Researchers Develop New Sea Salt Battery With 4x Capacity of Lithium Battery

Researchers have developed a new sea salt battery that has four times the capacity of a lithium battery and is more environmentally friendly.

Source: WION/YouTube

The battery is built from sodium sulfur, a molten salt that can be processed from seawater. The battery is not only more eco-friendly than other options, but it is also cheaper.

Lead researcher Dr. Shenlong Zhao from the University of Sydney said that the battery is a breakthrough for renewable energy.

“Our sodium battery has the potential to dramatically reduce costs while providing four times as much storage capacity [as Lithium],” he said.

“This is a significant breakthrough for renewable energy development which, although reduces costs in the long term, has had several financial barriers to entry.”

As we are shifting away from dirty fossil fuels and moving towards a more renewable future, we need to consider the batteries that are needed to store the electricity that is made from things like wind and solar. Unfortunately, most batteries are made from metals like lithium, graphite, and cobalt.

Euro News reported that for the EU to achieve climate neutrality, it will require 18 times more lithium than it currently uses by 2030 and almost 60 times more by 2050. Unfortunately, extracting these earth metals can lead to water shortages, soil degradation, biodiversity loss, and damage to ecosystems depending on the method used.

Although salt batteries are nothing new, this new battery has altered electrodes that improve the reactivity of the sulfur, which is what gives it such a high capacity.

“Storage solutions that are manufactured using plentiful resources like sodium – which can be processed from sea water – also have the potential to guarantee greater energy security more broadly and allow more countries to join the shift towards decarbonisation.”

Now, the researchers will be working to improve and eventually bring the new batteries to the market.

Projects worldwide are developing new ways to utilize solar panels and wind to move away from dirty fossil fuels. Architecture students in Barcelona just built a solar-powered greenhouse that uses 50 percent less energy than it produces. Virginia is transforming abandoned coal mines into solar farms, and a start-up is helping retrofit old buildings in Brooklyn to use clean energy. The latest climate report from the IPCC is a final warning for governments around the world about Global warming, so it’s great to see companies taking the initiative and working towards a renewable future!

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