I have finally been able to establish my golf handicap index. According to the Southern California Golf Association (SCGA) and the United States Golf Association (USGA), I have a 12.2 index. This is a small milestone for me since I haven’t had an official golf handicap since I was a teenager, which was decades ago.
Back then I played with woods that were actually made out of wood and irons that were some kind of forged steel. Since then, golf equipment has improved considerably. There are now oversized metal woods that have adjustable weighting systems and launch angles. Irons are made of a concoction of composite metals. Golf balls are just as advanced. They all work significantly better than antiquated clubs and balls. Modern equipment most definitely helped me to improve my game.
In May of 2017, Volvo Construction Equipment unveiled a prototype all-electric excavator, the EX2. It ran on lithium-ion batteries.
Lithium-ion batteries might be in danger of becoming the old wood golf clubs that were made out of wood and making the way for a better alternative.
Cnet.com is reporting that the Honda Research Institute, scientists from the California Institute of Technology (Cal Tech), and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab have been developing the chemistry for a new kind of battery that would have more energy and be more environmentally friendly than lithium-ion technology.
“Lithium-ion batteries also have a few significant downsides, namely the damage to the environment that occurs when lithium and cobalt are mined and the cells’ propensity for catching on fire and being very difficult to extinguish once they do. The fluoride-based battery chemistry being developed by Honda, NASA, and CalTech would alleviate many of these issues.
One of the most exciting benefits of fluoride chemistry is its potential to be much more energy dense than lithium. This would mean that an electric car equipped with this new battery technology could go further on a pack of the same physical size or the same distance with a physically much smaller battery pack.
Fluoride-ion battery technology isn’t entirely new, but previous versions of it required its solid-state electrolyte to be heated to as much as 300 degrees Fahrenheit to function properly. The advances from Honda, JPL, and Cal Tech are the creation of a room-temperature liquid fluoride electrolyte (aka a tetraalkylammonium salt–fluorinated ether combination) and copper–lanthanum trifluoride core-shell cathode (also a new development) that work together to make a function cell. Teamwork, as they say, makes the dream work.”
You most likely won’t be seeing fluoride-ion batteries being mass produced and out on the road or construction site anytime soon. But give it time and it may eventually trounce lithium-ion on the golf course and become the dominant technology used by pros and amateurs alike.
