#lithium battery

[reasonsforhope]

Green energy is in its heyday. 

Renewable energy sources now account for 22% of the nation’s electricity, and solar has skyrocketed eight times over in the last decade. This spring in California, wind, water, and solar power energy sources exceeded expectations, accounting for an average of 61.5 percent of the state's electricity demand across 52 days. 

But green energy has a lithium problem. Lithium batteries control more than 90% of the global grid battery storage market. 

That’s not just cell phones, laptops, electric toothbrushes, and tools. Scooters, e-bikes, hybrids, and electric vehicles all rely on rechargeable lithium batteries to get going. 

Fortunately, this past week, Natron Energy launched its first-ever commercial-scale production of sodium-ion batteries in the U.S. 

“Sodium-ion batteries offer a unique alternative to lithium-ion, with higher power, faster recharge, longer lifecycle and a completely safe and stable chemistry,” said Colin Wessells — Natron Founder and Co-CEO — at the kick-off event in Michigan. 

The new sodium-ion batteries charge and discharge at rates 10 times faster than lithium-ion, with an estimated lifespan of 50,000 cycles.

Wessells said that using sodium as a primary mineral alternative eliminates industry-wide issues of worker negligence, geopolitical disruption, and the “questionable environmental impacts” inextricably linked to lithium mining. 

“The electrification of our economy is dependent on the development and production of new, innovative energy storage solutions,” Wessells said. 

Why are sodium batteries a better alternative to lithium?

The birth and death cycle of lithium is shadowed in environmental destruction. The process of extracting lithium pollutes the water, air, and soil, and when it’s eventually discarded, the flammable batteries are prone to bursting into flames and burning out in landfills. 

There’s also a human cost. Lithium-ion materials like cobalt and nickel are not only harder to source and procure, but their supply chains are also overwhelmingly attributed to hazardous working conditions and child labor law violations. 

Sodium, on the other hand, is estimated to be 1,000 times more abundant in the earth’s crust than lithium. 

“Unlike lithium, sodium can be produced from an abundant material: salt,” engineer Casey Crownhart wrote ​​in the MIT Technology Review. “Because the raw ingredients are cheap and widely available, there’s potential for sodium-ion batteries to be significantly less expensive than their lithium-ion counterparts if more companies start making more of them.”

What will these batteries be used for?

Right now, Natron has its focus set on AI models and data storage centers, which consume hefty amounts of energy. In 2023, the MIT Technology Review reported that one AI model can emit more than 626,00 pounds of carbon dioxide equivalent. 

“We expect our battery solutions will be used to power the explosive growth in data centers used for Artificial Intelligence,” said Wendell Brooks, co-CEO of Natron. 

“With the start of commercial-scale production here in Michigan, we are well-positioned to capitalize on the growing demand for efficient, safe, and reliable battery energy storage.”

The fast-charging energy alternative also has limitless potential on a consumer level, and Natron is eying telecommunications and EV fast-charging once it begins servicing AI data storage centers in June. 

On a larger scale, sodium-ion batteries could radically change the manufacturing and production sectors — from housing energy to lower electricity costs in warehouses, to charging backup stations and powering electric vehicles, trucks, forklifts, and so on. 

“I founded Natron because we saw climate change as the defining problem of our time,” Wessells said. “We believe batteries have a role to play.”

-via GoodGoodGood, May 3, 2024

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Note: I wanted to make sure this was legit (scientifically and in general), and I'm happy to report that it really is! x, x, x, x

[reality-detective]

Officials are sounding the alarm about the grave dangers posed by the lithium-ion batteries found in electric vehicles.

Is it any surprise that ferry companies and underground car parks are banning EVs, insurance companies are refusing to insure them, and EV owners are struggling to sell them on the second-hand market?

How long until they are banned outright? 🤔

[wachinyeya]

When Nihal Tammana was just 10 years old, he heard a news report about a lithium-ion battery exploding at a waste disposal plant—and when he learned about the environmental risks of batteries being left in landfills, he decided to do something.

Tammana started the nonprofit, Recycle My Battery, and now, at 15 years old, he has already recycled over 625,000 batteries—and placed over 1,000 battery bins in schools, libraries, and businesses to make recycling easier.

Anyone can now visit RecycleMyBattery.org for instructions on how to make their schools and businesses battery recycling heroes.

The teen from Monroe, New Jersey, has expanded his impact beyond the United States, too. Tammana’s story and mission were recently featured in a German educational textbook, integrating battery recycling advocacy into school curriculums.

He is also teaming up with B-cycle, Australia’s largest battery recycling company, so the country can adopt his initiative to place battery bins in schools nationwide.

Lately, Nihal is working on a Residual Charge Project, developing a prototype (that was confirmed by a University of Waterloo expert) to extract leftover energy from used batteries that could power the battery recycling plants.

Engaging its 1,000 youth volunteers globally, Recycle My Battery is educating the public about the destructive effects of throwing batteries in with your trash. The nonprofit researched the effects of a normal alkaline battery, such as Duracell, on soil quality. The degrading battery dramatically increased salt levels, rendering the soil toxic, with an alarming pH of 13.01—far beyond the range suitable for any vegetation.

With its goal of recycling 1 million batteries by the end of the year through initiatives like The Battery Challenge, which gamifies school participation, Tammana invites communities and organizations to join the effort. From setting up battery bins to spreading awareness, every action contributes to a cleaner, healthier planet.

“If I can make the Earth a better place to live, you can…. If you can, we all can,” said Tammana.

[flock-of-cassowaries]

Goddamit, Daniel. Your daughter told you about that battery recall. She told you 18 months ago.

[feddy-34]

PSA ABOUT ELECTRIC VEHICLES

IF YOU OWN AN ELECTRIC VEHICLE AND ARE IN THE PATH OF AN ONCOMING HURRICANE AND CANNOT EVACUATE

DO NOT PARK YOUR CAR IN YOUR HOUSE

heavy hurricanes like helene and milton will bring floods of saltwater with them. saltwater is corrosive towards the lithium ion batteries found in ALL ELECTRIC VEHICLES and can cause the batteries to short-circuit, fail, or even explode. lithium ion fires take THOUSANDS more gallons of water to put out than normal electrical fires. they can and will burn houses down even during hurricanes.

PARK YOUR ELECTRIC VEHICLES ON THE STREET.

[solarpunks]

Indonesia’s e-bike shops are building their own batteries

Dharmawan Kusna Handoyo spends his workday in a 2-by-3-meter cubicle, soldering batteries. He has been building DIY battery packs since 2009, when he installed one in his own electric bike — but in the past few years, it has become his main source of income. He sells the packs for hundreds of dollars apiece, luring back customers with the promise of a longer-range battery capacity. 

[arctic-hands]

Gosh darn it. I saw a post recommended to me by r/spicypillows (I didn't follow until a few minutes ago but was already familiar with the concept here on tumblr about spicy pillows–i.e lithium batteries that bulge with dangerous and flammable chemicals due to age or damage or defect) talking about how the original Nintendo DS's batteries are starting to become spicy from age so I had @thetabirb check ALL her DS's. Sure enough, the OG DS and DSi XL were ever so slightly starting to bulge, so we'll have to deal with that at some point. It's not to the point of danger yet as far as we can tell, I think we can safely take to a repair place and have them deal with disposal because it's not going to explode in the near future (I hope)

Anyway, here's a PSA to check your DS batteries as they start to age

[covenawhite66]

Lithium Sulfur batteries replacing lithium ion batteries. By using sulfur-rich pyrite.

[optimabatteries]

OPTIMA’s new lithium car battery was designed & engineered from the ground up, just for OPTIMA customers, with performance and features you won’t find in any other lithium battery on the market.

[quartz-components]

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[reasonsforhope]

"A 1-megawatt sand battery that can store up to 100 megawatt hours of thermal energy will be 10 times larger than a prototype already in use.

The new sand battery will eliminate the need for oil-based energy consumption for the entire town of town of Pornainen, Finland.

Sand gets charged with clean electricity and stored for use within a local grid.

Finland is doing sand batteries big. Polar Night Energy already showed off an early commercialized version of a sand battery in Kankaanpää in 2022, but a new sand battery 10 times that size is about to fully rid the town of Pornainen, Finland of its need for oil-based energy.

In cooperation with the local Finnish district heating company Loviisan Lämpö, Polar Night Energy will develop a 1-megawatt sand battery capable of storing up to 100 megawatt hours of thermal energy.

“With the sand battery,” Mikko Paajanen, CEO of Loviisan Lämpö, said in a statement, “we can significantly reduce energy produced by combustion and completely eliminate the use of oil.”

Polar Night Energy introduced the first commercial sand battery in 2022, with local energy utility Vatajankoski. “Its main purpose is to work as a high-power and high-capacity reservoir for excess wind and solar energy,” Markku Ylönen, Polar Nigh Energy’s co-founder and CTO, said in a statement at the time. “The energy is stored as heat, which can be used to heat homes, or to provide hot steam and high temperature process heat to industries that are often fossil-fuel dependent.” ...

Sand—a high-density, low-cost material that the construction industry discards [Note: 6/13/24: Turns out that's not true! See note at the bottom for more info.] —is a solid material that can heat to well above the boiling point of water and can store several times the amount of energy of a water tank. While sand doesn’t store electricity, it stores energy in the form of heat. To mine the heat, cool air blows through pipes, heating up as it passes through the unit. It can then be used to convert water into steam or heat water in an air-to-water heat exchanger. The heat can also be converted back to electricity, albeit with electricity losses, through the use of a turbine.

In Pornainen, Paajanen believes that—just by switching to a sand battery—the town can achieve a nearly 70 percent reduction in emissions from the district heating network and keep about 160 tons of carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere annually. In addition to eliminating the usage of oil, they expect to decrease woodchip combustion by about 60 percent.

The sand battery will arrive ready for use, about 42 feet tall and 49 feet wide. The new project’s thermal storage medium is largely comprised of soapstone, a byproduct of Tulikivi’s production of heat-retaining fireplaces. It should take about 13 months to get the new project online, but once it’s up and running, the Pornainen battery will provide thermal energy storage capacity capable of meeting almost one month of summer heat demand and one week of winter heat demand without recharging.

“We want to enable the growth of renewable energy,” Paajanen said. “The sand battery is designed to participate in all Fingrid’s reserve and balancing power markets. It helps to keep the electricity grid balanced as the share of wind and solar energy in the grid increases.”"

-via Popular Mechanics, March 13, 2024

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Note: I've been keeping an eye on sand batteries for a while, and this is really exciting to see. We need alternatives to lithium batteries ASAP, due to the grave human rights abuses and environmental damage caused by lithium mining, and sand batteries look like a really good solution for grid-scale energy storage.

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Note 6/13/24: Unfortunately, turns out there are substantial issues with sand batteries as well, due to sand scarcity. More details from a lovely asker here, sources on sand scarcity being a thing at the links: x, x, x, x, x

[reality-detective]

Green energy for sustainability purposes? 🤔

[olelonenergy]

Olelon Energy: LiFePO4 battery manufacturer specializing in 51.2V/ 48V solutions for golf carts and low-speed vehicles, features proprietary BMS and Bluetooth App for enhanced performance and monitoring. https://www.olelonenergy.com

[febatt]

3.2V 280Ah lifepo4 Industrial and commercial energy storage lithium battery EVE brand 8000 cycles long time service life container energy storage, roof energy storage, industrial park energy storage, large-scale energy storage battery excellent performance