Friday, August 14, 2020

Using Common Red Bricks to Store Energy

There are some conflicts in these stories about how often the bricks can be charged.
It would be interesting to see what bricks optimized for energy storage would cost - thermal mass & energy too!  Trickle charge a neighborhood during off-peak hours to massively reduce the peak load, thus eliminating the need for power-grid improvements.
The iron-rich red dirt on Mars might excel at this ...

Scientists Turned Red Bricks Into Supercapacitors:
https://news.yahoo.com/whoa-scientists-turned-red-bricks-131900765.html
"The resulting treated walls could act as a low-cost version of something like the Powerwall."

Scientists Turn Normal Red Bricks into Electricity-Storing Supercapacitors
"We have created a new brick that can be incorporated into your house that has the functionality of storing electrical energy."
https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/9358ye/scientists-turn-normal-red-bricks-into-electricity-storing-supercapacitors

Scientists Have Turned Bricks Into Batteries:
https://earther.gizmodo.com/scientists-have-turned-bricks-into-batteries-1844685622
"These brick batteries can be recharged in about 13 minutes, and have a lifetime of about 10,000 charges. This is all very exciting, but right now, the bricks can't store a ton of energy."

Scientists Turn Cheap, Old Red Bricks Into a Fast-Charging Battery Cell That Stores Energy For Emergency Use:
https://www.techtimes.com/articles/251745/20200812/scientists-turn-cheap-old-red-bricks-fast-charging-battery-cell.htm
"The researchers believe that the bricks could be used to power emergency lighting for five hours. D'Arcy notes that 50 of the PEDOT-coated bricks in close proximity would be sufficient to do so."
""Advantageously, a brick wall serving as a supercapacitor can be recharged hundreds of thousands of times within an hour. If you connect a couple of bricks, microelectronics sensors would be easily powered." D'Arcy said.
The team envisions that the PEDOT-coated red bricks be paired with solar energy technology to promote and utilize the red brick battery's sustainability effectively."

Scientists have turned the humble brick into a battery:

https://www.optimistdaily.com/2020/08/scientists-have-turned-the-humble-brick-into-a-battery/

Bricks That Store Energy Created by Scientists and They Could One Day Power Your Home:
https://www.newsweek.com/bricks-turned-energy-storage-devices-1524311


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