If you go to your local home improvement store, the buzz-word in batteries is lithium-ion. As most of us are finding out, these are a lot better than the old alkaline or cadmium rechargeable batteries. But of course, the product cycles of modern technology are doing their thing, and a successor to lithium-ion is already coming to market…

Zinc-air batteries have been available for some time, but not as rechargeables. The difficulties in producing rechargeable zinc-air batteries were overcome by a technology developed in Norway. Now…

A Swiss company says it has developed rechargeable zinc-air batteries that can store three times the energy of lithium ion batteries, by volume, while costing only half as much. ReVolt, of Staefa, Switzerland, plans to sell small “button cell” batteries for hearing aids starting next year and to incorporate its technology into ever larger batteries, introducing cell-phone and electric bicycle batteries in the next few years. It is also starting to develop large-format batteries for electric vehicles.
…
Unlike conventional batteries, which contain all the reactants needed to generate electricity, zinc-air batteries rely on oxygen from the atmosphere to generate current. In the late 1980s they were considered one of the most promising battery technologies because of their high theoretical energy-storage capacity, says Gary Henriksen, manager of the electrochemical energy storage department at Argonne National Laboratory in Illinois. The battery chemistry is also relatively safe because it doesn’t require volatile materials, so zinc-air batteries are not prone to catching fire like lithium-ion batteries.

[Source: Technology Review]

Of course, production of a commercial product is only a piece of the larger technology cycle. The product has to be competitive in price, capability, and reliability. It has to find marketing and distribution channels. After all, it’s taken more than a decade for lithium-ion to reach its buzz-word status.