Could Iron Replace Lithium in Batteries?

[Chrome Hyena]

https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/environment/a28702497/could-iron-replace-lithium-batteries/

Transitioning to renewable energy across society will require many changes, including more batteries. Energy storage is crucial for making sure that inconsistent renewable sources, like wind or solar, can stay humming even when the weather isn't going their way. But batteries have their own problem in the form of the commonly used lithium.

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But while lithium mining is relatively cheap, it comes with huge downsides. When brine mining, miners need to let the water surrounding lithium evaporate in order to reach it, which means using 500,000 gallons of water per tonne of lithium. And when digging the mineral out of rock, it requires toxic chemicals, which can lead to disastrous results.

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And Iron is the shit compared to Lithium it seems :

The team's iron battery successfully withstood 150 cycles of charging and discharging under controlled conditions. And after 50 cycles, it still had 54 percent capacity retention, which is a sign of stability.

Iron is more stable during the charging process and therefore prevents short-circuiting of the batteries," study coauthor Sai Smruti Samantaray, a Ph.D. student at IIT Madras, told The Hindu. "Thus, when compared with the popular lithium metal-based batteries, we are able to cut down the cost and make it safer to handle."

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So whos ready for the iron age!!!??

 

[ILikeFeet]

Would this make batteries heavier? Higher densities would offset that though

 

[nsilvias]

>150 cycles = 54 percent retention
uhh no

 

[DarthWoo]

I'm sure they're working on some way to improve that, but 150 charge/discharge cycles seems kind of not great.

 

[devSin]

Too heavy.

I also don't think you want something that will hoard all the energy you could ever pour into it anywhere near your body.

 

[ascii42]

Would this make batteries heavier? Higher densities would offset that though

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Iron is significantly more dense than lithium (15x it looks like), but only a few grams are used in batteries for consumer electronics.

 

[Kernel]

>150 cycles = 54 percent retention
uhh no

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Yeah..... Unless people want to swap their car battery out monthly

 

[ascii42]

Edit: nvm

 

[Kernel]

Normal car batteries are lead acid, not lithium, though those are available.

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I meant the traction battery in an EV. I think they used Lead Acid in the EV1 before moving over to lithium ion in newer cars.

I've read articles on EVs with easily swappable batteries, presumably for any future technologies where the battery degrades faster than lithium.

I guess it's been done.

 

[SamAlbro]

The glass battery is another contender (it has Lithium and Sodium variants, so it may or may not take lithium out of the equation)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glass_battery

 

[Sectorseven]

I thought sulfur was supposed to replace them.

 

[uncelestial]

So in 150 days you have lost 46% of the capacity? Not really going to catch on.

 

[Transistor]

I thought graphene batteries were the next thing

 

[Dekim]

Every other month there's news about a new "wonder" battery being tested in a lab. And then it disappears and is never heard from again.