WASHINGTON: A US Department of Energy research facility is working with Microsoft on a project that could reduce the amount of lithium needed in rechargeable batteries by up to 70%.

The Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) and Microsoft made a joint announcement in Richland and Redmond in the US state of Washington on Tuesday that they already has real, functioning battery prototype that can power a light bulb with less lithium.

The light metal lithium is an indispensable component of lithium-ion batteries, which are used in electric vehicles, smartphones, laptops and other portable devices.

Rising demand for electric vehicles has made lithium one of the most sought-after raw materials worldwide in recent years.

However environmental and human rights activists have pointed to the problems of pollution and inhumane labour conditions often associated with mining these materials.

The potential to reduce the need for lithium also holds significance at a time when many Western countries are concerned about lithium scarcity amid Chinese efforts to shore up its supplies.

The prototype of such a new type of battery, which uses significantly less lithium, has already been developed, the PNNL and Microsoft also announced.

A new suitable material has been identified with the help of artificial intelligence (AI) and the use of high-performance computers from Microsoft's Azure Quantum Elements cloud platform, the partners say. The PNNL has already been able to produce this material artificially in the laboratory.

In the research project, 32 million potential materials were narrowed down to 18 promising candidates in just 80 hours. This significantly shortened a process that would have taken decades with traditional research.

Tony Peurrung, PNNL's deputy director of science and technology, said the interplay of AI, cloud and high-performance computing, along with human scientists, is key to accelerating the path to meaningful scientific results.

"We see the potential for AI to surface a material or an approach that is unexpected or unconventional, yet worth investigating."

 - dpa