IBM Research India which is based in Bangalore intends to make sure that discarded lithium laptop batteries will be able to live out a second life – not only does this mean that landfills will have clutter in them, but their cells would be repurposed in order to serve as energy supplies for those who live without being connected to the grid. This particular idea has already passed a small proof-of-principle test run with Bangalore’s working poor.
In other words, we are looking at tracking trash so that one will be able to gain a better understanding on the disposal habits of others – which in turn, will be able to improve recycling efforts. Making use of disused lithium batteries, they will be able to create a brand new device known as the UrJar, which is actually a multilingual name that pairs up the Hindi word urjafor “energy” with the word “jar.”
Hardware R&D firm Radio Studio were the ones behind the construction of these units, where laptop batteries were disassembled so that the relevant cells can be isolated, capable of still holding a few hours’ of charge on average. These cells will then be repackaged in a housing that has basic electronics, including a charging circuit that helps to limit the rate and level of charge on the lithium cells – so that fire risk is minimized.
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