An Australian battery company has announced very promising results for its new energy-dense battery that does not rely on expensive, environmentally destructive, and non-renewable material metals, Interesting Engineering reported.
Altech Batteries' Cerenergy ABS60 is a 60-kilowatt-hour sodium chloride solid-state battery energy storage system. That means that it is superior on two fronts to most batteries with similar storage capacities that are on the market: It is solid-state, and it does not use lithium.
Solid-state batteries have been hailed as the "holy grail" of the industry, as they are significantly more energy-dense than existing lithium-ion batteries while also being lighter. This makes a huge difference in electric vehicles, for example, which lose energy efficiency the heavier they get. (This particular battery, however, is designed for grid storage, per the company.)
The technology around solid-state batteries is still improving to make them commercially viable, and some still do use lithium — but Altech's Cerenergy ABS60 does not, Interesting Engineering reported. Instead, the battery relies on common and inexpensive sodium and nickel.
Lithium mining is one of the main downsides to EV batteries, as it causes damage to the environment and water overuse. EVs need only be driven about 15,000 miles on average to offset this and begin charting major environmental savings over gas-powered cars, but that initial production cost is nonetheless a factor.
In addition, while companies like Redwood Materials can recycle EV batteries at up to 95% effectiveness and that is still better than the way gasoline and diesel are gone and turned into pollution once burned, some of the lithium may be lost. Altech's Cerenergy ABS60 skips the lithium completely.
Another advantage that Altech's battery has over lithium-ion batteries is that it is fire- and explosion-proof, according to the company.
In testing conducted with Altech's joint venture partner Fraunhofer IKTS, the Cerenergy ABS60 prototype reportedly showed 91% efficiency after 500 cycles.
"We are extremely pleased that the first CERENERGY 60kWh battery prototype is now up and running, operating better than expected," Altech CEO and managing director Iggy Tan said. "This reconfirms our confidence in the sodium-chloride solid-state battery technology developed by the world-leading Fraunhofer Institute in Germany."
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