- Write by:
-
Tuesday, July 27, 2021 - 18:46:35
-
592 Visit
-
Print
Mining News Pro - Form Energy Inc. announced the launching of its first commercial product, a rechargeable iron-air battery capable of delivering electricity for 100 hours at system costs competitive with conventional power plants and at less than 1/10th the cost of lithium-ion.
According to the Massachusetts-based company, its front-of-the-meter battery can be used continuously over a multi-day period and will enable a reliable, secure, and fully renewable electric grid year-round.
“We conducted a broad review of available technologies and have reinvented the iron-air battery to optimize it for multi-day energy storage for the electric grid,” Mateo Jaramillo, Form Energy’s CEO and co-founder, said in a media statement. “With this technology, we are tackling the biggest barrier to deep decarbonization: making renewable energy available when and where it’s needed, even during multiple days of extreme weather or grid outages.”
The battery’s basic principle of operation is reversible rusting, which means that while discharging, the battery breathes in oxygen from the air and converts iron metal to rust. While charging, the application of an electrical current converts the rust back to iron and the battery breathes out oxygen.
Each individual battery is about the size of a washing machine, which is filled with a water-based, non-flammable electrolyte, similar to the electrolyte used in AA batteries. Inside of the liquid electrolyte there are stacks of between 10 and 20 meter-scale cells, which include iron electrodes and air electrodes.
To create a storage system, Form Energy proposes grouping together thousands of batteries in modular megawatt-scale power blocks, which are to be installed in environmentally protected enclosures.
Depending on the system size, tens to hundreds of these power blocks will be connected to the electricity grid. For scale, in its least dense configuration, a one-megawatt system requires about an acre of land. Higher density configurations can achieve >3MW/acre.
“Our battery systems can be sited anywhere, even in urban areas, to meet utility-scale energy needs,” the company’s website states. “Our batteries complement the function of lithium-ion batteries, allowing for an optimal balance of our technology and lithium-ion batteries to deliver the lowest-cost renewable and reliable electric system year-round.”
According to Jaramillo, Form Energy’s goal is to source the iron domestically and manufacture the battery systems near where they will be sited. In fact, the firm has already signed a deal with Great River Energy to develop its first project near the heart of America’s Iron Range in Minnesota.
In addition to this, it received a $200-million Series D financing round led by ArcelorMittal’s XCarb innovation fund, which should be devoted to the development of iron materials for the battery systems.
Besides the steel giant, the Wall Street Journal reported earlier this month that Form Energy also counts Breakthrough Energy Ventures – a climate investment fund whose investors include Microsoft’s co-founder Bill Gates and Amazon’s founder Jeff Bezos – among its backers.
Short Link:
https://www.miningnews.ir/En/News/615136
Chile’s state copper company Codelco defended its proposed lithium production tie-up with SQM in response to criticism ...
Chile’s state-run miner Codelco plans to select a partner for a future lithium project in one of the country’s top salt ...
A Native American group has asked all members of a US appeals court on Monday to overturn an earlier ruling that granted ...
The London Metal Exchange (LME) on Saturday banned from its system Russian metal produced on or after April 13 to comply ...
Chile’s SQM called another investors meeting at the request of its second-largest shareholder, Tianqi Lithium Corp., ...
The world’s coal-fired power capacity grew 2% last year, its highest annual increase since 2016, driven by new builds in ...
Peabody Energy Corp. shares sunk to the lowest in seven months after the biggest US coal miner warned that first-quarter ...
Polish government is abandoning plans to separate coal-fired power plants into a special company and is considering ...
Lithium supplier Vulcan Energy on Wednesday announced the start of production of the first lithium chloride at its ...
No comments have been posted yet ...