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Challenge

Carbon Neutrality 2050

The European Union 2050 Strategy for Carbon Neutral Economy requires:

  • Increased energy efficiency
  • Increased electrification:
    • Large-scale adoption of renewable energy requires large-scale energy storage
  • Decreased fossil fuel usage:
    • Fossil fuels are energy dense and provide high power density

Strong need for an interconvertible (electricity ↔ storage) energy carrier to fill the energy and power gap left by fossil fuels

Alternative Energy Carrier

Requirements

  • Interconvertible to electricity with good round-trip energy efficiency
  • High energy density
  • High power density
  • Non-carbon based
  • Cost-effective
  • No greenhouse emissions (GHG)

Opportunity

Alternative Energy Carrier

How much energy does it contain?

How much does it weigh? (Gravimetric energy density)

How much space does it occupy? (Volumetric energy density)

The conversion reaction is where work is extracted from the fuel. Is this a fast or slow process? (Power Density)

What does it become?

How much space does it occupy? How much does it weigh? (Reaction product density)

Can it be converted back into the original material easily? (Ease of regeneration)

Is this energy carrier easily adopted? (Cost of implementation)

Solution

Alkali Metal Fuel Cell

Store alkali metal as a solid

  • Similar safety as advanced Li-ion batteries
  • Maximum volumetric energy density
  • Utilize liquid alkali metal as-needed (safety)

Store reaction products in most compact form

  • Maximum volumetric energy density
  • Optimize a solution to extract high power density from alkali metal