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tahanson43206

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Registered: 2018-04-27

Posts: 19,365

Potassium-ion Battery

This technology was first reported to the forum by SpaceNut on 2024/08/02

World’s first 18650 Potassium-ion battery debuts, can replace lithium cells

An 18650 potassium-ion battery represents a category of rechargeable batteries that employs potassium ions as the charge carrier, in contrast to the more prevalent lithium ions.

This type of battery possesses the same form factor as the commonly utilized 18650 lithium-ion battery, with a diameter of 18 mm and a length of 65 mm.

The battery operates at a nominal voltage of 3.7V, thus guaranteeing compatibility with contemporary electronic devices and systems.

Moreover, it has exhibited a clear trajectory toward achieving a gravimetric energy density of 160-180Wh/kg, which is on par with lithium iron phosphate lithium-ion batteries (LFP-LIB).

It can be a compelling substitute for both lithium-ion batteries based on LiFePO4 (LFP) and sodium-ion batteries (NIBs), which have encountered difficulties related to cost and effectiveness.

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tahanson43206

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Registered: 2018-04-27

Posts: 19,365

Re: Potassium-ion Battery

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kbd512

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Registered: 2015-01-02

Posts: 7,852

Re: Potassium-ion Battery

Production was 53.2 million tonnes in 2013 and increased steadily to 71.9 million tonnes in 2021 before falling to 64.6 million tonnes in 2022. In 2022, the global reserves of potash were estimated at more than 3.3 billion tonnes (potassium oxide equivalent).

There might actually be enough Potassium to power most motorized vehicles.  Grid storage still remains a pipe dream.  Lithium production was 180,000t in 2023, up from 95,000t in 2018 before COVID, but is still a laughably small amount, relative to the demand placed upon it by the EV industry.  President Biden's administration refuses to allow American mining companies to produce domestic Lithium from our considerable reserves, so there's a political effort to constrain the global supply and make America dependent upon China for our Lithium.  Maybe the next President will be more receptive to Lithium mining, or perhaps we'll recognize that we (alone, meaning US and Canada, not total global production) produce at least 3 orders of magnitude more Potassium than global Lithium production.  That would ease the burden on Lithium and allow it to remain the metal of choice for powering cell phones and laptops, where it does its best work.  Potassium extraction is far less toxic than Lithium- no lakes of fluorescent green "ooze".

If this Potassium-ion battery has the same voltage, same duty cycle, same form factor, and similar energy storage capacity, then it's a worthwhile substitute for Lithium, a metal that is in chronic short supply and probably always will be.

kbd512

Administrator

Registered: 2015-01-02

Posts: 7,852

Re: Potassium-ion Battery

Apparently, these KiBs / PiBs have the same failure mechanisms as LiBs, specifically dendrite growth, and last for fewer cycles before greater total storage capacity is lost, so there will need to be quite a bit of development work and manufacturing development devoted to making them stable / longer-lasting / manufacturable, but they remain very interesting because there is not nearly enough Lithium for our battery enthusiasts to do everything they want to do with batteries.  In about 10 years time, they could replace Lithium for certain applications where cost is more important than energy density or service life.

These batteries could become very interesting for all-electric submarines if they're cheaper than Lithium-ion and the idea is to "tech refresh" the batteries every 10 to 20 years, because the total number of charge / discharge cycles is so low.  If an electric fast attack submarine conducts a 15 day war patrol in the littorals each month in the South China Sea, then they're only charging / discharging 240 times over 20 years.  I recently read an article that claimed 95.4% remaining cell capacity over 350 charge / discharge cycles.

For the purposes of powering an all-electric submarine with absolute silence, these batteries would ostensibly be much cheaper than Lithium, not as toxic, possess greater volumetric energy density so they take up less space.  KiBs are also noted for their ability to generate a surge of power, somewhat like Lead-acid, without damage, so they could supply a burst of power to evade incoming torpedoes.

PIBs can be made with abundant and non-critical raw materials, such as aluminum, iron, manganese, potassium, etc., avoiding the use of critical raw and scarce elements (i.e., lithium, cobalt, copper, nickel, natural graphite) used in LIBs. An aluminum current collector can also be used in both electrodes because potassium does not alloy with aluminum to thermodynamically form intermetallic compounds, thus reducing battery cost and weight. For example, in the case of SIBs, 55% and 3% of battery mass and cost reduction can be obtained by replacing 10 µm thick copper with 15 µm thick aluminum. A similar outcome could be expected for PIBs.