News outlet covers the effort to develop alternative to lithium batteries, using hemp

An Asian man is focused on batteris components. He is wearing a white lab coat.
Deyang Qu

Deyang Qu, the Johnson Controls Endowed Professor in Energy Storage Research, was recently interviewed by the Cap Times news outlet in a story about UWM’s partnership with Wisconsin Battery Company (WisBat).

The team is developing a sodium alkaline battery capable of holding a charge as long as lithium-ion batteries. Such a product would be less costly and more eco-friendly than lithium, but also provides comparable performance when hemp is used as the carbon source, instead of graphite.

Industrial hemp, which contains less than 0.3% of the psychoactive chemical THC, is legal in the U.S., Canada, China and Europe. Read the article.