Imagine yourself filling your vehicle’s fuel tanks with water while getting ready for your daily travel. Yes, no petrol or diesel or CNG, just water.
Yeah Electric vehicles, charge it using water. Researcher Jackson (ex-navy officer) says we can travel 2400+ kilometers in a single charging. You might wonder how ‘water’ and ‘battery’ go hand in hand. Believe it or not, the combination does work wonders for a battery, i.e. a specific type of battery known as a metal-air battery (Aluminium as metal is used here).
These systems use aluminium as an anode, oxygen as the cathode, and water as an electrolyte. A porous membrane made of graphene lets air pass into the electrolyte chamber where a chemical reaction between aluminium, water and air (oxygen) takes place to release energy.
Bengaluru-based company specialising in Graphene called Log 9 Materials have developed their own brand of Aluminium fuel cells (AFCs).
There’s also a strategic advantage switching to metal-air batteries. India does not produce lithium and cobalt, the raw materials that go into making Li-ion batteries.
– Hariharan D
Author
