Scientists have discovered an alternative, in the form of 140-year-old technology, to the costly and environmentally harmful lithium-ion batteries used in everything from smartphones to electric cars.
Iron-air batteries, invented in 1878, have a much higher energy density for a fraction of the same cost compared to lithium-ion batteries. However, until now they were unusable for filling due to corrosion.
Now a team from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is working to allow the new design to store and discharge energy. “reverse rustingHe suggests making minor changes in the process known as ‘.
Yet-Ming Chiang, professor of electrochemistry at MIT, told Popular Science, “Iron-air batteries could be grown commercially as energy stores and could benefit climate change mitigation by mid-century.” said.
When the electric current in the battery is reversed, it removes the rust of the battery. Depending on the discharge or filling of the battery, electrons move away from or add to the iron.
This method allows an iron-air battery to provide 100 hours of clean electricity at a cost of $20 kilowatt-hours, compared to the $200 per kilowatt-hour cost of lithium-ion batteries.
Iron-air batteries are one of three types of metal-air batteries that use aluminum and zinc as well as atmospheric oxygen as the cathode and abundant metal as the anode.
Although these batteries were used commercially over the last century, for example in hearing aids in the 1930s and NASA’s space systems in the 1960s, they have proven largely useless.
It may be too late for the groundbreaking invention to be widely adopted in consumer electronics and electric vehicles. But Professor Chiang believes their invention could revolutionize energy storage for large-scale renewable processes.
Founding an initiative called Form Energy for the further development and commercialization of the technology, Professor hopes to rapidly advance zero-carbon energy solutions.
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