Engineers have made a variety of different types of batteries in the past several decades. However, these all contain lithium and lead somewhere in the design, according to Clean Technica. Two professors from Massachusetts Institute of Technology believe they have found an alternative. They have now built thousands of plastic batteries from conductive polymers.
The Conductive Polymers in Plastic Batteries
Polymers are natural or synthetic substances comprising very large molecules. Chemical engineers often use plastic and resins to manufacture them. In this instance the PolyJoule company says their cells are ‘based on proprietary conductive polymers, and other organic, non-metallic materials’.
They add these are ‘designed to suit the needs of stationary power applications where safety, lifetime, levelized costs, and environmental footprints are key decision drivers’.
Most new battery technologies we report here are one-off prototypes in laboratory settings. This company, on the other hand has produced over 18,000 cells for their plastic batteries made from conductive polymers. Moreover, they manufactured them ‘using standard roll-to-roll processing in non-clean-room environments, with extremely high manufacturing yields’.
Are These Polymer Plastic Batteries a Runner?
PolyJoule has installed a ‘small pilot project’ to prove their new product according to Clean Technica on April 16, 2022. The developer claims the discriminators are ‘a water-based manufacturing chemistry, using commercially-available machines to assemble the battery cells’.
We understand the cells ‘are tested to perform 12,000 cycles at 100% depth-of-discharge’. This appears to put them in line for battery storage applications. However, the current cost is high at $65 per kWh. This is three times greater than commercially viable rates.
We should mention at this point that most polymers derive from fossil fuels. However, it is also possible to derive them from plant-based sustainable materials. We shall have to see how this idea evolves further before expressing an opinion. Nonetheless, it does incorporate some interesting thoughts.
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