KEPCO Devises Large-Capacity Battery Using Manganese

The Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO) has formulated a cheaper and safer large-capacity secondary battery that uses manganese oxides as a positive material.

The usual positive material used is the intercalated lithium compound.

However, lithium-ion batteries may become unstable, causing excessive heat or explosive combustions.

According to KEPCO, using manganese dioxide as its positive electrode makes its new 20Ah-class secondary battery ideal for storing power safely inside an energy storage system (ESS).

Furthermore, because the positive material in the battery is manganese, the fifth abundant metal on Earth, the cost of constructing an ESS is cut to a half.

KEPCO added that if all of the lithium-ion battery cells in the country's ESSs are replaced with those using manganese, 25 billion won will be saved.

KEPCO also used inflammable electrolyte in the battery.

The flammability of lithium-ion batteries has been a cause of concern.

There were 23 ESSs went caught fire in South Korea between August 2017 and May 2019, with a joint state-private investigation team concluding that 80 percent of the fires were due to malfunctioning batteries.