Researchers at MIT have developed a battery that could be made, in part, from carbon dioxide. The battery is designed to continuously convert CO2 into a carbonate (a solid) as it discharges.
The battery could thus suck up CO2 in power plants, thus help reducing carbon dioxide, which is a major greenhouse,in the air.
The battery is made from Lithium, carbon and a specially designed electrolyte.The battery system directly soaks up CO2 from inside power plants and converts the waste steam into a CO2 concentrated electrolyte.
Lithium-carbon-dioxide batteries typically require metal catalysts which are not only expensive but also require a careful control as the reaction can become too violent,thus the researchers on this project worked out a way to achieve the CO2 conversion without a catalyst by using carbon-dioxide in a liquid state, incorporating it into an amine solution.
The research is still in its preliminary stage and still has a long way to go for commercial deployment. The battery system is currently capped at 10 charge-discharge cycles- which restricts lithium-carbon batteries for any commercial purpose right now.