Revolution. But the aunt without drawbacks to the only going deal. We explore ways to make the most of their shelf life hello and welcome. Im some of that. Im now lithium, ion battery is power every ping from tools and toys to electric vehicles and Energy Storage systems. When the useful life comes to an end, they can pause a hazard to a health or environment. If not properly managed. You had an india one company is working to ensure that these batteries dont end up as pollutants. Ah. M j gama buzz expertly gets down to dismantling another electric battery. He has been working in this recycling plant for the past 18 months. The former day laborer is proud of his job and there will be plenty to keep him busy for years to come. Ah l l for, for people use a commute using gasoline vehicles, hot volume it smoke and of course lots of pollution that causes health issues. Electric vehicles dont cause any kind of pollution or emissions for a growing number of people in india are now switching to electric vehicles. Experts estimate that this your sales will almost triple the previous years demand, instead of gasoline or diesel electric vehicles, run on batteries, which at the moment are mainly lithium ion based. Its an environmental conundrum because they usually only have a lifespan of 5 to 7 years. Motion monte, from the center for science and environment in new delhi, explains the problem. We produce about 50000 tons of lithium i invest in the country very little over it actually get 3 cycle. Its only now with ease coming into the picture and the government setting up these recycling rules like the Waste Management rules. This is just the beginning. The most serious issue is that the toxic substances in the discarded batteries can leach into the ground water wire landfill sites. At the same time, the lithium ion batteries are full of valuable Raw Materials that india has historically had to import from all over the world. Thats created a completely new industry for about 3 years now, the Terror Company has been recycling lithium, ion batteries, bringing their competent parts back into the raw material cycle with going into the trend, the shattered properly. Then the back. We, what we do is the black powder inside the battery is called as black. Not you separate that from the heating or the battery. And then the black mas refining process is a further were using different hybrid unit through what you need to extract michael. Like or by with his sheet nickel, mcnees, you proper lithium cabinet and other compounds are also recalled from the old. Battering is these Raw Materials can then be used in the production of new batteries. A solution that saves money and makes more environmental sense than extracting more minerals from my enter on the wall. That people often walk under atrocious conditions all over the 2nd profitable mining. Because we extract the fame metals that come from the mine. But we actually dont physically, they dont, theyre taking vist that is generated by consumers and industrious around the world. Numerous Companies Like taro, recycling lithium, ion battery is however, the volume of batteries currently being recycled is still very small. Especially given the amount of least expected in the future. Battery recycling is something that the entire world is still trying to figure out there is Student Needs to be a lot more, i think investment into thought in be that is one important thing. And the other thing also is that this didnt have enough for new, know, we need huge, large volumes to be able to fix the process. And even globally, i think were still in the, in the beginning stages, from 2035 india plan to limit sales of new vehicles to 0 emissions models. Only experts believe that by the end of the current decade, more than half of all new vacancy already me all electron back recycling is an bought in factor in achieving the complete switch to e mobility in india. And if possible, under conditions that are bought financially and environmentally sound. Electric vehicle sales in india have almost triple, echoing a global search. Thats good news for efforts for thought emissions, but also means the prospect of a multi 1000000 ton heap of discarded batteries. A bangor, b start up, has developed an Energy Storage system that runs on 2nd life, lithium ion batteries and is making a world of a difference to people in places where power is unreliable. Ah, when the sun goes down in rural, with the british st. Life usually fades away together with the das dying light. But these 2nd life batteries allow long stretches of road to be lit up after dark. Ah, one of these batteries is also in service in fido, the bungalow. Dean ovation enables street windows to peddle their snacks late into the night by new river light is the greatest jennifer gone libya . Barbara, i can do my work so much better now. Thanks to the light for a 2 hour drive of the engine, her late, one of the batteries is delivering energy to electric sewing machines. This makes it possible for seamstresses at the vehicle livelihood center. One more as the appeal of b street. But article of clothing they produce and not having to manually operate the machines means less of a physical burden. Ah, lego under, at the microphone might always get pain and my legs at work. And i know i couldnt work for long periods, and i had to constantly stretch my legs a month when i put these electric machines in, i dont have that problem. I can work for as long as i want to goes on to that. We used to come to work at 9 am. Now we can come an hour later, i got back. Then we had managed to say 2 or 3 dresses a day. With the electric machines, we can do a lot more and we work as long as we want to manage to get everything done. Pradeep strategy and doesnt veto butcher. Founded newnan in bangalore for their goal was to harness the last remaining energy from used batteries. And that meant experimenting in what was still a relatively unexplored field. Oh, usually they used between a 100 to 8275 percent. Thats where in the 1st life people are usually using it. And between that 75 percent and 50 percent threshold, there is still in most cases, some Usable Energy which you can still use. But in, in the 1st life application, it doesnt get used, which is not very efficient, right . I mean is like you have one little water water, you drink half a letter and you draw a half lead away. The 2 men started out in 2017 with used laptop batteries. First the batteries taken, but each individual cell is tested for is the energy content. The functioning ones are assembled into a small, portable battery which has rented out the st lenders, for example, for around 2 euros a week. The 2nd big project after the laptop, batteries are used. Batteries from electric cars, div come from a german car maker and a converted into bol for the 2nd life batteries. Lasting for 5 to 10 years. The laptop batteries, which are also charged with solar energy last only about 2 years. No, no monitors them by a chip and an app. Each battery is internet connected. As these batteries are internet connected, we get unwonted notification at their end of life and pick up the batteries for recycling. While we also provide a new one as the replacement at the end of their 2nd life, the batteries end up in this recycling plant run by some good india, 100 kilometers not have been glue. The batteries are broken down into their various components, the metallic wrist, mostly aluminum, is sold to metal dealers. The so called black pulp containing the particularly valuable substances is sent to some gains mean factory in south korea. For further processing. We go over all the available nor does lego bird niguel, lithium manganese groper. And again, we send it to our contract fare like samsung to manufactured near better recycling centers like this. A still pretty thin on the ground in india. But the number of electric us is growing with electric mobility taking center feed in india, bringing the thought efficiency into batteries become a major factor into our Sustainable Practices in mobility sector here at the indian due to science in bengal. Now go funny to could he desa range of medeas, with the aim of increasing battery capacity. Hes the head of the institute steam for advanced Energy Storage research. I see the publishing as parking portion of this ecosystem of electric vehicles and electrification gender. Re purposing batteries really cost me maybe about 10 percent of the cost of recycling about the energy cost, the cost of the environment in terms of chemicals or to be used for recycling and, and the costs and the environment in terms of ways that comes out of recycling batteries. The big advantage of 2nd life batteries is that the environmental friendlier than new ones. And they are also much cheaper, so more people can afford them. If i can cut down the cost of starting at the city to a common man, it probably will bring every Single Person in the country to have the same level of basic amenities that otherwise dont exist in someone did remote areas and, and bringing that the quality is, is in itself a big social reform. I think the seem stresses and generally live in small villages nearby. In many cases they can no longer feed themselves and their families from agriculture alone. They now have a regular income at the ceiling workshop. The batteries mean that their work here and be done at any time of day, which also makes it easier to reconcile work and family life. But one bedroom is not really enough. The women are hoping for more in building for their homes. We need that a battery with a battery like this. It would also be possible for my children to do their School Homework and we could use it to power household devices like washing machines that would help us immensely. He went to my apartment well, actually has far more ambitious plans in the future. Shed like to open a small business, but forcing machines at home then she could take care of her children. While she owns a living. Now batteries of fall would the rise of Renewable Energy because we can store it even when the sun is shining or the wind is blowing. But given the limitations of lithium ion batteries, massages on volt olives are reporter had to look around. Before we get into the shiny new stuff, we gotta talk about the lithium ion battery. Its the Fastest Growing battery segment in the world. Scientists started developing the lithium ion battery during the oil crisis of the 1970s. They hope this could wind the west off fossil fuels, but nothing has changed. And it took a while until you could actually buy one engineer stanley whittingham, a korea yoshi no. And john, be good enough, help develop the 1st crucially available, lithium, ion battery that came to market in 1991. Thats them winning the nobel prize for that. You work with nice people. And they do all the artwork or news of burger drives, like as much grovers. You go up, up, up, up, up. The lithium ion battery is good at giving a lot of electricity and shorter burst. So its used for Consumer Electronics and now electric cars. And its also pretty much the only battery we use for storing, grid scale, Renewable Energy, but mining lithium is problematic. It involves pumping underground water deposits to the surface. This use is roughly 70000 leaders to make one ton of lithium. More than half the earths resources are between argentina, bolivia and she lay mining and consumed 65 percent of the regions already scarce. Water supply, lithium ion battery is also typically used cobalt, which is expensive and mine mostly in the democratic republic of congo. News reports have covered the notoriously exploitive business, which uses child miners and devastates local communities. Lithium batteries can also be flammable. If you cant bring them on a plane, you should definitely think twice about a giant one backing up your grid and they lose capacity. So longevity isnt really there. Forte. So lithium ion batteries work, but they cant be the only solution to store energy, especially on a grid scale. According to the i e. A, were going to need close to 10000 gigawatt hours of Energy Storage worldwide by 2040 to meet climate goals. Thats 50 times the size of the current market. Today, its actually another Technology Pumped Hydro storage that comprises a whopping 96 percent of global storage power capacity. And it basically relies on Pretty Simple gravitational principles. This is romulus, wyoming not. And shes the head of a thermal Storage Company which well get to later. But she has no problem with water. Youve got to reservoirs or leaks one high and one low. And when you have a lot of excess power, you use that exist power to pump the water of pills in a higher reservoir. When you want that power bag, you let the water run downstream and turn turbine generator. However, those products are hard to build the teacup, massive amounts of space and need exactly the right geography, 2 lakes, and a hill. A lot of them also work within conventional hydro, electric dams, which need lots of upfront capital and disrupt habitat. Storing Renewable Energy will need more flexibility than these reservoirs. One, promising alternative thats making headway comes from something you can find right on your kitchen. Table salt is much more rhonda needs. Kenny. Gilly, senior grease young, same robin the gregory cable. This is rosa palace seen. Shes a battery researcher at the institute of material science and barcelona. She says, sodium is the best alternative because it basically mimics lithium ion battery technology. It has also got one valence electron, the number of electrons in the outermost layer. But sodium is a 1000 times more abundant as 20 to 40 percent cheaper, and is it sensitive to temperature changes . So no issues with blowing up, but it does have lower energy density, thus heavier batteries, which is why it hasnt commercialized sooner. If its for the grid though, this wont matter so much since everything is stationary and for right now, time is of the essence away. Higher in acknowledging or seattle are so much closer to the owners here. While theyre already in the market, Analysts Expect them to be produced at scale and the next few years. Speaking of salt, what if we could store energy in the form of heat and really hot salt swami now tons, Company Malta is doing this in the us. We take Electrical Energy either directly from Renewable Generation like winder solar or just from the grid. And we convert that into thermal energy. Turns out that molten salt is a great preserver of heat. It looks kind of like water and has roughly the same viscosity here. So it works when theres excess electricity generated, the energy is used to heat, a large insulated storage tank of molten salt and very high temperatures. I melting point means the salt can absorb a lot of energy. It keeps for 6 plus hours with the batteries can only manage under for when the grid needs power. The plant re converts heat back into electricity through a turbine. While its material costs are relatively low and its system is pretty scalable. Its still behind hydro and lithium. The hope is that the market will eventually make it feasible. You can do something similar with the piles of sand. We mentioned earlier, a couple of fins decided to use some local pilots to solve one of finlands Biggest Energy issues. Heating, instead of converting the heat back to electricity, they just use it directly. To storage. Deposit is in the order of 1000 times g, m, and would resume buffers. Michael, ellen and co founded a company that makes sand batteries return the electricity to heat, ugly gum reg installed cheap lit up. There would be large volumes of energy, how much sand undertones of sand. It can store heat at around 500. 00 to 600. 00 ri celsius for months. This heat then goes directly to warm, municipal buildings. Moreover, it could provide heat to one of the biggest emitters of greenhouse gases. They heavy industry sector in cold countries. The solution makes a lot of sense. The Company Currently has one system thats heating con, con path. A southwestern town with a population of 13000. The 100 tons, sand battery can technically stay hot for months, but they recharged this one in 2 weeks cycles to keep it efficient. These are just a couple of solutions. There are dozens of technologies out there right now, each buying for their place in the market flow. Redox batteries, for instance, or another big contender for grid scale storage. They dont function all that differently from lithium ion batteries. And the latter electrons travel between 2 electrodes through a liquid called and electrolyte, creating a current in a flow battery. This liquid electrolyte is stored externally. The larger the tank, the more storage capacity, which means the flow battery can be scaled really easily. And what need scale, you cast it the grid, chemical technologies, gravity based technology, mechanical technologies, you know, flow, batteries, all that stuff. This is a huge need that were trying to solve. And i think were going to need all the truth is were not going to quit the lithium ion any time soon. The huge demand for electric cars means that some of the technology is and efficiencies and develop and there will spill over to the grid. But the fossil fuel industry is dont into the economy. Its a huge challenge to adapt and tire systems, including infrastructure and policy to renewable alternatives. Cost is the biggest limiting factor for new technologies. The market decides how far theyve come and how far down go to africa now. And the la water trains seliger very such as a looking at the potential to recycle natural waste. Not just and generate energy, but distorted to the aim is to produce scalable batteries, from nothing less than a local st. Full staple along these buttons. So batteries may not look very special until you know, the raw material used to make them at this lab. And dac, ours, shake until d up university interior door. Peanut shells dot dot milestone to cbs, transforming this type of biomass into advanced materials is a new field of research and says, 2nd world rush. The Scientific Community has been working on for 2 or 3 years. Just to fix on the ultimate and we were the 1st to initiate this kind of work here in africa. All right, you see a lovely boss, alma peanut shells are plentiful, and synagogue peanuts are one of the countries for most important exports. More than 60 percent of the rural population grows the popular and energy rich leg. Yeah. But this year, a low harvest of around 1600000. 00 tons is expected due to poor rainfall. Until now the shells have simply been thrown away or burned. Pure waste says professor ben gum he regularly buys his Raw Materials at the t lane, Central Market in decorating him and explains to the traitor that he makes batteries from michelles getting them bring it otherwise said, you will hall. Id never heard of that. Me again. It seems, every day you wake up and theres more technology, more developments. But im happy to see it happening on both on the low market and that the peanut shells help blue light. I want to live local and gallon music for more than 2 years by the d up and gum has been researching the conversion of bio mass into energy with a group of 15 students. So off. While all its a complicated electrochemical process with 1st the shelves are ground into powder, and mixed with water. Oh, la la st. On good, a, talk, the whole thing. So for a period of time like this, though, i wont tell you how long of it, because thats one of the crucial parameters while at the close up and then we filter the mixture. And the result is this liquid whose the as opposed to the lumbering, once we add some more ingredients, we can use it to create the positive charge of the battery was achieved a lot of disclosed. The researchers take advantage of the high carbon content of the shells and extract a zinc oxide from them bon international, global when the liquid is radiated with sunlight at high temperatures. The zinc oxide evaporates and is converted into metallic zinc, which in turn can store energy these are environmentally friendly batteries that have the same potential as conventional lithium ion batteries for example. But without the disadvantages. Thats because lithium ion battery is contain among other things, cobalt which is often mind by children in dangerous minds and the congo. In addition, reserves of lithium and cobalt are limited. So the plus points are that the peanut battery is produced without cobalt, easier to dispose of cheaper to produce. Introducing these environmentally friendly batteries would be of great help to synagogue. Since 40 percent of rural households have no connection to the state power grid, they rely on batteries or alternative Energy Sources like solar or simply dont have access to any form of energy. There is a huge gap in Energy Supplied according to this environmental analyst role as a basic up a pasco full. He fulfilled this gap love, and i think we have to move toward the development of Energy Sources like bio mass lobby almost in his e n. Y, a mass energy can be an answer to day of the car because senegal is a major producer of peanuts, with a huge supply of peanut shells in my in on can, will look that as it goes, were a liaison for areas like cause a mass which has a significant amount of bio mass amplify the development of this energy source. It will allow us to close a large part of the existing gap. Dont go permit that as of a in gun party undergrad, he got a key exist. All right, well see that in preliminary trials, the researchers were able to power remote controls or cell phones with their bio batteries. But their product isnt market ready yet. Lizs, you are, we now need to further optimize all the processes in the lab to get all the parameters fully under control through the so that the system works properly. It total told us off and then it will be ready for market encore, me dollar machine. The Research Team and jacker is now sure their batteries work. However, further research and money is needed before they can upscale production milligrams so that people in synagogue can actually use peanut power batteries. To soc is usa. Even innovations for a Sustainable Future and not without their share of compounding consequences as weve seen today. But accounting for solutions to these problems right from the start is bound to make a huge difference for the better. Ill leave you with that thought and see you again next week. Good bye. And thanks for watching. Ah, ah ah, ah, with it is not only a time piece of time. A fellow machine combines his passion for african storytelling with the measurement of our most Precious Resource time designed as unique as it is luxury with 90 minutes on d w. And how many portions of lunch us heard out in the world right now the climate change. If any of the story this is much less the waste from just one week. How much work can really get we still have time to go. Im going all with his subscribe or more with love has no limit. To love is for everybody. Love is live. I love matters and thats my new podcast. Im evelyn char, mom and i really think we need to talk about all the topics that north divide and denied this. I have invited many deer and well known guests. And i would like to invite you to an in munich, 15 years ago, the International Gathering of peace and cooperation becomes the scene of a horrible tragedy. Arab terrorists, armed with sub machine guns, went to the headquarters of the really team and immediately killed one man. And that this will be the last time i saw in the life or worse fears realized tonight, theyre all gone. How i witnessed this experienced the terrible events and this the world shouldnt forget me the long shuttle. The 1972 olympic massacre. Start september 3rd on d. W with ah ah ah ah, this is dw news alive from berlin. The Author Salman Rushdie is attacked in new york. His writings have long made him a target after iran issued a fatwas calling for his death following the publication of his book, the satanic verses in 1988. Also coming up on the show another at