Research Laboratory news

Global consumption of the alkali metal lithium is growing rapidly. During the past decade annual production of lithium has risen to 85,000 tons. This is mainly due to its use in batteries of electric vehicles as well as laptop batteries and smartphones. Several million tons of lithium are mined in countries such as Australia, Argentina and Chili every year, which account for more than 80% of global production. Chile has the world’s...

Cobalt has been used as cathode material for a very long time as it offers high conductivity and stable structural stability throughout charge cycling. There are, however, two major drawbacks attached to the use of cobalt: the high cost and political instability in the regions where cobalt is mined. Therefore, scientists are putting a lot of effort into finding ways to minimise or eliminate the use of cobalt in batteries. Now (2020),...

Batteries are a very important factor when it comes to de-carbonizing electric power, which is in ever increasing demand for smart phones, laptops, cars and the power grid. The Li-ion technology is currently among the technologies most frequently employed for energy storage on batteries. It is used in electronic devices as well as electric cars. However, there are several drawbacks associated with the use of Li-ion batteries, the most...

When wind energy blades reach the end of their lifetime they cannot simply be decommissioned and taken to the nearest landfill. Most are as large as the wings of an airplane and need to be cut into several pieces small enough to be loaded onto a truck. Once deposited at the landfill, they remain there because the blades, as they are currently constructed, cannot be recycled.  This is why the number of spent turbine blades is...

Scientists have been searching for years to find materials which do not need precious metals to produce active and stable reactions in order to discover alternatives to fossil fuel in energy production. The oxygen evolution reaction (OER) is a vital part of many of these reactions where water is split in electrolysers to produce hydrogen that can power fuel cells. Now (2020), scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne...

Scientists have known for quite some time that when resistance to the flow of ions in solid electrolytes is reduced the efficiency of fuel cells and batteries can be improved. The only obstacle to achieving this goal is that so far, science has failed to discover which material properties are responsible for the resistance. It is common knowledge that solid electrolyte materials consist of many small crystalline regions, so-called...

Many processes where electricity is produced also release heat into the atmosphere. This potentially important energy resource often simply evaporates into the air without being put to any further use. Thermal energy storage (TES) is a technology that stores thermal energy by heating or cooling a storage medium so that the stored energy can be used for heating and cooling applications and power generation at a later time. Currently,...

Solar panel efficiency is a measurement of a solar panel’s ability to convert sunlight into usable electricity. If the same amount of sunlight shines on two solar panels with different efficiency ratings for the same period of time, the more efficient panel will produce more electricity than the less efficient panel. Most solar panels show efficiencies between 15% and 20%, with outliers on either side of the range....

Hydrogen is a very simple and abundant element on earth as it consists of only one proton and one electron. Hydrogen is able to store and deliver usable energy, but it does not typically exist by itself in nature and must be produced from compounds that contain it. It is an indispensable element in promoting the transition to renewables and meeting climate targets. It is also the essential building block of sector coupling. While it...

With diminishing fossil resources and rising concerns about global warming caused by greenhouse gas emissions, biomass is regarded as a promising alternative to non-renewable fossil resources for the sustainable supply of fuels and chemicals. Because of its abundant content of carbon, biomass is considered as the best source to replace fossil fuels for producing various biofuels such as biodiesel, ethanol, and dimethylfuran. It can be...