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MIT scientists propose power storage using cement blocks (www.datacenterdynamics.com)

submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/technology

54 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Plan to commercialize supercapacitors in the next few years

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[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 year ago (2 children)

One of the big catches is how Greenhouse gas intensive concrete production is

[–] Spedwell 4 points 1 year ago

I think the idea here is to bake it into construction that would happen anyway. If you just need energy storage, keep using batteries. But if you're pouring a foundation already, why not also turn that foundation into a battery?

[–] eager_eagle 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

concrete seems to be used here for its structural properties, just like we do it today. Their solution doesn't seem to require it:

If more powerful capacitors are required, they can be made with a larger concentration of carbon black, at the expense of some structural strength. This could be useful for applications where the concrete is not playing a structural role or where the full strength potential of concrete is not required. For applications such as a foundation, or structural elements of the base of a wind turbine, the “sweet spot” is around 10 percent carbon black in the mix, the team says.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (2 children)

And how greenhouse gas intensive is carbon black production?

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago

If you’re releasing CO2 you’re losing carbon.

If you make it with electricity it’s effectively a carbon sink.

[–] eager_eagle 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

If it's just a byproduct of other industries, like existing coal power plants, it might be seen as carbon neutral. And lithium batteries also use it.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Carbon black is produced bij burning a hydrocarbon with a limited amount of air. It's not a byproduct, but uses organic materials. This can be of renewable sources like vegetable oil, but it is made a lot from the heavy fractions in fossil oil.