Canada-based ZincNyx Energy Solutions is gearing up for “mass production” of a zinc-based flow battery within a year.
ZincNyx, which was acquired by lithium developer MGX Minerals last month, intends to produce 1,000 flow battery units annually by early January 2019, according to MGX president and CEO Jared Lazerson.
Lazerson said in an interview posted on the ZincNyx website: “This is a true mass-production phase.”
Lazerson said the flow battery was “going to final design” after ZincNyx resolved a reliability issue caused by the growth of zinc dendrites in the battery’s zinc-air chemistry— by finding a way to break the dendrites down so they can go back into the regeneration system.
The technology breakthrough “is neither here nor there in terms of cost”, Lazerson said. ZincNyx is aiming for a price of $16,000 for a 20-kilowatt-hour product with an output of five kilowatts per hour, he added.
ZincNyx said its technology “consists of three main subsystems that use zinc and air to store energy in the form of zinc particles”. The company has already developed a modular energy storage system for energy storage in the 5kW to 1MW range “for extended periods of time”.
