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But, in the next decade or so, you might find yourself recharging from a grid supported by Blue Batteries. Lithium batteries currently offer the most practical solution to storing energy and are set to remain an integral part of powering a new generation of electric cars.
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During the second discharging phase, the process is reversed and these two waters are combined, releasing the collected energy – which is then converted back into electric current with the help of special membrane stacks. Passing an electic current through salt water splits it into concentrated saline and freshwater – a process known as electrodialysis – storing the energy at the same time.
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The Blue Battery stores power in – you guessed it – water, and could be used to stockpile all the eco-electricity the Netherlands produces, in a 100 per cent sustainable way. Could we store clean electricity in an equally clean battery?Ī battery that’s both practical and environmentally friendly to produce might seem like the Holy Grail, but in Delft, Holland, a group of innovators at AquaBattery believe they’ve found it. Think how annoying it is when your phone battery plummets, then imagine the same thing happening when you’re in the car miles from a charging station. Supercapacitors – even graphene ones – can’t yet hold a charge for long. However, there is a very big ‘but’ to all this. Although it’s still early days, the graphene battery market is predicted to reach $115 million by 2022, with Chinese and Spanish companies using supercapacitors to power everything from laptops to electric motorcycles. The addition of ‘wonder material’ graphene creates supercapacitors that are strong and light. Instead of holding electricity as chemical potential – like alkaline or lithium batteries – supercapacitors store it in an electric field, similar to the way static collects on the surface of a balloon. Despite sounding like they belong on a spacecraft, these may help solve the earth’s energy dilemma. While lithium production is being perfected, experts are championing alternatives, like graphene supercapacitors. Though not yet ready to be commercialized, Hoshino says his osmosis technique “shows good energy efficiency and is easily scalable.” Are graphene supercapacitors actually super? The system uses a special membrane which only the lithium ion can pass through. Tsuyoshi Hoshino of Japan Atomic Engery Agency’s Rokkasho Fusion Institute recently proposed another idea – a method for recovering lithium from seawater using dialysis – in the journal, Desalination. There’s also scope to increase the energy density from these batteries – therefore decreasing their size, and how much lithium is actually required – while also reducing the use of rare and expensive components like cobalt. With this in mind, recycling of decommissioned batteries has become a major focus for Audi. For instance, valuable elements can be extracted and reused in new products at the end of a battery’s lifecycle in some cases it’s possible that entire lithium batteries can be repurposed for a second-use, powering transport and factory vehicles. Although a very simple process, it uses large amounts of water and can be time-consuming – taking between 18 and 24 months.Īudi are among those looking for ways to make the production of lithium batteries speedier and more climate-friendly. This brine is left to evaporate, and the resulting salts are filtered so the lithium carbonate can be extracted.
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The production process for lithium, or more specifically lithium carbonate, involves drilling holes in salt flats and pumping salty, mineral-rich brine to the surface. Even though there’s a whopping 43 million tons (39 million metric tonnes) of the stuff on Earth, only a third of it is in a form that can be mined of that, 87 per cent is found in brine waters, mostly in South America’s so-called ‘Lithium Triangle’. And it’s easy to see why: they’re efficient chargers, easy to dispose of, and have a higher energy density than alkaline batteries.ĭubbed ‘white gold’ by investors, lithium’s demand has seen its price double between 20 as battery makers try to get their hands on this silvery-white alkali metal. Lithium batteries are currently the go-to energy storage solution for makers of electric cars, phones, tablets, and laptops.