Carbon/air secondary battery: A new way of electric energy storage

– Dr. Mukta Tathavadekar

World has started witnessing adverse effects of extensive use of fossil fuels on our environment and people now realize the importance of renewable energy. However, incorporating renewable energy into our day-to-day life is still a big challenge. The intermittency of renewable energy sources is the main hurdle, and this problem can be solved with the use of energy storage systems. One can say that energy storage systems are as important as energy generation by renewable energy sources. Hydrogen is one of the promising candidates as a large-scale energy storage technology. Hydrogen is generated from the electrolysis of water which can be used in fuel cells, gas grid, or combustion for heat generation, etc. The only problem with the use of hydrogen is it involves a complex thermal management system and the lowered energy density and power density as you increase the system size.

Researchers from the Tokyo Institute of Technology, Japan have proposed a new way of storing energy: Carbon/air secondary battery (CASB). In this system, the first CO­2 undergoes an electrolysis process to form carbon where the energy requirement is fulfilled by renewable energy (Boudouard decomposition reaction). This is defined as the charging process. During discharging process, carbon formed by electrolysis is oxidized to generate energy (Boudouard gasification reaction). These charging-discharging processes take place in electrolysis cell – solid oxide fuel cell (EC-SOFC) respectively.

The newly proposed CASB system has successfully shown 10 charge-discharge cycles. CASB demonstrates high coulombic efficiency of 84% and charge-discharge efficiency of 38%. The impressive power density of 80 mW/cm2 is achieved by CASB at 800 ℃ and 100 mA/cm2. CASB is believed to have a smaller size and higher system efficiency than hydrogen-based systems. Moreover, it is expected to demonstrate higher volumetric energy density than lithium-ion batteries as well as hydrogen-based systems. Authors believe that further development of materials and structural aspects will improve that CASB’s overall performance.

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(Source: doi.org)

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Dr Smita Chaturvedi
Smita is an experimental condensed matter physicist. The quest for multifunctional materials motivates her. Smita finished her PhD from RDVV Jabalpur and BARC Mumbai in the year 2002 and worked as a research associate in IIT Mumbai and Oakland University, Michigan. Smita was awarded as a Fulbright Nehru Academic and Professional excellence fellow in 2018-19. Smita holds more than a decade of research and teaching experience. She possesses good knowledge about education system and research opportunities in India as well as abroad. Music and gardening are her mindful meditations.
Dr. Priyadarshini Karve
Dr Priyadarshini Karve has worked in the areas of household energy, decentralised waste-to-fuel technologies, climate change mitigation and adaptation, sustainable and climate-ready urbanisation, etc. She runs her own social green enterprise Samuchit Enviro Tech in Pune, focused on enabling access to sustainable products and services. She is also a co-founder of OrjaBox, a startup promoting solar thermal technologies. Dr Karve is a Founder Member of Clean Energy Access Network (CLEAN - a multi-state society of decentralised renewable energy practitioners and entrepreneurs) and Cleaner Cooking Coalition (CCC - an international organisation focused on promoting user-centric cooking energy technologies that are good for health as well as climate). She is also the National Convener of Indian Network on Ethics and Climate Change (INECC - focused on climate justice issues and working to bring people's voices in policy choices). Her work has been recognised by several national and international awards and honours.
Sanjay Khare
Sanjay Khare ,after his graduation in Electrical Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, in 1986 has been associated with major Japanese & European Automotive OEMs in Indian Subcontinent for 35 years . Widely travelled across Europe & Asia , he has held positions across diverse functions of Automotive Corporations.
In his current role as Board Member and Vice President at Skoda Auto Volkswagen India , he is Chief Sustainability Catalyst to guide actions at Skoda Auto Volkswagen India along with the sister brands Audi, Porsche & Lamborghini.
He leads an active Climate Resilience program where the automotive major in India has already achieved Zero Waste to Landfill, Water Positive & Zero liquid Discharge Certification, Zero Accidents , targeting an 18.5 MW of installed Roof Top Solar plant at a single Automotive site in India in 2021 and fully Carbon Neutral Production by 2025.
Sanjay has done his Executive MBA from Management development Institute ,Gurgaon specialising in Strategy & Marketing . He has active interests in driving Cultural Change, Competency building , Human Motivation topics while adopting/ innovating the technological advancements and total quality revolution.He is also a Qualified Independent Director registered with Ministry of Corporate Affairs, Govt. of India. An active speaker on Automotive & Sustainability topics on National & International forums.
In personal life, he is an Endurance Cyclist having participated in many adventure ride expeditions . He also spends his time in developing mastery on Indian Classical Music instrument Sitar.