As society collectively recovers from the effects of the War on Drugs, and the propaganda aimed at cannabis that well predates it, we’re just now playing catchup, uncovering the myriad benefits of cannabis and hemp. While research continues to uncover potential medicinal benefits of cannabis and specific cannabinoids, like THC and CBD, the legalization of hemp in the U.S. with 2018’s Farm Bill has opened up an array of new opportunities for practical hemp use.
Whether it’s the new hemp sneaker from Reebok, Mavi’s new hemp denim collection, tiny homes created with corrugated hemp sheets or even new hemp-based rebar, we’re just now seeing the potential in hemp as an alternative, more sustainable option for a variety of products.
Now, after years of work, Texas-based Bemp Research says it has developed a lithium sulfur battery that relies on hemp, called B4C-hemp (short fo “boron carbide made from hemp). According to CleanTechnica, the battery would overcome many of the challenges lithium-ion batteries come with, in terms of cost, weight, scalability, performance and recyclability.
The Bemp Research website declares its plan to “disrupt the $150 billion battery market,” mentioning that its next-generation batteries were invented in conjunction with University of North Texas and independent tests by leading battery scientists at University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.
“Bemp offers a path to shorten supply chains, dominate the battery space and create thousands of high paying jobs,” the site reads. “The high energy density of the batteries will help electrify cars, trucks and is the only viable option for electric commercial flight.”
Founder Son Nguyen chatted about the technology with Energy Tech earlier this year, clarifying that the technology uses “lightweight and abundant” materials, like sulfur, boron and carbonized hemp, instead of heavy metals, like nickel and cobalt.
Regarding the choice of hemp specifically, Nguyen cited the durability, porosity and low costs.
“LiS batteries have problems such as the cathode contracting/expanding during charging/discharging, and the cathode’s polysulfides shuttling to the anode and hurting the batteries’ performance,” Nguyen said, adding that researchers could solve these issues using expensive materials, like graphene. The problem is that graphene is “impossible” to mass produce, Nguyen said.
“Hemp is a better, lower-cost solution,” he added. “Hemp’s durability can help the cathode withstand hundreds of cycles of contraction and expansion. Hemp’s porous structure can help “trap” the polysulfides from shuttling to the anode.”
Nguyen also said that Bemp’s hemp batteries are safer than Li-ion batteries. If the battery is damaged, punctured, bent or crushed, the sulfur immediately reacts with the lithium to form a passive layer, preventing it from combusting, according to Nguyen. There’s no metallic oxide in Bemp’s batteries, so there is no risk of thermal runaway like Li-ion chemistries, he added.
“Since there is no cobalt or nickel, and lithium is the only valuable metal in our chemistry, recycling can be done much more easily compared to Li-ion. We just need to recover the lithium, and that is it,” he said.
Under tests, the batteries show they can be charged in just 20 minutes and are expected to last 100,000 miles with fast charging, or even longer with slow charging, Eco Watch reports.
Nguyen said that Bemp Research plans to mass produce its batteries before 2026, with the first applications set for drones and heavy-duty electric vehicles, like buses and trucks.
While it’s surely a more sustainable alternative, it’s still much too early to say whether or not Bemp’s new hemp battery will become the new standard. In this application, or a number of other unexplored iterations, hemp could very well become the next booming crop in the U.S. Though, Bemp Research’s lengthy journey in bringing its batteries to fruition shows just how painstaking and lengthy this process can be.
