Powercrete – New concrete battery in form of urban road section for photovoltaic energy storage into the smart city environment

Project Description:

The project aim is to develop a new system for the solar energy storage into the Smart City environment composed by a new concrete battery. The approach is to take profit about the high quantity of pavement that exists currently in the Spanish cities to provide a new road section with a double function:

Serve as a common pavement for a urban street or square
Storage energy to supply some Smart City applications like streetlights, ticketing platforms, semaphores or similar.

The new road section will be composed by a layered structure, where a new ultra-high conductive concrete will act as an anode and cathode thanks a new reinforcement structure configured through carbon fiber meshes coated by an Iron and Nickel. The intermedium layer will be formed by a electrolytic mortar, which will acquire the electrolytic performance through a recycled material.
The new ultra high conductive concrete will be achieved through the addition of specific conductive material.

Problem they aim to solve:

The general objective of the project is to develop POWERCRETE, a new concrete battery system in form of a new urban road section for pedestrian or low traffic load areas. This new urban road section will be installed under the wearing course and will be composed by three different layers (anode, cathode, and electrolyte layer), each of them consisting of a different cement-based materials.

It is important to note that circular economy philosophy will govern the development procedures of the new concrete dosages, and waste industrial materials will be used not only to achieve the technical target parameters but also to obtain an environmental friendly solution.

Project Resolution Objectives:

Make a dosage viable for anode and cathode with an electrical conductivity measured in terms of resistivity up to 0,5 – 1 ohm.m.
Maximize the number of battery charge and discharge cycles through doping of the elements of the coated carbon fiber mesh: iron and nickel.
Define a new electrolyte mortar layer based on a Black Liquor alkaline solution addition and the Ion Exchange Resin addition to allow the oxidation-reduction reaction.
Integral design of the new battery employing the previous materials and guaranteeing the following concepts: 1) Integration in the constructive solution, 2) Energy input medium and 3) Energy extraction medium.
Real environment test of the new concrete battery (functional prototype): practical application of the new battery for an urban use within the Smart Cities concept.