Seawater Battery Proposed As Lithium Replacement Not Considered By Major Research Group

Modern batteries that use Lithium as its base have become increasingly expensive of late, which is putting a strain on production and cost among manufacturers. This translates to bigger expenses for consumers as well, so it’s a problem that affects everyone. In a recent breakthrough, scientists were able to overcome one of the biggest hurdles to getting commercially-available seawater battery. Oddly enough, at least one major research group has overlooked its potential in favor of continuing with Lithium batteries.

A team of scientists including Soo Min Hwang and Youngsik Kim managed to increase the potential viability of batteries that use seawater to replace conventional Lithium counterparts, TechXplore reports. The study was published in the ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces journal, which details how the team managed to get discharge voltage of about 2.7 volts with the battery they created.

This is a big deal since seawater is practically the most abundant readily-available resource on the planet, certainly more abundant than Lithium or other forms of solid or liquid elements. By making use of a substance that can be drawn from the biggest bodies of water in the world, humanity could be looking at the most sustainable source of portable energy so far.

However, scientists at the Joint Center for Energy Storage Research (JCESR), which runs from the Argonne National Laboratory are only looking at creating batteries that make use of more Lithium, Forbes reports. Specifically, they are looking at creating a lithium-sulfur that will be cheaper to make and will have five times more density in terms of energy than conventional Lithium batteries.

These batteries can be used for everything from transportation to powering homes if applied properly. However, they are still based on the same harmful substance that is currently polluting the planet and is at risk of blowing up.