Energy from bogs: Estonian scientists use peat to make batteries
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[October 13, 2021]
By Janis Laizans and Andrius Sytas
TARTU, Estonia (Reuters) - Peat, plentiful
in bogs in northern Europe, could be used to make sodium-ion batteries
cheaply for use in electric vehicles, scientists at an Estonian
university say.
Sodium-ion batteries, which do not contain relatively costly lithium,
cobalt or nickel, are one of the new technologies that battery makers
are looking at as they seek alternatives to the dominant lithium-ion
model.
Scientists at Estonia's Tartu University say they have found a way to
use peat in sodium-ion batteries, which reduces the overall cost,
although the technology is still in its infancy.
"Peat is a very cheap raw material - it doesn't cost anything, really,"
says Enn Lust, head of the Institute of Chemistry at the university.
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The process includes heating decomposed peat to a high temperature in a
furnace for 2-3 hours. The university expects the government to fund a
small-scale factory in Estonia to try out the technology.
Distillers in Scotland dry malt over peat fires to flavour whisky, and
some northern European countries use peat to fuel factories and
households, or as fertilizer.
As bogs are drained to mine peat, they release trapped carbon dioxide,
raising environmental concerns. But the Estonian scientists say they are
using decomposed peat, a waste product of traditional extraction methods
that is usually discarded.
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![](../images/101321pics/news_k21.jpg)
Tartu University's professor Enn Lust and student Patrick Teppor
work on carbon-based batteries using peat, in Tartu, Estonia.
September 30, 2021. REUTERS/Janis Laizans
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Sodium-ion batteries using peat will need to prove
they are commercially viable and can be scaled up, Lukasz Bednarski,
a market analyst and the author of a book on batteries, told
Reuters.
China's CATL in July became the first major automotive battery maker
to unveil a sodium-ion battery.
"I think that companies will increasingly try to commercialize the
sodium-ion battery, especially after the CATL announcement," said
Bednarski.
Less powerful sodium-ion batteries are likely to be used together
with lithium-ion technology to bring down the overall cost of a
battery pack, he said.
(Reporting by Janis Laizans in Tartu, Andrius Sytas in Vilnius and
Supantha Mukherjee in Stockholm; Writing by Andrius Sytas; Editing
by Giles Elgood)
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