Rechargeable Zinc-Air Battery Nears Commercial Release (phys.org)

Long-time Slashdot reader necro81 writes: Reported in the NYTimes and in Phys.org: NantEnergy, a company backed by California billionaire Patrick Soon-Shiong, announced Wednesday that it has developed a rechargeable zinc-air battery that can store energy at far less cost than lithium-ion. The technology avoids some of the downsides of li-ion, like flammability and the use of cobalt.

Unlike many battery-related announcements, this one is backed by real-world use. Over the past several years, NantEnergy has deployed their batteries for stationary, micro-grid and cell-tower use in nine countries — about 55 MWh of capacity so far. They claim they can now take commercial orders, for delivery next year, at less than $100/kWh of capacity, which is one-half to one-fifth the cost of available lithium-ion grid storage.

Comments

I hope they succeed

[DanDD]

More economical energy choices are always welcome and I hope they succeed. I'll be eagerly awaiting the day I can 'add to cart' and have one delivered.

Zinc-bromine flow batteries are also making inroads, and offer better economics and scalability than Lithium Ion:

https://redflow.com/

However, it will be curious to see if mass production for the electric auto industry makes Lithium Ion even more economical over time. Zinc-bromine or Zinc-air are likely never going to be practical for portable transportation, but Lithium Ion has demonstrated both suitability and workable economics for both transportation and fixed energy storage.

Re:I hope they succeed

[dargaud]

They won't because the world's supply of zinc will be exhausted within a few decades even without the use for battery. Zinc is used as a coating material, and as such it is impossible to recycle. And there are only a few mines and potential mines on the planet... It's one of those base elements whose supply is already critical, I don't think they'll be able to ramp it up for mass production of batteries.

Re:I hope they succeed

[Zorpheus]

I think the most important numbers here are: 250 million tons of zinc reserves, 12-13 tons mined per year. So we run out of zinc in 20 years at current mining rates.

Re:I hope they succeed

[Luckyo]

Wikipedia of all places has a very good explanation on why you're wrong:

Identified world zinc resources total about 1.9–2.8 billion tonnes. Large deposits are in Australia, Canada and the United States, with the largest reserves in Iran. The most recent estimate of reserve base for zinc (meets specified minimum physical criteria related to current mining and production practices) was made in 2009 and calculated to be roughly 480 Mt. Zinc reserves, on the other hand, are geologically identified ore bodies whose suitability for recovery is economically based (location, grade, quality, and quantity) at the time of determination. Since exploration and mine development is an ongoing process, the amount of zinc reserves is not a fixed number and sustainability of zinc ore supplies cannot be judged by simply extrapolating the combined mine life of today's zinc mines. This concept is well supported by data from the United States Geological Survey (USGS), which illustrates that although refined zinc production increased 80% between 1990 and 2010, the reserve lifetime for zinc has remained unchanged. About 346 million tonnes have been extracted throughout history to 2002, and scholars have estimated that about 109–305 million tonnes are in use.

Re:I hope they succeed

[Luckyo]

You are wrong in your thinking, because "zinc reserves" mean ores that are currently found and considered economical to mine.

As wikipedia article notes, this is demonstrated in the fact that while refined zinc production went up 80% during 1990-2010 period, the "reserve lifetime" for zinc remained unchanged.

We have to stop

[Tsolias]

"powered by oxidizing zinc with oxygen from the air"
Before the ecologists find out.

Re:We have to stop

[PPH]

Combustion, no one knows how it works!

The release of phlogiston.

Re:We have to stop

[Ol Olsoc]

"powered by oxidizing zinc with oxygen from the air" Before the ecologists find out.

Zinc-air batteries are already in common use for devices like hearing aids. They put out a pretty good amount of power, but not for a long time. . And they are really cheap.

What I am interested in is how a zinc-air battery becomes rechargeable. Zinc generally gets the proverbial crap beat out of it in a battery.

I wish there was a little more detail in the press release.

Re:Can they build battery walls

[commodore64_love]

Typically solar power is dumped onto the wires, for use by factories during the day...... and then returned to homeowners by the Electric company at night when the solar panel is dark. Few solar users store the energy locally.

Re:Can they build battery walls

[ShanghaiBill]

Typically solar power is dumped onto the wires, for use by factories during the day...... and then returned to homeowners by the Electric company at night

The problem is that netting to grid doesn't scale. Power consumption is higher during the day, but actually peaks between 4-7pm, when many businesses are still operating, but many people are also arriving at home and kicking on the AC. So power demand peaks just as the sun is setting.

There are several solutions:
1. Storage.
2. HVDC long distance transmission, so Arizona sun can power ACs in Florida.
3. Flexible pricing. People will conserve if they save enough. They don't need to run the dryer at 5pm.

We will likely need all of the above.