Are Carbon Dioxide Breathing Batteries The Future Of Energy?

There are various ways in which electronics are green, but for the most part, it is about minimising carbon emissions during the acquisition, refinement and supply processes for the raw materials, and not requiring customers to use polluting fuels or sources of power.

This is something that is achieved through the cooperation of the entire supply chain process, from the businesses extracting the raw materials through to the process of recycling and reusing as much of the battery as possible.

However, new research from the University of Surrey suggests that there may be potential in so-called “breathing batteries” that could potentially not only help reduce emissions but create carbon-negative electronics and vehicles that could even operate on the surface of Mars.

To explain all of these steps, it is important to elaborate on the technology behind lithium-carbon dioxide (Li-CO2) batteries.

What Are Breathing Batteries? 

A lithium-carbon dioxide battery releases power in a process that captures carbon dioxide, which turns a theoretically carbon-neutral battery technology into one that could theoretically remove more carbon from the atmosphere than it emits.

When it releases power, the battery absorbs carbon dioxide, forming the compound material lithium carbonate in the process.

The concept has existed for several years, but the limiting factor has been the production of lithium carbonate itself, which creates resistance and potentially damaging side reactions.

This has typically manifested in utterly impractical battery lifespans; whilst most commercial lithium-ion batteries typically last thousands of charging cycles before they stop functioning, lithium–carbon dioxide batteries tend to build up so much lithium carbonate that they can stop functioning after just 100.

They also require a lot of energy to recharge. This is a problem known as “overpotential” and has been described as akin to riding a bicycle up a hill before it can easily ride down the other side.

There have been ways to get around this problem, but they have typically relied on platinum and other similarly rare metals, making them all but impossible to use commercially.

However, the University of Surrey have claimed they have found a breakthrough at their research facilities that could make it potentially practical for use in real-world applications.

What Is The Breakthrough?

The team at the University of Surrey discovered that caesium phosphomolybdate (CPM), a catalyst that is much cheaper and can be synthesised easily at room temperatures, provided far more stable charges whilst also significantly reducing the amount of energy needed to recharge the batteries.

Ultimately, CPM is a somewhat transitional material, as the goal is to find a catalyst that retains the phosphomolybdate qualities but has the potential for further gains with regard to charging cycles, overpotential reduction and lowering costs overall.

This development is still in an early stage, and a lot of research still needs to be undertaken to see how the system works in different pressurised environments.

This could potentially give it a wide range of applications, not only as a potential high-capacity, high-power replacement for lithium-ion batteries whilst using fewer rare metals, but also for purposes on other planets.

How Can Breathing Batteries Be Used?

The main appeal for breathing batteries is that they further offset industrial emissions, allowing them to serve as a greener alternative to lithium-ion batteries that offset the current carbon emissions caused by lithium mining.

As concerns increase that climate targets, such as net zero, could potentially be missed, more ambitious carbon capture solutions are required, which could include the implementation of batteries that not only emit no carbon dioxide whilst in use but also absorb it.

If they can make it a practical alternative to lithium-ion batteries in terms of charging lifespan, capacity and cost, there is the potential that they could make a very serious impact on climate change if deployed at scale.

Beyond existing uses, however, there are some other curious characteristics that make them potentially fascinating as a future source of power.

There is the potential to use them to reduce the polluting impact of exhaust fumes in hybrid cars or with gas boilers by redirecting carbon dioxide fumes towards the battery catalyst, assuming they can be used in varying pressure settings.

This means that, theoretically at least, a large enough breathing battery could offset the carbon dioxide fumes of a typical commute by absorbing carbon dioxide.

Even more fascinating, it could potentially be used on the planet Mars, where 95.97 per cent of the atmosphere is carbon dioxide, to power almost anything, as long as the atmospheric pressure variation does not adversely affect its charging capacity.