Steve Clarke, founder of Aquametals, didn’t buy his father’s old company, Ebonex, out of sentimentality last week.
Aquametals, the recent start up in non-conventional lead-acid battery recycling, acquired UK-based Ebonex IPR Limited for 123,776 shares of Aquametals common stock and $100,000 in cash — or a “song”*, Clarke told BBB.
The reason for the acquisition might be more obvious to followers of bi polar battery development. Ebonex developed key materials to creating a conducting substrate for an improved lead acid “active material”, more than 30 years ago.
Now Clarke the younger believes he has that active material in the form of ‘Nano lead’ — a product borne as a consequence of his water-based lead acid battery recycling system.
If this “nano lead” can be supported on a fine lightweight substrate (as a consequence of the Ebonex patents) the door is open to lead acid batteries with energy densities of 80 Wh/kg and cycle life far in excess of those available today.
Clarke, added: “We were going to set up a battery test lab here in Nevada but Ebonex has that in the UK so it’s saved us some time and money.”
Clarke hopes to have some solid results in about 18 months.
Previously, Ebonex tried to develop so called bi polar lead acid battery technology through another company, also UK based called Atraverda. That project ended in failure.
But with a number of newcomers now experimenting with bi polar lead acid technology, Clarke believes there is a potential new market for highly-improved battery active material that could grow enormously in the next few years.
* “Peanuts” in common parlance.