Imagining Application of Water to Store Renewable Power is a Step-Away! 

This revolutionary yet cheap technology can store Solar and Wind energy subsequently and then easily can be fed to the grid and later redistributed when the demand is high.

Imagining water to store electricity can surely make your drink one more glass right-away as scientist have discovered a battery that is known to operate through the inevitable chemical equation of life, H2O.

Scientists at the Stanford University is working on this unique project which is set to change the course of current battery technology especially for renewables where storage has not managed to stand up front because of its cost.

This revolutionary yet cheap technology can store Solar and Wind energy subsequently and then easily can be fed to the grid and later redistributed when the demand is high.

The journal Nature Energy described the prototype as manganese-hydrogen battery is 3 inches tall and generates just 20 milliwatt hours of electricity which can power a LED flashlight one might hand on a key ring.

“Anganese-hydrogen battery technology could be one of the missing pieces in the energy puzzle – a way to store unpredictable wind or solar energy so as to lessen the need to burn reliable but carbon-emitting fossil fuels when the renewable sources are not available,” said Yi Cui, a professor at Stanford University in the US.

“What we have done is thrown a special salt into water, dropped in an electrode, and created a reversible chemical reaction that stores electrons in the form of hydrogen gas,” he added.

The reversible electron-exchange between water and manganese sulphate, paper, fertilizers, and other products were coaxed by researchers to come up with the prototype.

The researchers also attached a power source to the prototype is to mimic how a wind or solar source might feed power into the battery.

The electrons flowing in reacted with the manganese sulphate dissolved in the water to leave particles of manganese dioxide clinging to the electrodes. The excess electrons bubbled off as hydrogen gas thus storing that energy for future use.

It is pertinent to mention here that the researchers already knew how to recreate electricity from the energy stored in hydrogen gas but the important task was to recharge the water-based battery.

However, the task was accomplished by re-attaching their power source to the depleted prototype, this time with an aim of inducing the manganese dioxide particles clinging to the electrode to combine with water, replenishing the manganese sulphate salt.

Chi said “Given the water-based battery’s expected lifespan, it would cost a penny to store enough electricity to power a 100 watt lightbulb for twelve hours.”

Source: Outlook