According to a report from Ixbt on September 8th, British inventor Kris Doyle created a power bank using 35 disposable e-cigarettes.
In order to demonstrate the potential value of these devices, the enthusiast collected over 200 discarded e-cigarettes from the streets and music festivals.
It is estimated that around 5 million of such devices are discarded every week in the UK alone, reaching a total of 260 million per year. This amount is enough to produce batteries for 5000 electric cars or 1.3 million electric bicycles.
Furthermore, according to data from the Discovery Research Group, in 2023 Russia sold a total of 40.8 million e-cigarettes, with at least a quarter of them being disposable. This means that millions of lithium-ion batteries are being disposed of each year.
In order to raise awareness of the issue, this British inventor created a functional power bank made from discarded e-cigarette batteries. In his project, he used 35 batteries from disposable e-cigarette ELF BAR.
The production process involves several steps:
The battery is removed from the e-cigarette casing and installed in a 3D-printed holder; a custom circuit board is developed and installed to connect the battery components; another custom circuit board is used to balance the voltage between the batteries; a fast charging module with a USB port is connected; the casing is made using a 3D printer. The result is that Chris has created a power bank with approximately 20,000 milliampere-hours, supporting up to 100 watts of fast charging technology and equipped with multiple different types of ports for quickly charging smartphones and even powering laptops.
Chris emphasized that his project simply showcases the potential reuse value of discarded e-cigarettes.
Every time we dispose of five e-cigarettes, we are actually throwing away a nearly brand new iPhone 15 battery.
Currently, Chris is developing a new version of power bank, aiming to accommodate all components with a more compact design. In addition, he also plans to use approximately 100 larger capacity batteries to manufacture batteries for electric bicycles.
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