Environment & Energy
Related: About this forumDiscarded Laptop Batteries (can help) Keep the Lights On (in India)
http://www.technologyreview.com/news/532896/discarded-laptop-batteries-keep-the-lights-on/[font size=4]Millions of batteries discarded with computers have more than enough life to power home lighting for one year, researchers in India say.[/font]
By David Talbot on December 3, 2014
[font size=3]Many of the estimated 50 million lithium-ion laptop batteries discarded every year could provide electricity storage sufficient to light homes in poor countries, researchers at IBM say.
In work being aired this week at a conference in San Jose, researchers at IBM Research India in Bangalore found that at least 70 percent of all discarded batteries have enough life left to power an LED light at least four hours a day for a year.
While its possible to combine LED lights with solar panels and rechargeable batteries (see Innovators Under 35: Evans Wadongo), using discarded batteries could make the approach far cheaper.
The most costly component in these systems is often the battery, says Vikas Chandan, a research scientist at the labs Smarter Energy Group, who led the project. In this case, the most expensive part of your storage solution is coming from trash.
[/font][/font]
Fumesucker
(45,851 posts)You have to take the battery apart though to use the good cells, the battery management system built into the laptop pack will not allow it to operate with bad cells in the pack.
Stripping out and rewiring the still good cells is the kind of labor intensive job that just doesn't pay enough of a return in developed countries to be worthwhile doing.
OKIsItJustMe
(19,938 posts)
to recover the good cells.
The good cells are then assembled with different circuitry to make new batteries.
However, your conclusion (that it is not worthwhile doing) is erroneous.
Similar systems (solar cells, charging batteries, to power LEDs at night) are already in use, in India and elsewhere. http://duckduckgo.com/?q=India+solar+LED+battery
This is a way to provide similar systems, making the most expensive portion (the battery) less expensive.
Fumesucker
(45,851 posts)In fact my ebike is powered by 144 recycled laptop cells that I personally harvested, tested and then wired together, I'm retired so the fact that I spent a couple of thousand dollars or so worth of time fooling with it isn't an issue, if I was trying to make a living doing it in the USA that would be an entirely different matter.
OKIsItJustMe
(19,938 posts)Do you suppose it would be worth your time then?
Talk about sucking fumes
Fumesucker
(45,851 posts)Great idea in India, in the US not so much unless you are marginal to the economy to start with.
Do you always descend to personal insults when you don't understand someone's point?
OKIsItJustMe
(19,938 posts)I try not to.
Allow me to apologize.
hunter
(38,328 posts)... but it's an inexpensive way to obtain them.
In laptop packs it's usually just one cell gone bad.
The problem with lithium cells is that they are fussy about charging; without a proper smart charger they are quickly destroyed, and in the case of some types of cells overheat and catch fire.
It will be interesting to see what happens as more and more hybrid and electric cars reach the salvage yards. I don't think they'll be available at the usual "pick-a-part" scrapyards. The fuel, lubricating, and cooling fluids can easily be drained from a conventional automobile, rendering it reasonably safe and inert. Electric cars will have to have the batteries removed and these batteries probably won't make it out to experimenters and shade-tree mechanics.
OKIsItJustMe
(19,938 posts)The IBM group, working with a hardware R&D firm called RadioStudio, tore open discarded laptop battery packaging and extracted individual storage units called cells, tested those individually to pick out the good ones, and recombined them to form refurbished battery packs. Then, after adding charging dongles as well as circuitry to prevent overheating, they gave them to five users in Bangalore who lived in slums or operated sidewalk carts.