Concrete is an ancient and commonly used building material, but it may also be the energy storage device of the future. By changing the way cement is made, engineers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have developed a new type of concrete that can act as a supercapacitor and store electric charge.
According to IT House, the raw materials of this new type of concrete are cement and carbon black. Cement is a material that is thousands of years old, and carbon black is a black powder that was once used as the ink for the Dead Sea Scrolls two thousand years ago. Carbon black is electrically conductive, and engineers have found that if it is mixed with cement and water in a specific way, it will form a long network of carbon "wire" branches as the cement hardens, which makes the material function as a supercapacitor. "All of a sudden, you have a material that can hold a load, but also store energy.". Franz-Josef Ulm, professor of civil engineering at MIT and co-author of the study, said.
Unlike batteries, ultracapacitors do not degrade their energy storage capacity over time, nor do they require the use of expensive and controversial materials such as cobalt and lithium in lithium-ion batteries. Because carbon black is cheap, its cost is similar to that of concrete.
The new technology could solve one of the main challenges of renewable energy scaling: Because solar and wind power are not always available, building more reasonably priced energy storage quickly is a necessary condition for moving away from fossil fuels.
Engineers have chosen to use cement in part because cement production has a large carbon footprint, and giving it a second use that supports renewable energy can make it more sustainable. The process can also be used in conjunction with new alternatives to cement that reduce emissions during manufacturing, such as a carbon-negative cement designed by startup Brimstone.
In a house, the solar panels on the roof are connected by cables, and the foundation made of this material can be used to store as much solar energy as the house uses in a day. In a wind farm, it can be used in the base of a wind turbine. The concrete can also be used to make roads and charge electric vehicle on the move. In the new study, researchers found that these capacitors can be designed to charge slowly (as in a house) or discharge quickly (as in a electric vehicle charger). After testing a small version
in the lab, the team now plans to scale up. The first prototype could be unveiled within 18 months, Ulm said.
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