A sustainable and organic energy storage has been developed by researchers at the Laboratory of Organic Electronics at Linköping University. The new technology will have such a large capacity that it can balance effects in the grid and thus increase the distribution to better meet electricity consumption.
The new technology is presented as safe, cheap and sustainable, and was recently praised at the Climate Summit in Glasgow earlier this month.
"Our results open the way for safe, environmentally sustainable organic energy storage with a high power content, 5 kW/kg, where the electrodes are made of wood materials in printing presses. However, we need to improve energy density, right now our organic batteries are better than regular supercapacitors, much like lead-acid batteries, but worse than Li-ion," Xavier Crispin, professor at Linköping University and one of the people behind the technology, told a press release from the university.
Two breakthroughs are at the root of
The energy storage method has been scientifically published and, according to the press release, is mainly due to two breakthroughs in the area: electrolytes in wood materials made on rolls, as well as a new water-based electrolyte. The technology is based on water-based electrolytes and carbon-based electrodes, which is a combination that previously meant that the system often discharged in less than 24 hours. The researchers' development of a polyelectrolyte counteracts the negative effect.
"The voltage drop, i.e. the self-discharge, is less than 0.5 V in 100 hours, which is the world record for energy storage with organic electrodes in water-based electrolyte," crispin said.
The technology is considered cheap to manufacture as it consists partly of an easily accessible by-product of the pulp industry. The research is mostly funded by the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation and through the Swedish government's strategic investment in Advanced Functional Materials, AFM, at Linköping University.
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