from the batteries-made-of-hopes-and-dreams-in-5-to-10-years dept.
ScienceDaily reports:
Present-day lithium batteries are efficient but involve a range of resource and environmental problems. Using materials from alfalfa (lucerne seed) and pine resin and a clever recycling strategy, Uppsala researchers have now come up with a highly interesting alternative. Their study will be presented soon in the scientific journal ChemSusChem.
Although present-day batteries contain non-renewable inorganic materials, this is not the first time batteries composed of renewable materials have been presented. But the recycling and recovery strategy is a wholly new concept. Constructing a new battery from a spent one is also feasible. In other words, a straightforward process enables it to be reused.
The scientists have shown that the lithium extracted from a spent battery can be used for a new battery: all that needs to be added is more biomaterial. Their battery proved capable of delivering as much as 99% of the energy output from the first. With future modifications, this figure can very probably become even higher, say the researchers.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 30 2014, @09:25AM
The plant materials are not renewable either. You cannot just create more carbon atoms (well, in principle you could, through fusion, but we're far away from being technically able to produce carbon through fusion, let alone non-negligible quantities of it). It's just that the carbon atoms (as well as the other relevant atom types like hydrogen, oxygen or nitrogen) are abundant on earth. And that we don't have to do the chemical assembly of the substances containing it ourselves, since the plants already do it for us (and in turn actually recycle atoms from waste, like the carbon we constantly emit with our breathing as part of carbon dioxide).
So the plant materials are exactly as renewable as the inorganic substances are; it's just that for lithium we have to do the recycling ourselves, while for carbon in plant-origin substances, the plants do it for us.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 30 2014, @04:33PM
The scientists have shown that the lithium extracted from a spent battery can be used for a new battery
That's how it works with almost all current rechargeable batteries too. 90+% of all lead in lead-acid batteries is from the old batteries. But alas, the summary is a copy straight from article which is copied mostly from the news release which is all PR bullshit and you have to get to the article to get any real information....
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/cssc.201402440/abstract [wiley.com]
Abstract
A simple and straightforward method using non-polluting solvents and a single thermal treatment step at moderate temperature was investigated as an environmentally-friendly process to recycle lithium from organic electrode materials for secondary lithium batteries. This method, highly dependent on the choice of electrolyte, gives up to 99 % of sustained capacity for the recycled materials used in a second life-cycle battery when compared with the original. The best results were obtained using a dimethyl carbonate/lithium bis(trifluoromethane sulfonyl) imide electrolyte that does not decompose in presence of water. The process implies a thermal decomposition step at a moderate temperature of the extracted organic material into lithium carbonate, which is then used as a lithiation agent for the preparation of fresh electrode material without loss of lithium.
Sadly, article is not available to non-academics, but you can see what they are talking about it from the Abstract. It's a method for more efficient recycling of lithium batteries via usage of organic electrodes. It seems that it is not straightforward to replace the electrodes of regular batteries (I don't know what is the typical process) This apparently addresses the issue.
What do "pine resin" and "magic seeds" have to do with it, not quite sure. I think if you can replace electrodes easily it does not matter what materials you are using anyway. Maybe this is nothing but PR stunt or for the purpose of creating "green batteries" for the "green crowd"