🚗 What is the most recycled product in the world, with 99.7% being collected into the recycling stream? Where does it get used beyond the starter / lighting / ignition functions in your car? Why does it have such a bad rap, and why should you in fact be excited about it? To answer these questions, we bring in Matt Raiford and Alyssa McQuilling from the Consortium for Battery Innovation (CBI) to talk with BioZen's CEO Nate Kirchhofer.

CBI is a global research organization, with over 130 member organizations, dedicated to improving lead battery performance across various applications. The consortium is committed to both applied and fundamental pre-competitive research, working on projects ranging from evaluating new lead battery technology in residential installations to in-situ neutron diffraction studies of lead battery electrodes.

While lead batteries may not match lithium-ion in energy density (nor need to), they excel in robustness, safety, sustainability, and cost-effectiveness, particularly in stationary applications like telecom and broadband backup systems. Lead batteries pose lower fire risks, have well-established end-of-life plans, and maintain a fully established circular economy from over 100 years of research and manufacturing..

The discussion moves to a few unique lead battery projects such as microgrids, solar/battery-powered tractors, and the unique harvesting of (typically undesireable) electrolyzed hydrogen from the battery as a source of energy.

Looking at the future, we discuss the challenges and potential of energy storage, underlining the necessity for better performance, particularly in terms of cycle life and total energy output: By 2030, energy storage systems will need to exist on the terawatt/terawatt-hour scale, necessitating a diverse mix of technologies, including lead batteries.

Recorded 28 Nov 2023

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