A French company has designed, assembled and tested a 10 kW organic redox flow battery prototype for renewable, smart and micro-grid applications.
Kemwatt’s non-corrosive organic RFB required two years of development from the Rennes based start-up.
The technology is set to be tested in various applications in partnership with customers, in order to finalise product development and allow the company to begin sales.
A fundraising round will be made early 2017 to carry out these key steps.
Redox Flow Batteries use either organic molocules or metal ions to store energy, such as from renewable sources, chemically in liquid electrolytes.
However, in the non-organic batteries highly acidic, corrosive electrolytes are used that result in reliability, lifetime, safety and environmental issues.
Kemwatt’s technology uses non-corrosive, alkaline chemistry based on organic molecules in alkaline or near neutral solutions.
“Our ambition is to accelerate the development and the adoption of renewable energy around the world.” Explains François Huber, the CEO of Kemwatt.
“Our systems will power micro-grids in rural areas in the whole world and bring a modern and clean energy solution to over a billion people who have no access to electricity.”
Kemwatt, formally known as Ionwatt, was founded in 2014 by scientists from the Institute of Chemical Sciences of Rennes, Florence Geneste and Didier Floner, and the CEO, François Huber.