There are many sayings concerning the gifts of life from forest giants. From tiny acorns do giant oaks grow, a hundred acorns are sown in silence, and so on. We are learning to preserve our heritage giants, and plant new forests sustainably. Now Future Planet asks in BBC could batteries come from mighty trees. Could this initiative help ensure their survival.
Could Mighty Trees Become the Source of Batteries?
Forestry company Stora Enso owns one of the largest private forests in Finland. Its business has been on the decline since people stopped sending messages by post. Sales of paper and packaging are also falling. Stora Enso is beginning to wonder what will happen to its trees. Will anyone replant them when the forests are harvested?
Stora Enso asked itself the question, what else could they so with the lignin polymer in their trees. Trees are 30% lignin. It is the glue that holds the remaining cellulose together, and makes trees rigid so they don’t collapse.
The polymer material lignin contains carbon which comes in handy for making anodes. Would you believe it your high-tech cellphone is a distant relative to the trees in your garden? Stora Enso’s engineers got together with battery maker Northvolt. Now they have a joint venture to make battery anodes from wood.
Gives a Thought What Else to Do with Trees?
So yes, batteries could come from mighty trees, although they would still need other materials too. This gives a thought what other minerals could we replace with organic materials like these. Making synthetic graphite in other ways consumes huge amounts of energy and heat.
However, we don’t believe it would be wise to chop down forests for their lignin, and throw the rest away. There are enough other uses for sustainable timbers to ensure sufficient offcuts to pulp. We have everything we need on the planet to live sustainably. We just need to get smarter with the ‘how’.
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