http://beforeitsnews.com/conspiracy-theories/2014/01/harvard-develops-game-changing-organic-battery-2458584.html

ExposingTheTruth
by M Caulfield

Rhubarb isn’t just good for baking pies. Michael J. Aziz and a team of researches at Harvard University have developed an organic non-metal flow battery that is nearly 97 per cent cheaperto make than batteries containing metal, and it’senvironmentally friendly. The battery relies on the electrochemistry of naturally abundant, small organic molecules (quinones) similar to those found in rhubarb. Each of the carbon-based molecules holds two units of electrical charge, compared with one unit in conventional batteries.

This game-changing breakthrough was funded by Arpa-e with $590,000, under a one-year contract, now with discussions of an extension and several more million dollars allocated to the cause.

Not only will organic flow batteries be able to store energy at lower cost (representing the only known environmentally viable method of storing energy for later use), the breakthrough concept is a viable option for clean power. Flow batteries are already in commercial use, but they have been thus far too expensive for broad and commercialized applications due to the metals normally required. The researchers predict that their battery design could eventually be used to store bulk amounts of energy produced from intermittent sources, like wind and solar.

A conventional metal-reliant flow battery might cost around $700 per kilowatt-hour of storage capacity, but the Harvard team’s metal-free design could potentially bring those costs down to under $30 per kilowatt-hour.

“They’re really uncovering the tip of the iceberg,… That’s the breakthrough.” – said John Lemmon, the program manager for the battery project….