We have found a better alternative to electric batteries than lithium batteries
With rising energy prices in all markets, it is time for innovations. The bosses of Alsym Energy, a start-up from Boston, understood this well: According to Fast Company, their company is currently developing a new type of revolutionary battery. It would be a viable alternative to lithium batteries for powering electric cars, as the latter — although their cost has fallen by 97% since their launch — still doesn’t compete with fossil-fuel cars.
According to the company Alsym Energy, these rechargeable batteries would reduce production costs by half while eliminating the shortcomings of lithium batteries, such as environmental pollution and fire hazard.
“Our motivation was to make them affordable”, says CEO Mukesh Chatter. The project benefited from a budget of $32 million thanks to investors. Alsom Energy wants to enable automakers to offer cheaper electric vehicles, a far cry from the luxurious Tesla.
Facilitate access to electricity
According to Chatter “The fight against climate change requires the contribution of everyone. It can’t be just 1% of people buying luxury electric vehicles.»
Kripa Varanasi, a professor of mechanical engineering at MIT, has spent the last five years working with the startup on this project. He explains that since he had never worked on drums in the past, he was able to take an interest in them with new eyes: “If you’ve delved into batteries, you’re automatically heading towards lithium. We started looking for other chemicals.»
Because the patents are pending, the company declined to share details on how the batteries work. However, they are known to be based on water and other cheap and available materials such as manganese or metal oxide. “We started to see lithium-like performancesays Varanasi.
In addition, the batteries would not be combustible and could therefore also be used for other purposes, such as for maritime transport. In India, which has seen explosions and fires involving electric scooters recently, many consumers say they are afraid of owning an electric vehicle.
Alssym Energy plans to conduct tests with the first customers in early 2023 and could start large-scale production as early as 2025. The start-up also wants to produce batteries for energy storage, reaching hundreds of millions of people without access to electricity in the world. “You can connect it to a solar panel, for example, and store the energy to run a fan, some light bulbs, an internet connection and a small fridge.”explains the CEO. “It changes a life.”
