Perhaps it’s time to stop throwing out the leftovers when we eat seafood. In fact, the shells of some sea creatures could be used to make the batteries of the future. Scientists in the US have succeeded in developing a battery prototype using a product sourced from crab shells to replace lithium. And the first results seem conclusive.
If someone told you that crabs and batteries have something in common, you’d probably struggle to make the connection. But scientists at the University of Maryland have done just that. They extracted a compound from the shells of these crustaceans to test its potential in replacing the lithium found in batteries powering electronic devices such as smartphones and computers.