Aluminum-air batteries have existed for decades and offer very high theoretical energy density, yet they never became mainstream like lithium-ion.

From what I can tell, practical issues such as electrolyte handling, consumable aluminum anodes, maintenance, and logistics seem to outweigh the benefits. They occasionally appear in niche or emergency use cases, but never at scale.

I’m curious what people here think: was aluminum-air always a dead end for consumer energy, or is it one of those technologies that only makes sense in very specific scenarios?