Regardless of whether we use them for the mere purpose of enlightenment, or with the intention of expanding ourselves spiritually, hundreds of thousands of people light candles in their homes every day. It is such a common and common practice that dates back many centuries. And that, nowadays, it is not only related to merely spiritual or religious issues.
For example, there are those who enjoy the flame of a large candle while reading their favorite book on a rainy winter night. Or who loves to work in front of their computer while a soy candle burns in the candlestick to their left. Be that as it may, in addition to lighting, it seems that candles could very soon have an even more useful and interesting use if possible.
And it is that a compound commonly used in the manufacture of candles, and that we find in its composition, would offer the promise of helping to achieve a real energy challenge , by being able to store massive amounts of energy with which to feed the electrical network when the need arises.
Scientists at the US Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory have shown that inexpensive organic compounds in candles could hold great promise for storing grid energy.
This would be the case of a bright yellow powder, known by the name of common fluorenone , which has proven to be an interesting element for the storage of energy in different flow battery systems , which consist of large systems capable of storing energy for the grid. electrical.
As the experts say, the development of this storage is, to say the least, essential, since when the network is disconnected as a consequence, for example, of problems associated with the weather, large batteries are activated, minimizing interruptions and increasing resistance. of the network in the presence of severe weather.
In addition, batteries can also be used in order to store solar energy and renewable energy from the wind , to use it when the sun does not shine or when there is simply no wind.
The results of the research, which has been supported by the DOE’s Office of Electricity, was published in the journal Science just a few days ago, in whose article scientists have shown that low-cost organic fluorenone would be a viable candidate. and ideal when it comes to energy storage .
In laboratory tests, which mimicked real-world conditions, the PNNL battery operated continuously for a total period of 120 days , ending only when other equipment, not directly related to the battery itself, was exhausted. The battery, in turn, went through 1,111 full charge and discharge cycles, equivalent to several years of operation under normal circumstances, while only losing less than 3 percent of its energy capacity .
The flow battery created by the team of researchers measures only 10 square centimeters, and is capable of producing around 500 milliwatts of energy; although this amount is not capable, not even, of feeding the camera of our mobile phone. However, scientists are very hopeful, given that the energy density achieved is more than double that of the vanadium batteries used today . And what is even more interesting: its different chemical components are much cheaper, durable and widely available .
Reference: DOI: 10.1126 / science.abd9795 R. Feng el al., “Reversible ketone hydrogenation and dehydrogenation for aqueous organic redox flow batteries,” Science (2021).
