this video is sponsored by click up as Renewable Energy Technologies like wind and solar become
cheaper energy storage is increasingly becoming the critical part and limiting factor right now
lithium-ion is the King of the Hill due to its relatively low cost and high energy density but
we can't just rely on one technology to meet all of our energy needs what if there was a
battery technology that was cheaper than lithium ion and didn't use any Metals at all what if we
could have a battery that used plastic that's a one company along with a team of MIT researchers
are exploring in Boston so how does this new technology stack up to the current battery
technology will it be the energy storage solution we've been waiting for what are the pros and cons
how might it be used and just how far along are they I'm Ricky and this is Tupa DaVinci
a typical battery has three main components two terminals made of different chemicals the anode
the cathode and a liquid electrolyte between them primary cells are batteries that can't
be recharged like the alkaline batteries in your remote or the aluminum air battery we've covered
in the past while those have their place for obvious reasons secondary cells are much more
interesting because they're you guessed it rechargeable so good news the plastic polymer
battery in this video is a rechargeable secondary cell typically metals like lithium are used in
the cathode because it's very light and has one valence electron that is happy to donate other
metals like nickel and Cobalt are also added for other characteristics like safety and stability
graphite is typically used for the anode although increasingly there is more and more graphene and
silicon due to its high conductivity and ability to wedge in and hold lithium ions but the key of
course is not just finding the materials are the most conductive or have the highest capacity cost
is all also a major factor right now lithium is King because it boasts a high energy density it
can undergo multiple Chargers and discharge cycles and it's relatively cost compared to other battery
chemistries while the energy World wouldn't be where it is today without lithium ion batteries
there's a good reason to continue exploring new battery chemistries mainly because while lithium
ion battery prices have fallen over the past few decades recent years have seen a dramatic increase
in the price of raw lithium and other metals a lagging indicator of how lithium-on battery prices
might fare in the future December 2021 solithium prices leap a jaw-dropping 485 percent year over
year according to s p Global not to mention the fact that some of the materials in Lithium-ion
batteries including Cobalt magnesium and lithium itself carry some environmental and supply chain
question marks this wouldn't be such a big deal 20 years ago but if we're planning gigawatt hours
of grid storage and a billion these the next few decades this question mark is of the utmost
importance as a company or technology gets more mature it's all about better planning predicting
and forecasting that's why we put so much emphasis on our production schedule as a company click up
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the nerve to assign me a subtask a CEO's job is never done but it is so fulfilling finishing a
task and moving it into the completed column as the head honcho I love creating dashboards
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is where boston-based energy storage company poly Jewel comes in this company is pioneering a brand
new battery technology that doesn't use any metal at all instead they use something called
conductive polymers and if you're thinking wait a minute don't we already have Lithium
Polymer ion batteries or LiPO batteries yes but LiPO batteries have a polymer electrolyte
instead of a liquid electrolyte they still have metal cathodes and graphite anodes we've covered
polymers on our channel before they're very large molecules consisting of many repeating
subunits basically long chains linked together essentially it's Plastics I know I know aren't
we trying to get rid of plastics and now you want to put them in batteries stick with me we'll dive
into that in just a little bit but essentially these properties allow these materials to be
incredibly strong and conductive which means they can act like Metals even though they are
entirely organic based materials there are quite a few polymers that are electrically conductive
when linked with conjugated double bonds that run along their backbone I know that word conjugation
might give you flashbacks to your high school Spanish teacher but here it means alternating
single and double bonds this lets the electrons become delocalized meaning they can move over the
whole system and be shared by many atoms novel research interconductive polymers isn't new in
fact the Nobel Prize for chemistry was awarded to a group of three researchers for their Discovery
and development of conductive polymers all the way back in 2000 so what does this look like in a
battery and why does it matter polyjule cells are essentially constructed the same way as any other
traditional battery but instead of lithium or Cobalt they use conductive polymers as a cathode
a carbon graphene hybrid anode and a non-flammable liquid electrolyte during charging ions are stored
in the electrode bulk through a feriatic process known as oxidation essentially really rusting when
talking about iron during discharging the process is reversed and the ions are expelled from the
electrodes through a process called reduction so what makes this new technology so important well
compared to lithium ion polyjules batteries have several advantages for one it works around some of
the supply chain issues that other batteries face the materials inside these batteries are far more
abundant than lithium or Cobalt and can be easily synthesized with widely available industrial
chemicals which means no mining because these batteries don't contain a flammable electrolyte
or use highly reactive materials like lithium they can forego temperature management and fire
suppressant systems that other batteries need to have or at the very least they require much less
stuff for thermal and fire management remember every pound of stuff that's needed for things
like this is a pound of stuff that adds weight but not energy storage this factor is huge in the
energy density of an individual cell versus the density of an entire pack also they can tolerate
much colder temp temperatures than lithium-ion battery scan while on Ev today parked in negative
30 degrees Celsius climates would have to actively heat the battery pack and lose range slowly even
while parked this might not be the case for the polymer battery because of these features
polyjule claims that their levelized cost of energy is about 30 percent less than lithium
ion with a Target price point at around 65 dollars per kilowatt hour while this is still quite a bit
higher than the 20 per kilowatt hour that some researchers point to as the critical price point
for energy storage is still significantly less than lithium ion which hovers between 143 and 250
dollars per kilowatt hour and polygual batteries could potentially last longer than lithium on
batteries currently Lithium-ion batteries have lifespans of around 15 to 20 years but polyjule
claims that their technology could nearly double that with projected lifespans between 20 and 30
years in the lab polyjules team performed 12 000 charge cycles at a hundred percent and
depth of discharge so in terms of cost polygual batteries could be cheaper to build last longer
and degrade less over time than their competitors now as we mentioned above the polymers used in
these batteries are essentially Plastics and of course we all know plastic is pretty terrible
for the environment fortunately according to the company their batteries are 95 recyclable
and using polymers for these types of batteries could create a whole new market for recyclable
materials which could be a major win but there's little info available on just how much recycled
Plastics could be put into the batteries so yes at the end of their life they're recyclable but
what could we do with the tons of plastic waste we already have in existence today and what about
performance polyjule batteries boast power densities 10 times higher than lithium ion
remember power density is a measure of power output per unit volume if electricity is water
power density is the size of your hose a larger hose can put up more water at once this was a
major feature I mentioned in my graphene super capacitor video the products under development
can rapidly discharge up to one megawatt hour in less than 10 seconds then recharge to full
capacity in under 5 minutes compare that to a Tesla battery that would require around 30
minutes or so to reach a level of charge of 80 percent now here's where the reality check comes
in while these batteries have many advantages over lithium on batteries like greater power
density where they simply cannot compete is energy density the amount of electricity they can hold
per unit volume remember the water analogy well if power density is the size of the hose energy
density is the size of your tank according to the MIT researchers behind Polo Jules technology
Lithium-ion batteries have energy densities up to five times greater than the polymer battery
under development this means polyjoule would need a battery five times as big to store the
same amount of energy so yeah not ideal for say your phone or laptop but the Abundant safety and
Longevity might make it an excellent candidate for stationary grid storage when we report on a new
battery chemistry or breakthrough the goal isn't to replace today's lithium on batteries because
while all this research is going on the lithium ion battery isn't just standing still today's
lithium on batteries have less Cobalt than ever some have none at all plus solid state batteries
are ever on the horizon this polygel battery isn't a replacement it's a supplement current
Tesla powerwalls while beautiful and compact do use that precious lithium-ion battery material for
stationary applications for every 5.5 powerwalls Tesla makes they could make a Long Range model Y
and while lower energy densities are a no-go for EVS they might be just fine for home storage would
you buy a power wall equivalent battery that was five times as big but lasted two to three times as
long and cost quite a bit less yeah that's kind of the question isn't it don't forget they have
five times the power density which would be great for power surgers for larger appliances like air
conditioners and heaters and at grid level they're hugely benefit special for grid balancing power
conditioning Peak shaving and more according to Paula Jewell CEO Eli Pastor in 2021 the ideas
that we work on in the lab you'll see turned into products three to four years from now and
they will still be Innovative and well ahead of the curve when they get to the market but
for all we know about polygil and their battery there's just as much that we don't for example
efficiency I couldn't find data on this anywhere this is again where lithium ion Reigns Supreme and
other batteries we've covered like cryogenic air or pumped Hydro lags behind based on the fact that
this data isn't highlighted I'm guessing it's not as good as lithium ion also nearly all the plastic
in the world comes from fossil fuel so when it comes to this battery there's two ways this can go
this could finally be the solution to the massive mass of plastic we've made of the past 70 years
while it was first invented in 1862 by Alexander parks and showcased at the London International
exhibition it wouldn't flood Our Lives until the 1950s in 1988 the society for Plastics industry
established a system for categorizing many recyclable plastics into groups numbered one
through seven shown here if the polyjule battery requires very specific types of plastic then very
little recycling will be possible but if they could develop their chemistry to work with a
wide range of existing plastic this could be huge there's so little incentive to do the
right thing in our world recycling is largely and sadly a sham because it's almost always
cheaper for companies to just buy new plastic than to actually buy recycled if we can better
standardize new plastics for recyclability and companies like poly Jewel can find novel ways of
using it for energy storage this could be a game changer I'm going to try to reach out to polyjule
for an on-site or interview and if I do I'll make a follow-up video at this point I have a ton of
questions but color me intrigued by the way we talked a little bit about graphene in this video
but if you want to learn a whole lot more about this Wonder material check out this video next