Anicet Mbida 06:54, November 04, 2022

Anicet Mbida delivers to us every morning what is best in terms of innovation.

This Friday, he is interested in a discovery by researchers at Aalto University in Finland.

They found a technique to find a new battery by recharging the lithium electrode.

The innovation of the day could give a little air with the shortage which hovers around Lithium-Ion batteries.

We found a way to resuscitate an old battery, and turn it into a new battery.

As often, it is a discovery made completely by chance.

We owe it to researchers at Aalto University in Finland.

Like many engineers today, they were trying to find a way to increase battery life.

They realized that by recharging only the electrode with lithium, the battery regained almost the same capacity and the same charge as if it were new.

You can imagine their surprise.

Until now, everyone was convinced that after a certain number of cycles, the batteries were simply good for the trash.

What does it mean ?

That we will use this technology to extend the life of current batteries?

Not really.

Because the process requires completely disassembling the battery.

On an electric car, for example, this would mean stripping the entire chassis and then installing the same battery, but reconditioned.

Which would cost way too much.

The idea would rather be to rely on this technique to recycle old batteries (telephones, computers, cars, etc.) into large batteries to store solar or wind energy.

Because this is the sector where we lack the most and where new batteries are overpriced.

This would be a way to develop both renewable energy and battery recycling.

Were batteries already reconditioned?

No, very little… Precisely because they gradually lose their charge as they age.

Instead, we recycle.

But above all to get rid of toxic materials properly and to recover certain metals that are becoming scarce, such as cobalt or lithium.

A cumbersome process that is extremely expensive.

While with this technique, we could keep whole pieces of current batteries.

This greatly reduces costs and would allow the rapid development of a sector.

This is very important, because between the shortage of raw materials and the explosion in demand (in terms of batteries).

We would like to be able to rely more on recycled components.