The ORANGEES – ORgANics for Green Electrochemical Energy Storage project has been recently launched, with a €4 -million budget and the goal of developing increasingly sustainable, safer and cheaper advanced materials for a new generation of green batteries. The all-Italian partnership of organizing institutions includes the National Research Council (CNR) as coordinator along with the Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development (ENEA), the National Interuniversity Consortium of Materials Science and Technology (INSTM), the Italian Institute of Technology (IIT), Ricerca sul Sistema Energetico (RSE) and Standex International Corp.
Currently, lithium-ion batteries dominate the market for portable electronic devices and electric/hybrid-electric trucking systems. However, over the last decade, demand for lithium has increased rapidly, registering annual growth of between 7% and 10%. In such a scenario, there is a clear need to develop chemical alternatives in order to exploit energy from renewable sources and to have new energy storage systems based on abundant and cheap raw materials.
The project includes five lines of research, three of which arededicated to experimental activities on materials used for battery components and supercapacitors. These activities focus on the study of new hybrid (organic/inorganic) and purely organic materials obtained from waste from the agri-food industry (casein, whey, keratin, prickly pear and cellulose) and their validation for electrochemical performance. The project aims to increase the environmental sustainability of these materials, in order to decrease the storage of the inorganic component, such as lithium and cobalt, metals that are included in the EU list of 34 critical raw materials. Specifically, ENEA will deal with the selection of natural waste and by-products, verifying their use as raw materials to produce green membranes and electrodes.
“The recent roadmap on the electrochemical storage systems prepared by the ETIP Batteries Europe European technological platform shows that medium- to long-term evolution aims at latest-generation batteries based on new operating mechanisms (solid state and conversion systems) as well as alternative materials. Among these, organic compounds are of interest, such as those that will be developed and characterized under the ORANGEES project,” said Giulia Monteleone, director of the ENEA Energy Technologies and Renewable Sources Department.
The most promising organic materials will then be investigated by computer simulations, life cycle analyses and tests conducted in collaboration with partner Standex International Corp to verify the potential benefit in terms of final electrochemical performance.
“The project aims to contribute to the achievement of the ambitious energy objectives established at community level and implemented by the Italy the Integrated National Energy and Climate Plan (NECP), currently updated in light of the recent geopolitical crises,” said Alessandra Di Blasi, researcher of the CNR Institute for advanced energy technologies ‘Nicola Giordano’ (ITAE), ORANGEES scientific lead.
