The neurotic dread of hemp among Americans dates back to the 1936 release of the film Reefer Madness . The humble hemp plant, which may have more uses than any other crop, has been mocked as a result. However, it might be a crucial part of batteries in the future, increasing their energy density and sharply reducing their price.
Dr. David Mitlin of Clarkson University in New York, who led a team that “boiled” hemp bark and converted it into synthetic graphene, was one of the first academics to investigate the advantages of hemp. In 2014, the journal of the American Chemical Society published his work.
Mitchell told the BBC , People often inquire, ‘Why hemp?’ So why not, I ask? We can produce materials that resemble graphene at a thousandth of the cost by using garbage.
TEXAS HEMPH Nearly ten years later, Texas-based Bemp Research claims to have created a lithium sulfur battery that also uses hemp. This battery is referred to as B4C-hemp, which stands for “boron carbide manufactured from hemp.” According to the company, this battery would solve numerous lithium-ion battery problems related to price, weight, scalability, performance, and recycling. Although the founder Son Nguyen recently gave an interview to Energy Tech in which he provided additional information about this revolutionary technology, the website’s dearth of information is frustrating.
EnergyTech — Describe your LiS technology, its planned uses, and the advantages of using LiS/B4C-hemp over Li-ion batteries.
Nguyen — In terms of gravimetric energy density, safety, and, most importantly, affordability and environmental friendliness, LiS/B4C-hemp batteries outperform Li-ion batteries. Instead of using heavy metals like nickel and cobalt, our chemistry relies on components that are cheap, lightweight, and readily available, such as boron, carbonized hemp, and sulfur. Hemp-based LiS/B4C batteries will be excellent for electric aircraft and heavy-duty trucks.
What role does hemp play in energy technology, and why is hemp the best material option?
Nguyen — Hemp was selected as one of the primary materials because of its strength, porosity, and affordability. The cathode of LiS batteries can contract or expand during charging and discharging, and the polysulfides on the cathode can shuttle to the anode and impair battery performance. Researchers may use pricey materials like graphene to tackle these issues, but it is impossible to mass-produce graphene. The better, more affordable option is hemp. The cathode can resist hundreds of cycles of contraction and expansion thanks to hemp’s robustness. The porosity nature of hemp can aid in “trapping” the polysulfides to prevent them from moving to the anode.
Energy Technology There are significant supply chain constraints in all areas of manufacturing, including the production of Li-ion batteries. Would the difficulties in the Li-ion supply chain be overcome by your LiS/B4C-hemp batteries?
Nguyen — There is a lot of sulfur around. Additionally, there is a fair amount of boron, with the largest boron mine being in California. Additionally, we collaborate strategically with Delta Agriculture, the largest hemp producer in the USA. Hemp is a legal crop that Delta Agriculture emphasizes uses less water, no pesticides, and is more effective at storing carbon than trees. We do not anticipate any supply chain issues because we are an American company making batteries for domestic electric automobiles. Bemp batteries will benefit U.S. national security since they depend less on foreign rare earth metals.
Energy Tech — Why is LiS/B4C-hemp safer, more environmentally friendly, and more recyclable than Li-ion?
LiS/B4C-hemp batteries, according to Nguyen, are safer than Li-ion batteries because if the battery is harmed, punctured, bent, or crushed, sulfur will rapidly react with lithium to produce a passive layer, preventing a fire. Additionally, unlike Li-ion chemistries, our chemistry does not contain metallic oxide, eliminating the possibility of thermal runaway. Lithium can be recycled far more easily than Li-ion because there isn’t any cobalt or nickel in our chemistry, and it’s the only precious metal. The only thing left to do is recover the lithium.
Energy Technology What is the next step in the technology development process and how far along are you?
— Nguyen We have put our LiS/B4C-hemp batteries through a number of stress tests to determine how they react to various charge/discharge rates. They have double the gravimetric energy density of the best Li-ion batteries and can be fully charged in 20 minutes. The gravimetric energy density may potentially be higher at slower charge rates. For electric vehicles, this translates to a doubling or tripling of the range per charge. For lithium sulfur engineering, the cycle life is also quite good, and we project that our batteries will last for 100,000 miles when charged quickly and longer when charged slowly before needing to be recycled.
The next stage is to create larger battery packs and cells and conduct more stress tests. For instance, our batteries worked well in a wide variety of lab temperatures, but to confirm our findings, we need to let them cycle longer in very cold and very hot temperatures.
When might your technology be made commercially available, and what would probably be the first uses for it? Energy Tech
Nguyen: Before 2026, we intend to mass produce our batteries. Drones and heavy-duty electric vehicles like buses and lorries will be the first to employ them.
THE CONCLUSION We don’t know who will figure out how to make cheap, high-power batteries, but we have no doubt that someone will in the next two to three years. Simply put, there is too much money pouring into the field and too many researchers working tirelessly for it to not happen.
We honestly don’t know if hemp-derived graphene will contribute to the answer, but it is undoubtedly a desirable alternative. Almost everywhere it is planted, hemp will grow. It requires little water and none at all. For farmers, it can be a very alluring cash crop. The future? It might potentially take the place of corn in the Midwest’s agrarian economies. Imagine the revolution that would bring about.
Bemp Research’s lack of fundamental data is alarming. They are actively looking for money to advance their mission to go from concept to commercialization. They can be playing it safe to avoid giving the competitors an advantage, or they might be using smoke and mirrors to make the founder and his team look good before moving on to something else.
Our goal is to keep readers up to date on the EV revolution’s latest advancements. We will let you know if we learn anything new regarding hemp and graphene.
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