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| Dead or just in need of resuscitating? Single use batteries can live again |
Improving the longevity, durability and useful lifespan of existing products is also very useful - making a good thing better.
That seems to be the philosophy of a group at the National Synchotron Light Source (NSLS) lab in Brookhaven, New York, where they are testing the limits of alkaline batteries.
There is incredible wastage in batteries that are sadly filling up our landfills at an ever increasing rate. Many have been discarded well before their power producing capability is exhausted. Judging by what these guys are finding, the industry and the general public don't really appreciate what can be achieved with these mainstream power sources.
The team is looking at how existing batteries (such as the D size alkaline) could be linked together in series to produce a much larger battery. They're working with so-called 'single use' batteries and finding that they can be re-charged many times to provide considerably more use than the manufacturer intended. Although everyone seems entranced by the much sexier and more expensive lithium-ion, these manganese and zinc batteries are much cheaper and abundant.
The team is charging and discharging test batteries to the point of exhaustion and they are studying what actually happens within the battery as they degrade. As they understand more about the chemical reactions and changing properties as they degrade they hope to find ways to get even more juice out of them.
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| Brookhaven team testing the limits of alkaline batteries |
power grid and the experiments on small, cheap batteries will hopefully be the forerunner for something much bigger. Large-scale storage capability that is cheap and readily available could have a huge impact in avoiding the wastage of generated power that currently isn't worth storing.
Brookhaven media release (BNL)
NSLS research hopes to solve electricity storage challenges
How do alkaline batteries work? (Energizer)
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