A new blueprint for affordable, sustainable ‘flow batteries’ developed at Berkeley Lab for renewable energy could accelerate an electrical grid powered by the sun and wind. How do you store renewable energy so it’s there when you need it, even when the sun isn’t shining or the wind isn’t blowing? Giant batteries designed for the…
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High-energy-density polymeric cathode for fast-charge sodium- and multivalent-ion batteries. Next-generation batteries will probably see the replacement of lithium ions by more abundant and environmentally benign alkali metal or multivalent ions. A major challenge, however, is the development of stable electrodes that combine high energy densities with fast charge and discharge rates. In the journal Angewandte…
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BMW has opened its new Battery Cell Competence Centre in Munich-Milbertshofen. The centre will develop new battery cells, manufacture them on a prototype scale and test them. The Munich-based company is still not planning for in-house series production. The new building is about 12,000 square meters with about one third reserved for office space, the…
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Scientists have designed an affordable ‘flow battery’ membrane that could accelerate renewable energy for the electrical grid. How do you store renewable energy so it’s there when you need it, even when the sun isn’t shining or the wind isn’t blowing? Giant batteries designed for the electrical grid — called flow batteries, which store electricity…
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While solar and wind power are rapidly becoming cost-competitive with fossil fuels in areas with lots of sun and wind, they still can’t provide the 24/7 power we’ve become used to. At present, that’s not big a problem because the grid still features plenty of fossil fuel plants that can provide constant baseload or ramp…
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German metal foil specialist SCHLENK has developed a line of thin-rolled metal foils based on high-tensile alloys. Used as a current collector foil in batteries, these foils are designed to improve the stability of battery coatings. Companies have invested a lot of R&D effort in the field of high-power electrode coatings based on silicon or…
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As car manufacturers ramp up production of electric cars, metals used to make the vehicles’ batteries may face a supply crunch by the mid-2020s, according to a Wood Mackenzie report released Wednesday. Lithium, cobalt, and nickel supplies are expected to be worst hit. As car manufacturers ramp up production of electric cars, the metals used…
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The European Battery Alliance met in Brussels to discuss issues like sustainable production and processing of raw materials. The European Battery Alliance met in Brussels recently to discuss such issues as sustainable production and the processing of raw materials, ways of financing new investments and the creation of new policies to push forward projects in…
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Researchers in Sweden have used a graphene aerogel to develop lithium sulphur (Li-S) battery that retained 85 per cent capacity after 350 cycles. The highly porous quality of the graphene aerogel allows for high enough soaking of sulphur to make the catholyte concept worthwhile (Credit: Yen Strandqvist) Developed at the Chalmers University of Technology in…
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Rice scientists show solvent leaches cobalt, lithium for reuse from spent batteries Materials scientists demonstrate an environmentally friendly solution to remove valuable cobalt and lithium metals from spent lithium-ion batteries. The metals and the eutectic solvent they use to extract them can then be recycled. A solution turns green as it pulls cobalt from a…
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