{"id":76063,"date":"2019-10-21T07:22:17","date_gmt":"2019-10-21T05:22:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/?p=76063"},"modified":"2020-06-18T13:08:37","modified_gmt":"2020-06-18T11:08:37","slug":"hemp-batteries-are-even-more-powerful-than-lithium-and-graphene-new-study-shows","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/hemp-batteries-are-even-more-powerful-than-lithium-and-graphene-new-study-shows\/","title":{"rendered":"Hemp Batteries Are Even More Powerful Than Lithium and Graphene, New Study Shows"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Hemp is a wonder crop. It\u2019s an incredibly versatile plant that can be used for a huge range of purposes.<\/p>\n<p>Used in the sustainable manufacture of clothing, food, and paper, as well as having huge industrial purposes, new research is now suggesting that hemp batteries are even more powerful than lithium and graphene.<\/p>\n<p>On his popular YouTube channel, Robert Murray Smith discussed the experiment.<\/p>\n<p>Smith began by observing a Volts by Amps curve of both the hemp and lithium batteries. To his initial surprise, the power underneath the hemp cell was a value of 31 while that of the lithium cell had a value of just 4.<\/p>\n<p>Smith modestly claims that he really hasn\u2019t done anything remarkable. He states that the results of the experiment simply show the performance of the hemp cell is \u201csignificantly better\u201d than its lithium counterpart.<\/p>\n<p>Take a look at his video below:<\/p>\n<div class=\"BorlabsCookie _brlbs-cb-youtube\">\n<div class=\"_brlbs-content-blocker\">\n<div class=\"_brlbs-embed _brlbs-video-youtube\"> <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"_brlbs-thumbnail\" src=\"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-content\/plugins\/borlabs-cookie\/assets\/images\/cb-no-thumbnail.png\" alt=\"YouTube\"> <\/p>\n<div class=\"_brlbs-caption\">\n<p>By loading the video, you agree to YouTube&#8217;s privacy policy.<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/policies.google.com\/privacy?hl=en&amp;gl=en\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">Learn more<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a class=\"_brlbs-btn _brlbs-icon-play-white\" href=\"#\" data-borlabs-cookie-unblock role=\"button\">Load video<\/a><\/p>\n<p><label><input type=\"checkbox\" name=\"unblockAll\" value=\"1\" checked> <small>Always unblock YouTube<\/small><\/label><\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"borlabs-hide\" data-borlabs-cookie-type=\"content-blocker\" data-borlabs-cookie-id=\"youtube\"><script type=\"text\/template\">PGlmcmFtZSB0aXRsZT0iSGVtcCBCYXR0ZXJ5IEFzIEdvb2QgQXMgTGl0aGl1bSBJb24\/IiB3aWR0aD0iNTAwIiBoZWlnaHQ9IjI4MSIgc3JjPSJodHRwczovL3d3dy55b3V0dWJlLW5vY29va2llLmNvbS9lbWJlZC83SzRlSU9taUpMND9mZWF0dXJlPW9lbWJlZCIgZnJhbWVib3JkZXI9IjAiIGFsbG93PSJhY2NlbGVyb21ldGVyOyBhdXRvcGxheTsgY2xpcGJvYXJkLXdyaXRlOyBlbmNyeXB0ZWQtbWVkaWE7IGd5cm9zY29wZTsgcGljdHVyZS1pbi1waWN0dXJlOyB3ZWItc2hhcmUiIHJlZmVycmVycG9saWN5PSJzdHJpY3Qtb3JpZ2luLXdoZW4tY3Jvc3Mtb3JpZ2luIiBhbGxvd2Z1bGxzY3JlZW4+PC9pZnJhbWU+<\/script><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>While this might be the first time you\u2019re hearing of hemp\u2019s ability to act as a great power source, the discovery isn\u2019t new.<\/p>\n<p>In 2014, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/science-environment-28770876\" target=\"_blank\">researchers in the US found <\/a>that waste fibers (also known as \u2018shiv\u2019) from the hemp plant can be transformed into \u201cultrafast\u201d super capacitors that are \u201cbetter than graphene.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>If you\u2019re unfamiliar with graphene, it is a unique, man-made carbon material that is bulletproof as well as being lighter than foil. There\u2019s obviously a lot of expensive technology that goes into graphene\u2019s production, with cost being the main draw back. Fortunately, hemp costs one-thousandth of the price in manufacture.<br \/>\nIn the 2014 experiment, the team, led by Dr David Mitlin of Clarkson University, New York, \u2018cooked\u2019 leftover bark fibers of the plant (they normally end up in land fill or compost dumps) into carbon nanosheets. The total process is known as hydrothermal synthesis.<\/p>\n<p>The team then recycled the fibers into supercapacitors \u2013 or energy storage devices. Supercapacitors have revolutionized the way electronics are powered. Conventional batteries store a reservoir of energy and slowly feed through the power whereas Supercapacitors rapidly discharge their entire energy load. They are normally required in machines that require short, sharp bursts of power.<\/p>\n<p>Dr. Mitlin said:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPeople ask me: why hemp? I say, why not? We\u2019re making graphene-like materials for a thousandth of the price \u2013 and we\u2019re doing it with waste.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Mitlin states:<\/p>\n<p>\u201c\u2026you can do really interesting things with bio-waste. With banana peels, for instance, you can turn them into a dense block of carbon \u2013 we call it pseudo-graphite \u2013 and that\u2019s great for sodium-ion batteries. But if you look at hemp fibre its structure is the opposite \u2013 it makes sheets with high surface area \u2013 and that\u2019s very conducive to supercapacitors.\u201d<br \/>\nMitlin concludes that the resulting supercapacitors operate at a broad range of temperatures and a high energy density.<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"http:\/\/xn--mitlins%20peer-reviewed%20journal%20paper-8l1z\/\" target=\"_blank\">peer-reviewed journal paper<\/a> ranks the device \u201con par with or better than commercial graphene-based devices.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Mitlin explained:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey work down to 0C and display some of the best power-energy combinations reported in the literature for any carbon. For example, at a very high power density of 20 kW\/kg (kilowatt per kilo) and temperatures of 20, 60, and 100C, the energy densities are 19, 34, and 40 Wh\/kg (watt-hours per kilo) respectively.\u201d<br \/>\nWhen the machine is fully assembled, the energy density is 12 Wh\/kg, which can be achieved at a charge time less than six seconds.<\/p>\n<p>Texas-based electric motorcycle company Alternet announced in 2018 that it would be teaming up with Mitlin to power motorbikes for its ReVolt Electric Motorbikes subsidiary.<\/p>\n<p>Findings like these are clearly showing that hemp is a truly valuable resource. As the world wakes up and more nations start to decriminalize the plant, maybe more companies will follow suit and help transform our planet to live on sustainable energy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Hemp is a wonder crop. It\u2019s an incredibly versatile plant that can be used for a huge range of purposes. Used in the sustainable manufacture of clothing, food, and paper, as well as having huge industrial purposes, new research is now suggesting that hemp batteries are even more powerful than lithium and graphene. On his [&#8230;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","nova_meta_subtitle":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5572],"tags":[17173,5627,11323],"supplier":[7775],"class_list":["post-76063","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bio-based","tag-capacitors","tag-energy","tag-naturalfibers","supplier-clarkson-university"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76063","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=76063"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76063\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76063"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=76063"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=76063"},{"taxonomy":"supplier","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/supplier?post=76063"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}