Battery technology may be next stranded assets in green revolution

Even the lithium-ion cells used in most electric cars and mobile phones have varying manufacturing processes.

Some of the latest battery technologies may become obsolete before reaching the market because of the breakneck pace of advances in the industry.

Teams of scientists from San Francisco to Shenzhen are experimenting with new chemical processes to improve the traditional lithium-ion cell and find new ways to bottle up electricity for use at another time. Investors in those projects are starting to worry that they might have picked the wrong technology.