Sri Lankan graphite: To store energy and fix economy | Print Edition

The power disaster is the anticipated climax of the utilization of the cycle of oil, fuel, and coal while releasing undesirable quantities of greenhouse gases. Through the years, scientists, environmentalists, and lots of non-profitable and governmental organisations raised their voices to face towards local weather change. The power demand is growing day-to-day resulting from overconsumption, overpopulation, crumbling and deterioration of the infrastructure in energy vegetation, and power wastage ensuing from pointless or irresponsible utilization of power assets.

The power disaster made a big affect on the economies of assorted international locations all all over the world together with Sri Lanka.

Inside Asia itself, China has shut down a number of factories because of the quick provide of coal, and the output of China’s factories has shrunk considerably final September. Energy vegetation in India are additionally operating on critically low coal shares. In Europe, the costs of pure fuel have already leaped multifold by over 400 per cent because the starting of final 12 months whereas the worth of electrical energy has risen by over 250 per cent.

Whereas the world is going through an power crunch, a growing nation like Sri Lanka (SL) may face quite a few difficulties in fulfilling the power demand. The SL Authorities has due to this fact resorted to rationing energy to handle the disaster inflicting immense issues to the day-to-day actions of the locals. Nonetheless, there are a number of alternate options to resolve this situation as an alternative of imposing common energy cuts.

1) Bettering power effectivity and conservation 

Decreasing power consumption is all the time a viable resolution to barter with the power disaster. For instance, there are about seven million electrical energy customers in SL. If all these customers resolve to modify off one single bulb throughout peak hours, there will likely be a big saving on the nationwide stage. Nonetheless, such collective efforts are usually not simple to implement because it requires an enormous dedication from the customers. Due to this fact, systematic enhancements to the power infrastructure akin to sensible grid and sensible metropolis options geared up with fashionable and energy-efficient units could possibly be a viable resolution for this ever rising power demand.

2) Introducing environment friendly renewable power to switch fossil gas 

Renewable power sources akin to photo voltaic,     wind, hydropower, geothermal, and biomass are being examined and efficiently carried out in lots of international locations through the years. Though the power transition from fossil gas to renewable power has begun, intermittency is the important thing situation with these renewable power sources as they may not be accessible throughout peak hours of power demand. That is the place power storage methods, primarily batteries, come into play. Battery-based power storage methods might be utilised to retailer renewable power when accessible and launch that conserved power when the demand is excessive. At the moment, many of the renewable power farms akin to photo voltaic and wind are established as off-grid methods primarily because of the unpredictability of those sources and it’s fairly troublesome for a central physique to stability the grid with fluctuating power sources. Thus, battery storage can also be essential for grid balancing and clean distribution.

Within the 1800s, the primary true battery was invented by an Italian physicist Alessandro Volta. Through the years, varied varieties of batteries got here into the market together with alkaline, lead-acid, lithium-ion, nickel-metal hydride and nickel-cadmium. Amongst them, Lithium-ion Battery (LIB) may be very fashionable out there resulting from its confirmed efficiency and suitability for cell functions. The mixed efforts of Stanley Whittingham, John B. Goodenough, and Akira Yoshino have paved the trail for the first-ever business LIB in 1991. During the last 30 years, LIB has come a good distance with varied enhancements to make it extra compact, and secure whereas concurrently enhancing the power density and cycle life. It may be mentioned that LIBs are enjoying a significant function in offering power storage options for renewable power sources to minimise (and hopefully eradicate) burning fossil fuels.

Among the many sizable quantity of associated analysis taking place all over the world, SL too is making its mark on growing low-cost and high-performance electrode supplies for LIBs. The Nationwide Centre for Superior Battery Analysis (NCABR) of the Nationwide Institute of Basic Research (NIFS) is presently engaged on bettering the Sri Lankan pure vein graphite as a battery-grade materials. Sri Lankan vein graphite is recognized as a purest type of graphite on the earth because the carbon content material of Sri Lanka’s graphite is greater than 90 per cent Cg (whole carbon in graphite kind). This graphite is especially sourced from three mines in Sri Lanka; Bogala, Kahatagaha, and Ragedara. To enhance this graphite as a battery-grade materials, carbon content material ought to be improved as much as 99.9 per cent Cg.

Most individuals aren’t conscious that at first of the twentieth Century, Sri Lanka was the world’s largest producer of graphite. Ceylon Graphite Corp mentioned: “In 2015, demand for graphite was 85,000 tonnes. In 2018 it was 160,000 tonnes. By 2028 analysts predict it to rise to 1,800,000 tonnes. This isn’t simply because of the Electrical Car market, but additionally because of the improve in demand of lubricants, power storage, and electronics.”

Not too long ago NCABR obtained a patent for a extremely sensible and cost-effective purification methodology to transform vein graphite into battery-grade graphite. Nonetheless, as a way to commercialise this product, it’s important to conduct security research by rigorous warmth experiments, thermal analyses, and thermal modeling. The Division of Mechanical Engineering of the College of Moratuwa (DoME UoM) stepped in to offer options for this facet, thus eradicating the final standing barrier to commercialise the first-ever LIB made utilizing Sri Lankan battery-grade graphite.

Since Sri Lanka is presently going through a extreme overseas change disaster, the nation is battling a scarcity of just about all necessities because of the lack of overseas foreign money to pay for the imports. Moreover, the state our bodies associated to petroleum merchandise have stopped oil provides citing to colossal dues owed by the Ceylon Electrical energy Board because the COVID 19 outbreak.

Nonetheless, within the overseas market, the worth of Sri Lankan vein graphite averaged round US$2,300 per metric ton in 2020. It’s fairly shocking to seek out out that, Sri Lanka may earn over $10 billion income by exporting value-added graphite merchandise akin to Graphene, Conductive Graphite, Graphite Nanotubes, and tremendous Lubricants. Not solely the overseas revenues however growing LIBs regionally additionally may create many facet advantages together with job creation and land worth appreciation. Given the excessive charges of unemployment in graphite mining areas akin to Bogala, Kahatagaha, and Ragedara, these facet advantages deliver main attraction to village economic system.

In a world threatened by the scarcity of fossil fuels, an increasing number of international locations are shifting in the direction of sustainable power options. As joint collaborators, DoME UoM and NCABR are dedicated to breaking each barrier in growing a commercial-type LIB with “Made in Sri Lanka” label proudly on it. Thus our very personal battery might need the potential of not solely discovering an enduring resolution for large-scale power storage functions but additionally paying off the debt of Sri Lanka.

 (The authors of this text are hooked up to the Division of Mechanical Engineering, College of Moratuwa)