Today’s Solutions: November 22, 2024

Yesterday we published a story (emissary section) about a new lithium-sulfur battery that has a capacity five times higher than that of lithium-ion batteries, which means it can keep a phone charged for five days. Today, we bring you another major advancement in batteries: a battery-free of cobalt, nickel and other heavy metals, avoiding the environmental and humanitarian issues related to lithium-ion technology.

Developed by IBM, this battery is made from three materials that can be extracted from seawater, a much less invasive sourcing method than mining. IBM says there is no record of these materials previously combined into a battery—and though it is a novel approach, IBM has proven that the battery outperforms lithium-ion versions, so it has the potential to improve electric vehicles and energy storage.

For all the energy storage improvements that lithium-ion technology has been able to catalyze, lithium-ion also has a dark side with terrible environmental and humanitarian practices attached to the mining of it. With this sustainable battery, we can finally move beyond the lithium-ion battery.

Solutions News Source Print this article
More of Today's Solutions

Changemakers of the week: GRuB and SparkNJ

Every day on the Optimist Daily, we report on solutions from around the world. Though we love solutions big and small, the ones that ...

Read More

The giant beneath the waves: world’s largest coral found in the Pacific

BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM In a world where bad news about the environment routinely outweighs good news, scientists have discovered an incredible ...

Read More

Tortoise discovered in a home in Pompeii

Almost 2000 years after the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius and its trapping of the city of Pompeii in time, archaeologists are still making discoveries ...

Read More

Revel at the most detailed image of our universe yet

Here at The Optimist Daily, we have been sharing every exciting step of the James Webb Telescope’s journey, from its long-awaited launch, to when ...

Read More