Battery development is experiencing a revolution these days, if not, perhaps a faster evolution. With more electronic gadgets and a growing electric vehicle industry, the demand for higher capacity and fast charging batteries is just getting bigger, and companies are racing to develop new batteries to meet the this growing demand. Even in airsoft, we all want to have fast charging batteries that can provide juice to our AEGs longer than what existing airsoft batteries have to offer.

The Graphene Manufacturing Group (GMG) claims that its Graphene Aluminum-Ion battery is the answer. Based in Brisbane, Australia, the company says that their battery 3x the density of lithium-ion batteries and can be charged faster 70 times faster. A test cell was recycled 2,000 times with no loss in performance.

There is no temperature issue which means that there is no need for cooling systems to need them, theoretically. If overheating is not a problem then risk of fire is also minimal and battery fire is always a problem for AEGs and mobile devices. It is even much worse for EVs as it takes longer to extinguish the flames of a burning Tesla which according to an independent research a battery fire in an electric vehicle can take 3,000 gallons of water and up to 24 hours to fully suppress.

GMG has announced that they have partnered with the University of Queensland’s Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology (AIBN) in the development of the graphene aluminum-ion batteries for commercial applications ranging from watches, mobile devices, to EVs and grid storage.

The company will incorporate technology developed by AIBN Professor Michael Yu, Dr Xiaodan Huang and postdoctoral student Yueqi Kong that has made graphene into more efficient electrodes for powering batteries. This research was made possible by the Australian Research Council’s Linkage Project grant worth AU$390,000 to develop aluminum-ion technology over three years.

Lithium production in the world is limited to a few countries such as Australia, China, Chile, Argentina, and Zimbabwe. Aluminum is abundant and highly recyclable. GMG Head Scientist, Dr. Ashok Nanjundan commented, “The project could deliver far-reaching benefits for energy storage, while the batteries were also safer because they do not use lithium, which had been known to cause fires in some mobile phones. This project is a great example of academia and business working together. The current recyclability of batteries is highly problematic due to their chemical properties and the stockpiling of dead batteries presents a large and looming environmental and public safety concern.”

GMG plans on releasing initial test products to the market this year with coin cell prototypes with pouch batteries scheduled for next year. GMG says it can manufacture the batteries anywhere given that the raw materials can be easily sourced.