Scientists have created a battery that runs on chemical waste

Every year the world produces more and more electricity and people need more and more energy storage devices. They

There are different types from the usualfrom lithium-ion batteries and lead-acid batteries to hydrogen fuel cells and many others. Each technology has its own pros and cons: some drives almost never discharge in idle mode and are therefore suitable for long-term storage of electricity, others can produce very high currents, and still others can store a record amount of energy in terms of per unit of their mass, which makes them irreplaceable, for example, for submarines.

Among energy storage devices there are and especiallyexotic. Thus, in the 70s of the 20th century, scientists proposed the concept of a neutralization battery, in which energy is obtained from the difference in the pH values ​​of two liquids called electrolytes. In fact, it is a fuel that turns into electricity. Neutralization batteries have rather low characteristics: they do not provide high power when discharged and cannot store large volumes of energy, but they have an important advantage—the cost of electrolytes. Lithium-ion batteries require relatively expensive lithium salts, hydrogen fuel cells require hydrogen, and neutralization batteries can use almost any liquid

The principle of operation of the neutralization battery is based onon the fact that two liquids with different pH are pumped through different containers inside the battery. They do not physically mix with each other, but they enter into electrochemical reactions, the products of which pass from one container to another. Due to this kind of circulation of substances, energy is released or, conversely, stored.

Russian scientists have worked out the designneutralization battery on dilute solutions of HCl and NaOH. The key idea was to use hydrogen electrodes. As a result, reactions with the participation of hydrogen take place in both containers, and the total neutralization energy is made up of them. At the same time, even sea water and waste from chemical plants are suitable for the operation of the neutralization battery. The design itself was developed by scientists from the Mendeleev University of Chemical Technology, IPCP RAS and IPCE RAS.

“The key idea is the use of hydrogenelectrodes. The reactions are separated in space and take place in two containers with the participation of hydrogen, and the total energy of chemical neutralization gives electrons, that is, we get electricity from practically nothing. At first it seems like this is some kind of trick, but this is real technology,” says Pavel Loktionov, the first author of the study.

The authors have already proved the principal possibility of recharging such a device, and its specific power was 6 mW / cm² - this is one of the highest indicators among neutralization batteries.

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