Recycling Tires into Better Batteries

Aug-30-14 Researchers have developed a way to create battery anodes from old tires, which could help cut down on the amount of waste tires in landfills while also providing an efficient energy storage material.

The method, developed by a team from the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, involves first subjecting the tires to a proprietary pretreatment and then using pyrolysis to recover the carbon black material. This man-made carbon black material is not only quite similar to graphite, it also resulted in a more efficient battery. When the material was used in the anode of a battery tested in the lab, it proved to have a higher energy capacity than conventional graphite anodes.

The research team is now investigating ways to scale up and commercialize the process.

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