2023-08-08 13:27:31
Engineers from the National University of the Center of the Province of Buenos Aires (Unicen) make rechargeable batteries from used yerba mate. Although most people throw it in the trash or on the ground, it is organic and household waste that has the capacity to store energy. The tests, which were carried out in Spain during April and June thanks to a scholarship granted by the Carolina Foundation and the Ministry of Education, were successful and the objective is that they can be produced on a large scale in Argentina.
“In the framework of my doctoral thesis that I started in 2018, we looked for energy storage materials and the recovery of regional plant residues to produce activated carbons appeared. We investigated which were more abundant in the country and we came to yerba mate, where there were no records that it was used for this particular purpose”, says Florencia Jerez, a UNICEN engineer who is leading the work.
Although they are commonly known as batteries, they are energy storage devices called supercapacitors, tools that store and release energy quickly. That is, both the upload and the download are done quickly. These instruments are used in equipment that needs starting power such as cell phones, computers and even electric cars.
super green
Supercapacitors do not replace batteries but are used as a supplement. When a quick energy response is needed, this battery works and when a smaller quantity is required for a longer period of time, the battery corresponding to the equipment works.
In order for supercapacitors to store energy, activated carbon is needed, a material that until now has been obtained from burning wood. “The difference between any activated carbon that is sold today and the ones that we manufacture is that the former are made from mineral carbon or from planting and felling trees, something that is not very friendly to the environment,” says Marcela Bavio, Conicet scientist who coordinates research on renewable energy in the Faculty of Engineering of the University.
In addition to yerba mate, the researchers worked with other vegetable waste such as wheat and corn stubble, the remains of the medicinal cannabis industry, bagasse left over from the brewing industry, olive and alperujo pruning, a by-product of olive oil extraction.
In this way, it is no longer necessary to make new plantations and wait for the trees to grow nor to extract the mineral carbon, but instead it is replaced by waste from different industries that can be treated to convert it into activated carbon.
large scale piles
“We have finished the laboratory stage and we had excellent results. Now we are trying to get financing to be able to jump to the next stage, which would be the pilot scale”, says Jerez. The purpose is to achieve a higher volume of production and obtain parameters to know how the industrial scale process would work.
“We want to transfer all this knowledge that we generate to the national industry because, currently, 90 percent of the activated carbons that are used are imported. We want to value the abundant waste in the country to generate new sources of work, new knowledge and produce the least possible environmental impact”, highlights the engineer.
“Developing supercapacitors with materials that are residues from other industries not only allows technological progress in energy storage, but also promotes the management and revaluation of waste, and incorporates the concept of circular economy”, points out Bavio.
The Argentinian Infusion
According to the National Institute of Yerba Mate, more than 138 million kilos left the mills for the domestic market between January and June 2023. This figure includes both the volume that is sent to the distribution centers of the yerba mate companies and the purchases made by wholesalers, hypermarkets and supermarkets. In turn, almost 19 million kilos were sent to the foreign market. The total sales accumulated in these months is the highest in the last ten years.
Regarding the formats, the half-kilo containers are the preferred ones and represent more than 55 percent of the outputs of mills to the domestic market. On the other hand, one-kilo containers occupy 37 percent of the total and between the two types of packages they reach 92 percent. The rest is divided between packages of a quarter, two and four kilos.
Argentina is the main producer and exporter of yerba mate in the world, followed by Brazil and Paraguay, and commands 60 percent of the global market. In 2022, 829 million kilos of green leaves were harvested in the producing area, which is made up of the northeast of Corrientes and Misiones. Of the total, 40 million were exported, which represented a value of 94 million dollars.
Although it is often thought that the main export destination is Europe or North America, two of the top three countries are in the Middle East. In this way, the top 6 is made up of Syria, Chile, Lebanon, the United States, Spain and Turkey.
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