MIT spin-off inches closer to commercializing liquid metal battery technology

[Shawn Knight]

Recap: Ambri has received a crucial safety certification from UL Solutions, moving the startup one step closer to commercializing its liquid metal battery technology. The company (formerly the Liquid Metal Battery Corporation) was formed as a spin-off by researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2010. Over the next several years, the company would generate some $40 million in funding from various backers including Bill Gates.

Just last month, Ambri inked its first ever agreement with a utility provider. The company will work with Xcel Energy to test a 300 kWh system at SolarTAC in Aurora, Colorado, over a 12 month period. It will use the GridNXT Microgrid Platform to integrate multiple generation sources, like wind and solar, along with inverters, load banks, and three phase distribution connections and communications, we're told.

The system will be installed in early 2024, Ambri said. The year-long study will give Xcel sufficient time to evaluate the system's performance and capabilities.

Ambri said its liquid metal battery system utilizes commonly available, commercial-grade raw materials including calcium, the 5th most abundant element in Earth's crust. This makes their platform far less expensive to produce than traditional lithium ion systems.

The company further claims its long-duration energy storage solution is made for daily cycling, even in harsh environments, and has a lifespan north of two decades.

Ambri co-founder Donald Sadoway said they have data on thousands of charge cycles, which translates to years of operation. Armed with the data, Sadoway is confident his product can last 20 years and still retain 95 percent of its capacity.

"I would invite you to find someone who has an operational 20-year-old lithium ion battery," he added.

What's more, the system is said to be safe as it does not produce or give off any gas, does not have the potential for thermal runaway, and is highly tolerant of over charging or over discharging. The company's systems also do not require extensive cooling, explosion prevention, or fire suppression equipment that some lithium ion battery systems call for.

Image credit: Neal Smith Photos, Kindel Media

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https://www.techspot.com/news/99727-mit-spin-off-inches-closer-commercializing-liquid-metal.html

 

[Endymio]

"Ambri said its liquid metal battery system utilizes commonly available, commercial-grade raw materials including calcium, the 5th most abundant element in Earth's crust...."

While that makes for nice copy, Ambri forgot to mention the other material the battery uses: antimony, a metal which is not only toxic, but substantially less abundant than the lithium used in present-day batteries. Ambri's been trying to commercialize its batteries for nearly 15 years now; it remains to be seen whether they'll ultimately succeed.

 

[p51d007]

Articles weekly on "new" technology to increase battery use/life/power over the past decade or so.
I'll believe it when I see it.

 

[yRaz]

"Ambri said its liquid metal battery system utilizes commonly available, commercial-grade raw materials including calcium, the 5th most abundant element in Earth's crust...."

While that makes for nice copy, Ambri forgot to mention the other material the battery uses: antimony, a metal which is not only toxic, but substantially less abundant than the lithium used in present-day batteries. Ambri's been trying to commercialize its batteries for nearly 15 years now; it remains to be seen whether they'll ultimately succeed.

I hate to say it, but we need to start mining asteroids to bring the future closer.

 

[kiwigraeme]

"Ambri said its liquid metal battery system utilizes commonly available, commercial-grade raw materials including calcium, the 5th most abundant element in Earth's crust...."

While that makes for nice copy, Ambri forgot to mention the other material the battery uses: antimony, a metal which is not only toxic, but substantially less abundant than the lithium used in present-day batteries. Ambri's been trying to commercialize its batteries for nearly 15 years now; it remains to be seen whether they'll ultimately succeed.

That it's only getting 40 Million is also telling - I would imagine these venture capitalists do their research - ( not always given Theranos

We have had liquid acid batteries for a long long time - AKA the lemon - not sure how a potato one works

But if the can have a mostly huge installations of set and forget at solar farms , wind farms - that would be grand

Also for those of grid - need a safe long term solution

 

[Neatfeatguy]

My daughter took her 8+ year old Nintendo 2DS out of storage (I actually had to find the box it was in and dig it out for her), it had been packed away for the past 2.5 years or so. She got it about 6 years before that, so 8 to 8.5 years of owning it.

She pulled it from the box and the battery still had a charge on it and she played it for an hour without needing to plug it in. I was kind of impressed the battery still had that much of a charge on it, let alone the fact that the battery even still worked without the device being used for over 2 years.

My son let his Nintendo Switch Lite sit for a couple of months and when he went to use it the damn thing wouldn't power on nor hold a charge anymore and he had for maybe 2 years now. He has to keep it plugged into an outlet to use it, once he unplugs it the thing turns off within about 10 seconds - even if you let it charge for hours, same thing. If the device is unplugged from the outlet after about 10 seconds, just powers off. What a POS.

Just goes to show you how different lithium ion batteries can be - one stored for over 2 years (and is 8+ years old) still holding a charge to play on and one not used for a few months now (that is only about 2 years old) it won't hold a charge anymore.

 

[Mr Majestyk]

I hate to say it, but we need to start mining asteroids to bring the future closer.

Or just bring the asteroids closer.

 

[WhiteLeaff]

That it's only getting 40 Million is also telling - I would imagine these venture capitalists do their research - ( not always given Theranos

We have had liquid acid batteries for a long long time - AKA the lemon - not sure how a potato one works

But if the can have a mostly huge installations of set and forget at solar farms , wind farms - that would be grand

Also for those of grid - need a safe long term solution

No they don't, even when they do there's no way to know if a technology is viable on a commercial scale from initial tests.

There are hundreds of companies that receive millions in funding and end up with nothing, They go bankrupt and disappear (when they're not just a scam)... it's pretty disheartening.

Btw, iron-air batteries would be viable on a large scale.

 

[yRaz]

Or just bring the asteroids closer.

Genius idea, I wonder why no one has thought of that

 

[Uncle Al]

There have been so many promises about batteries over the past decade, I would like to see just ONE of them actually put into play .....

 

[richalone442]

Or just bring the asteroids closer.

Can you imagine 100 or so years from now, looking up and seeing not only the moon(a different looking Moon because of mining) in obit around this good Earth, but, also several large astroides that were being mined after being drug from the Astroid Belt...Cool

 

[Endymio]

Can you imagine 100 or so years from now, looking up and seeing not only the moon(a different looking Moon because of mining) in obit around this good Earth, but, also several large astroides that were being mined after being drug from the Astroid Belt...Cool

There are a host of reasons why this is unlikely. The majority of the cost of such mining is the amount of dV required to move the material from the asteroid belt to earth, which translates to an enormous energy expenditure. Why would you choose to move more mass, by including the worthless dross as well?

Also, with automated technology, mining in earth orbit isn't going to be substantially easier than doing it in place in the asteroid belt. There's a famous saying that, "once in you're in earth orbit, you're halfway to anywhere in the solar system", which encapsulates the fact that the amount of dV required to reach NEO is large, compared to destinations millions of times further away.

And mining generally involves creating massive amounts of tiny particles, from dust to gravel-sized -- exactly what you don't want in orbit around the earth. So any mining operation there would be complicated by the necessity to capture and such particles, or to not create them in the first place.

Finally, if you've gone to the trouble of moving a smaller asteroid to earth, why keep it in space? Break it into 100-meter sized chunks and drop them in a desert somewhere, where they can be cheaply mined there. You'll lose a small amount in atmospheric ablation, but that's more than overcome by the simplicity of ground-based mining operation. (and before anyone complains about H-bomb level explosions on the earth's surface, the angle of entry is the critical factor here. Control it and you can reduce the energy of impact by several orders of magnitude).