Researchers are working on a battery made from lignin, a waste product from the paper-making process. Grzegorz Milczarek from the Poznan University of Technology in Poland and Olle Inganäs from Linkoping University in Sweden have found a way to combine lignin with the conductive polymer polypyrrole to create a battery cathode that could be used for energy storage in the future.

Lignin acts as an insulator and polypyrrole as a conductor that can hold an electric charge. Using lignin creates a new use for this waste product and as it comes from wood, these batteries could be a promising form of renewable energy. Milczarek and Inganäs’ research has been published in the journal Science.

Science