South Korea wants to compete with Japan in developing lithium battery submarines, the battery is actually made by Samsung

According to recent international news reports, South Korea has successfully developed a lithium battery for submarines. This lithium battery can double the submarine’s underwater endurance and will replace ordinary lead-acid batteries. The main source of power for conventionally powered submarines.

Not long ago, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries of Japan received an order from the Ministry of Defense of Japan, the 'Huanglong' submarine, which was launched at the Kobe Shipyard. 'Huanglong' is the first submarine equipped with lithium-ion batteries. Due to the increased storage capacity, it can quietly dive for a longer period of time without using the engine.

The submarines in Japan and South Korea are powered by lithium batteries. So, what are the advantages of lithium batteries that have caused countries to follow suit? Today, let’s take a look.

In fact, lithium batteries are everywhere in our lives. The energy sources of mobile phones, computers, and electronic products we use every day are all lithium batteries. Not only that, lithium batteries are also used in our daily transportation. The electric buses we travel every day. Most of their main sources of power are lithium batteries, as well as the speeding Tesla on the road. It is also a typical car powered by a lithium battery.

Since lithium batteries are closely related to our lives, what are the advantages of lithium batteries compared with ordinary lead-acid batteries. In fact, the obvious and intuitive point is that lithium batteries are small in size and light in weight. They are only 1/4 the weight of lead-acid batteries. And it can be loaded very well. Under the same weight, the storage capacity of lithium batteries is about 5 times that of lead-acid batteries.

Another important point is that the life of a lithium battery is much longer than that of a lead-acid battery, and it has no memory effect, which means that it can be charged at any time. There is no need to charge the battery when the battery is low, like the old lead-acid battery.

According to this, it is imperative that lithium batteries replace the old lead-acid batteries on submarines. Indeed, countries are constantly making efforts in this regard. In fact, except for some nuclear-powered submarines, traditional conventionally powered submarines use generators to generate electricity, store the electrical energy in batteries, and then use electric motors for propulsion. Because the electric motor will be quieter, and a very important point for the submarine is to reduce the noise production and sail quietly under the sea.

Of course, not only the quietest submarines are driven in this way, some extended-range electric vehicles are also operated in this way. There are also some heavy mechanical engineering vehicles, such as some giant mine carts working in open-pit mines. These large mine trucks can carry more than 400 tons of cargo at a time. Coupled with their huge self-weight and the rugged working surface, these are destined to run fast, so naturally there is no need to consider their later acceleration ability. Therefore, they also use diesel generators to generate electricity, and the excellent characteristics of the motor can instantly burst the highest torque to drive the motor to drive the vehicle forward.

The lithium battery developed by Samsung SDI this time is to be assembled on the second batch of KSS-III submarines in South Korea. Yes, you heard that right, it was the Samsung SDI company where the mobile phone battery explosion occurred. The battery explosion that time was a huge disaster for Samsung, which seriously affected the sales of Samsung mobile phones in the world. Now that the lithium batteries are so boldly installed on military facilities such as submarines, it can be seen that the Koreans are still right. I am more confident.

However, the most ideal submarine is pure electric drive, without the slightest noise, and does not need to float frequently for charging. Compared with the traditional generator + battery combination, fuel cell is a more competitive power source. The advantage of the fuel cell is that the energy conversion efficiency is very high. The chemical energy is directly converted into electrical energy through electrochemical methods, which eliminates the complicated conversion energy conversion process during the operation of the generator, and its direct energy conversion rate can reach about 70-80%. , Reducing energy consumption, and it does not require the participation of mechanical systems, so it will be more quiet.

However, the use of fuel cells to generate electricity still has certain restrictions. Because it requires a large amount of hydrogen as a raw material, the storage and transportation of hydrogen is very complicated and expensive. Not only that, it also needs precious metals as catalysts. These higher costs have become an obstacle to the development of fuel cell submarines.

Since the cost of fuel cells is too high, is there any way to increase the energy density of lithium batteries, increase the endurance of lithium batteries, and charge faster, reducing submarines? Time to float. The answer is: yes. This is the graphene battery that has been vigorously developed at home and abroad recently.

Graphene is a new type of nanomaterial with the thinnest, strongest, and strongest electrical and thermal conductivity found so far. Although the use of graphene in batteries can improve battery performance, there are still major technical difficulties that need to be broken through, and graphene is also expensive, like fuel cells. Therefore, graphene battery technology still has a long way to go. Go, our scientists have to keep working hard.

Actually, having said so much, we will eventually find that technological progress and technological innovation are always inseparable from the knowledge we have learned. Whether it is military or life, it is mutually beneficial and integrated in many aspects. We need to work harder to learn scientific and cultural knowledge, and make our own efforts for the development of science and technology and the advancement of manpower.