Remaining Battery Energy & Harvesting Potential

 Problem Validation: Is There Charge Left?

We validated this problem by collecting batteries to be recycled from our neighborhood and measured if there were charge left in the batteries. This is what we found:           

Despite the possibility of more accessible battery recycling programs in the future, a major issue is still developing. In California, the fee for charging a battery is 0.75 cents, which may not seem like a lot, but when taking into account the 3 billion batteries disposed of annually, that equates to a yearly waste of more than 22.5 million dollars. To prevent this in the short term and to bypass a ban on single-use batteries, we suggest draining the energy from a battery into a place where it can be reused.

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Energy Harvesting Potential $700M+ per year

Battery Type	Approximate Capacity (kWh)	Approximate Count per Year Across World	Total kWh per Year Across World	Average Range Cost of Energy per kWh (USD)	Energy Harvest %	Energy Harvesting Potential
AA Battery	0.0054 - 0.0065	50B	270M - 325M	$0.05 - $0.20	25%
AAA Battery	0.0019 - 0.0025	50B	95M - 125M	$0.05 - $0.20	25%
9V Battery	0.0054	5B	27M	$0.05 - $0.20	25%
Car Jumper Battery	5-40	20M	100M - 800M	$0.05 - $0.20	25%
Type C Battery	0.0105	5B	50M	$0.05 - $0.20	25%
Type D Battery	0.065	5B	32M	$0.05 - $0.20	25%
Car EV Battery	50-100	100M	5B-10B	$0.05 - $0.20	25%
Laptop Battery	0.5 - 1.5	15B	7B-22B	$0.05 - $0.20	25%
			13B-14B KWH	$700M-$2.8B	25%	$200M-$700M

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Prototype of Circuit to Harvest Charge Left in Batteries

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Vision

We wish for factories to be able to efficiently drain energy from used batteries prior to recycling them in the future. This would save a great deal of energy, which could be utilized elsewhere. Our vision is to make this idea a reality. We look forward to seeing many more battery recycling programs incorporating this concept.