Metal air battery: A sustainable and low cost material for energy storage

Abstract

Energy needs, depleting fossil fuel supplies and demanding sustainable energy alternatives is ever-increasing process. In the future energy network, power storage systems are one of the indispensable devices to buffer the irregular energy generation and renewable energy supplies. Therefore, it is important to design an innovative and efficient modern electrochemical storage system, combine with resource abundance, eco-efficient industrial methods, and life-cycle analysis. These issues are currently being addressed by few existing technologies but there are still theoretical and technical challenges in each case that needs to be talked again. Among these technologies Metal Air Battery (MAB) is a prominent solution and has recently been again into research these days. A metal air battery comprises a metallic anode in an appropriate electrolyte, and an embedded air cathode. The metals that can be used as anode may be first group metals such as sodium lithium, potassium etc. in second group other elements like magnesium, calcium etc. and third group aluminium and a few transition metals like Fe and Zn. Metal-air batteries are actually the combination of the design and working of traditional and fuel cell batteries. These have a high energy efficiency that is 5 to 30 times greater than lithium-ion batteries and are often considered a sustainable alternative. MABs considered are as eco-friendly, non-toxic, low cost and viable alternative as metals are abundant in nature. Metal-air batteries now a days are the most promising power storage systems with high power densities. A metal air battery comprises a metallic anode in an appropriate electrolyte, and an embedded air cathode. Metal-air batteries (MABs) combine the design features of traditional and fuel cell batteries. Some of the most common metal-air batteries include LAB (lithium air battery), SAB (sodium air battery), MABs (magnesium-air battery), AAB (aluminium air battery) and ZAB (zinc-air battery) etc.