As our society advances, we are coming up with more and more ways to conserve energy and find renewable energy resources. Batteries made with sulfur are becoming much more valuable than the standard lithium-ion batteries for a few reasons. First, sulfur as an energy source is much stronger than lithium-ion, as they can store about six times as much energy. Finally, sulfur is much more common and cheaper than lithium-ion. Lithium-ion batteries need specific minerals to produce electrodes and those minerals are being predicted to be scarce as early as 2022. Sulfur batteries may become the norm within 5 years.
Key Takeaways:
- As our society advances, we need to find new technologies to use to not only store energy but use energy as well.
- Lithium-sulfur batteries store a lot more energy than lithium-ion batteries, as much as 6 times the amount of energy.
- Lithium-ion batteries require minerals that have been predicted to be scarce as early as 2022, sulfur is very cheap and much more common.
“Lithium-ion batteries require minerals such as rare earth, nickel, and cobalt to produce their positive electrodes.”
