As the world moves towards using green energy solutions and electric vehicles, renewable energy sources have become vital.
An important part of the way batteries work is an electrolyte substance that sits between the two electrical terminals at either end, which helps ions move back and forth between the positively and negatively charged terminals to generate electricity. Conventional batteries are based on lead or lithium (for example, lead acid batteries and lithium-ion batteries), but these batteries come with a number of problems.
Massive amounts of batteries are needed to get rid of fossil fuels, but traditional electrolytes bring with them a host of new problems. They are incredibly complex to recycle, electrolytes are non-biodegradable and can in themselves be dangerous, sometimes explosive or cause fire.
For example, polypropylene and polycarbonate separators commonly used in Lithium-ion batteries take hundreds or thousands of years to degrade in nature.
Unusual energy source
Here, as the world grapples with the energy and climate crises, it started to track down the unconventional sources of energy. A team from the University of Maryland in the USA discovered that the necessary electrolyte for zinc batteries can be made using chitosan, a derivative of the chitin product.
Sea creatures carry in their shells
In the developed battery, a substance called chitin will be used in the exoskeletons of crabs and lobsters, which helps keep their shells hard and strong.
This material is found in everything from mushrooms to squid, but its most abundant source is easily obtained from shellfish exoskeletons and seafood waste.
will store power
It was stated that the discovery is a new type of biodegradable battery suitable for storing power from large-scale wind and solar energy sources.
It disappears in nature in 5 months
The researchers underlined that the battery produced in their observations has 99.7 percent energy efficiency after a thousand charging cycles.
Moreover, unlike other batteries, this battery disintegrates and disappears in the soil within five months.
The zinc battery also offers a cheaper and more sustainable alternative to lithium-ion batteries, which are now used in everything from smartphones to electric cars.
Both sustainable and economical
Moreover, the transformation of the shells of sea creatures will provide additional economic gain. According to a 2015 study, approximately 6 million to 8 million tons of waste crab, shrimp and lobster shells are produced worldwide and more than $100 per tonne is spent on disposal.
Star Newspaper