Eco-friendly and affordable battery for low-income countries
A battery made from zinc and lignin that can be used over 8000 times. This has been developed by researchers at Linköping University with a vision to provide a cheap and sustainable battery solution for countries where access to electricity is limited
Solar panels have become relatively inexpensive, and many people in low-income countries have adopted them. However, near the equator, the sun sets at around 6 PM, leaving households and businesses without electricity. The hope is that this battery technology, even with lower performance than the expensive Li-ion batteries, will eventually offer a solution for these situations,” says Reverant Crispin, professor of organic electronics at Linköping University.
His research group at the Laboratory of Organic Electronics, together with researchers at Karlstad University and Chalmers, has developed a battery that is based on zinc and lignin, two cost-effective and environmentally friendly materials. In terms of energy density, it is comparable to lead-acid batteries but without the lead, which is toxic.
The battery is stable, as it can be used over 8000 cycles while maintaining about 80% of its performance. Additionally, the battery retains its charge for approximately one week, significantly longer than other similar zinc-based batteries that discharge in just a few hours.
Although zinc-based batteries are already on the market, primarily as non-rechargeable batteries, they are predicted to complement and, in some cases, replace lithium-ion batteries in the long run when the feature of rechargeability is properly introduced.
“While lithium-ion batteries are useful when handled correctly, they can be explosive, challenging to recycle, and problematic in terms of environmental and human rights issues when specific elements like cobalt are extracted. Therefore, our sustainable battery offers a promising alternative where energy density is not critical,” says Ziyauddin Khan, a researcher at the Laboratory of Organic Electronics at LiU.
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