Exploring Microbial Consortia for Utility-Scale Battery Storage Longevity and Thermal Regulation

Title: Exploring Microbial Consortia for Utility-Scale Battery Storage Longevity and Thermal Regulation Author: Vrushabhraj Tanawade (MountBay Energy R&D Lab) Keywords: Microbial biofilms; Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS); Thermal insulation; Extracellular polymeric substances (EPS); Thermophiles; Energy sustainability; Bio-integrated materials; Circular energy systems Our manuscript "Exploring microbial consortia for utility-scale battery storage longevity and thermal regulation" is being submitted to your journal. Here, we propose a novel bio-integrated insulation strategy for utility-scale BESS based on microbial biofilms. We show that microbial communities (enriched in thermophilic and mesophilic strains) that produce extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) can act as passive thermal controllers, lower module temperatures internally by ∼22% and enhance the lifetime of the batteries considerably. The research encompasses detailed experimental characterization, life cycle analysis, and techno-economic modeling, providing an attractive replacement for traditional synthetic insulators.