Young engineers have created eco-friendly aloe vera batteries to charge up small electronic gadgets.
Nimisha Varma and Naveen Suman have created eco friendly batteries from the extracts of aloe vera. They have tried a series of testing with different plant extracts as a replacement for chemical electrolytes to generate energy. The experimental trials include extracts of apple, cucumber, potato, and other natural items and were efficient for 1.5V battery.
Batteries are the most basic thing we use every day in almost every smaller gadget. The conventional batteries use toxic chemicals as electrolytes causing soil depletion and pollution. Also, there are a few chances that they may explode after disposal. This is where the team came with an alternate for these traditional commercial batteries. The main purpose of the e-cell is to eliminate pollution and to eliminate e-waste from the system. They also explain that disposal of the e-cell is easy as it does not leave any toxics on the soil and cause any soil degradation.
“Initially, we were working in the electronic waste (e-waste) sector. During our work, we realised that the bulk of the e-waste comes from the used small batteries that are used in many electronic gadgets. So, we decided to change the composition of the batteries and tried to replace the chemical and hazardous parts with eco-friendly alternatives,” Varma told Mongabay-India.
The team came up with the first prototype of Aloe e-cell in the year 2019. They claim to have more than 1500 users currently and the duo expect to set the product for commercial sale sooner. They also informed that the team is also working on bringing the eco-friendly rechargeable batteries as an upgrade to the e-cells.
