Australian engineers working on alternative carbon-neutral battery
Ground-breaking research is being conducted by Australian scientists in the area of sustainable battery manufacturing, with the hope to reduce the need for metals mined from the ground.
While the automotive industry is pushing towards a future of electric vehicles with no tailpipe emissions, some opponents claim the process of mining the materials needed for their batteries cancels out any benefit.
Researchers at Melbourne’s RMIT University are now working on a new type of battery they claim doesn’t require the need for rare earth minerals, such as those found in common lithium-ion batteries.
Named the ‘proton battery’, it uses a carbon electrode to store hydrogen – essentially working as a rechargeable hydrogen fuel cell to store and discharge electricity.
The team at RMIT is working with Italian automotive supplier Eldor Corporation, which produces electric motors and batteries for use in electric vehicles.
“Our battery has an energy-per-unit mass already comparable with commercially-available lithium-ion batteries, while being much safer and better for the planet in terms of taking less resources out of the ground,” said lead researcher Professor John Andrews in a written statement.
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“Our battery is also potentially capable of very fast charging.”
With funding from the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) and the Victorian Government, results and analysis of the work conducted by the team has already been published in an international peer-reviewed science journal.
“The main resource used in our proton battery is carbon, which is abundant, available in all countries and cheap compared to the resources needed for other types of rechargeable battery such as lithium, cobalt and vanadium.”
Prof Andrews says the team hopes to scale up the battery, from a watt to a kilowatt, and ultimately to a megawatt.
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