British engineer Chris Doel is breathing new life into old disposable e-cigarettes. More precisely, the 29-year-old used the disposable batteries from around 500 vaporizers to build a huge power bank for his workshop. It now supplies his kettle, microwave, and PC with power, among other things.
In addition to the atomizer with a heating element, control electronics, and a tank for the vaporizing liquid, e-cigarettes also contain a small, rechargeable lithium-ion battery. After short use, these e-cigarettes are usually thrown away, wasting critical raw materials. In Germany alone, around 60 million of these e-cigarettes are said to be discarded each year, says the German Environmental Aid organization. A ban is not yet in sight; only a ta…
British engineer Chris Doel is breathing new life into old disposable e-cigarettes. More precisely, the 29-year-old used the disposable batteries from around 500 vaporizers to build a huge power bank for his workshop. It now supplies his kettle, microwave, and PC with power, among other things.
In addition to the atomizer with a heating element, control electronics, and a tank for the vaporizing liquid, e-cigarettes also contain a small, rechargeable lithium-ion battery. After short use, these e-cigarettes are usually thrown away, wasting critical raw materials. In Germany alone, around 60 million of these e-cigarettes are said to be discarded each year, says the German Environmental Aid organization. A ban is not yet in sight; only a take-back obligation for disposable e-cigarettes at points of sale is to be introduced from June 2026.
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The situation is similar in Great Britain. There is no ban on disposable e-cigarettes yet. For Doel, this is an unbearable situation. He therefore thought about how the old e-cigarettes could be reused. The batteries contained within them particularly caught his attention.
From e-cigarette battery to a huge power bank
Doel began collecting a large number of used disposable e-cigarettes, for example, at festivals and in e-cigarette shops. To find out which batteries were still usable, Doel built a tester consisting of a small fan. He used it to blow air into the mouthpiece. A blinking LED then indicated whether the vaporizer was still functional. If this was the case, the battery was also still in order. Doel charged these batteries to 4.2 volts and determined their capacity in Wh to make a further selection. In principle, only larger cells with 5 Wh were considered. Smaller 1.8 Wh cells were not worthwhile due to their low capacity.
Doel assembled the selected batteries into packs, which he soldered together with copper tape and connected via aluminum rails. In total, the battery pack with its 504 cells in 14 rows achieved a DC voltage of a good 50 volts. The voltage of the individual rows is monitored by a decommissioned battery management system (BMS) from an old e-scooter.
Doel secured the power pack with a fuse and transformed the direct current into alternating current using a 3 kW inverter to power some of his household and workshop electrical appliances. The power bank delivers 2.52 kWh. According to Doel, this is enough to power his apartment, which requires 6 kWh of energy daily, for eight hours; he can keep devices in his workshop running for about three full days.
Doel is currently still charging the battery power supply during the night hours when electricity is cheap. However, Doel plans to charge the power pack with solar cells soon.
(olb)
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This article was originally published in German. It was translated with technical assistance and editorially reviewed before publication.