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Cannabis laws could complicate production of super batteries

Posted at 7:20 PM, Aug 13, 2014
and last updated 2014-08-13 22:50:11-04

Hemp being used in batteries? Well, that's a new one.

The idea was introduced this week at the American Chemical Society's national meeting. Engineers discussed how industrial hemp could provide a cheaper option in the manufacturing of supercaps. 

Supercaps are sort of high-energy batteries. Startup company Alta Supercaps promotes them as strong, fast and extreme.

Supercaps are currently manufactured with graphene, a form of carbon that's strong and malleable but also expensive.

Some engineers now believe that just heating up hemp could create carbon sheets that could replace graphene in the batteries' construction.