• About Us
  • Contact us
  • Editorial Policy
  • Terms & Conditions
  • Privacy Policy
Saturday, June 10, 2023
SUBSCRIBE
London Daily Post
  • Home
  • UK
  • World
  • Business
  • Politics
  • Finance
  • Tech
  • Entertainment
  • Lifestyle
  • Sports
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • UK
  • World
  • Business
  • Politics
  • Finance
  • Tech
  • Entertainment
  • Lifestyle
  • Sports
No Result
View All Result
London Daily Post
No Result
View All Result
ADVERTISEMENT

Super-hot salt could be coming to a battery near you

Editorial Board by Editorial Board
November 17, 2022
in Tech News
Reading Time: 2 mins read
0


Ambri is a Boston-area startup that is building molten salt batteries from calcium and antimony. The company recently announced a demonstration project deploying energy storage for Microsoft data centers, and last year raised more than $140 million to expand its manufacturing capacity.

The company says its technology could be 30-50% cheaper over its lifetime than an equivalent lithium-ion system. Molten salt batteries can also be over 80% efficient, meaning that a relatively low amount of energy used to charge the battery is lost to heat.

Ambri was founded in 2010 out of research in Donald Sadoway’s lab at MIT. The goal was to develop a low-cost product for the stationary storage market, says David Bradwell, the company’s founder and CTO.

Inspiration came from an unlikely place: aluminum production. Using chemical reactions similar to those used for aluminum smelting, the team built a low-cost, lab-scale energy storage system. But turning this concept into a real product has not been so simple.

The magnesium-antimony chemistry the company started with proved difficult to manufacture. In 2015, after continuing problems with battery seals, Ambri laid off a quarter of its staff and went back to the drawing board.

In 2017, the company opted for a new approach to its batteries, using calcium and antimony. The new chemistry is based on cheaper materials and should prove simpler to manufacture, Bradwell says. Since the pivot, the company has ironed out technical issues and advanced commercialization, passing third-party security tests and signing its first commercial deals, including with Microsoft.

Microsoft’s energy storage system. Image courtesy of Ambri.

There are still big challenges ahead for the startup. Batteries operate at high temperatures, over 500°C (about 900°F), which limits the materials that can be used to make them. And going from individual battery cells, which are roughly the size of a lunchbox, to huge container-sized systems can present challenges in system controls and logistics.

That’s not to mention deploying a product in the real world means “dealing with real-world things that happen,” as Bradwell puts it. Everything from lightning to rodents can throw a wrench in a new battery system.



Source link

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook

Related Posts

Tech News

The Download: a promising new fuel, and why our phones struggle with wildfires

June 9, 2023

New York-based startup Amogy believes the key to solving this problem lies in harnessing ammonia, one of the world's most...

Tech News

Apple’s headset challenges, and what AI can learn from nuclear safety

June 6, 2023

The "one more thing" announced by Apple at its Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) this year was the industry's worst-kept secret....

Tech News

AI films, and the threat of microplastics

June 2, 2023

The Frost nails its strange and disconcerting atmosphere in its opening shots. Huge frozen mountains, a makeshift camp of military-style...

Tech News

Meet the longevity obsessives, and how China’s regulating AI

May 31, 2023

—Jessica Hamzelou Earlier this month, I traveled to Montenegro for a meeting of longevity enthusiasts, people interested in extending human...

Next Post

Gabrielle Union teases LGBTQ wedding comedy with Eva Longoria | Entertainment

POPULAR

Entertainment

Elliot Page Recalls ‘Inception’ Cast ‘Full Of Cis Men’ Making Him So Anxious He Got Shingles

June 9, 2023
Finance News

A new bull market in stocks? Thank the VIX, says Fundstrat’s Tom Lee

June 9, 2023
World News

Ukraine presses counteroffensive as flood evacuations continue in south

June 9, 2023
  • About Us
  • Contact us
  • Editorial Policy
  • Terms & Conditions
  • Privacy Policy

© 2022 London Daily Post. All Rights Reserved.

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • UK
  • World
  • Business
  • Politics
  • Finance
  • Tech
  • Entertainment
  • Lifestyle
  • Sports