matt6052]

The solution is to fix them and then prevent them from recharging in flight. They only overheat when they're recharging.