Aquion Energy
| Industry | Electronics |
|---|---|
| Headquarters | Lawrenceville |
|
Key people
|
CEO Scott Pearson[1] CTO Jay Whitacre |
| Products | Aqueous Hybrid Ion (AHI) battery |
| Website | aquionenergy.com |
Aquion Energy is a Pittsburgh-based company that manufactures sodium ion batteries and energy storage systems.
The company claims to provide a low-cost way to store large amounts of energy (e.g. for an electricity grid) through thousands of battery cycles, and a non-toxic end product made from widely available material inputs and which operates safely and reliably across a wide range of temperatures and operating environments.[2]
An individual battery stack was expected to store 1.5 kWh, a pallet-sized unit 180 kWh and a shipping-container-size box holds 2.88 MWh.[3][4] The battery cannot overheat.[5]
The company expects its products to last for more than 3,000 charge/discharge cycles while retaining 80% of capacity,[6] twice as long as lead-acid batteries. Costs are expected to be about the same as with lead-acid.[7][8]
Contents
History
The company was founded in 2008 by Jay Whitacre, a professor at Carnegie Mellon University, and Ted Wiley. They set up research and development offices in Lawrenceville, where it produced pilot-stage batteries.
The company claims to have raised funding from Kleiner Perkins, Foundation Capital, Bill Gates, Nick and Jobey Pritzker, Bright Capital and Advanced Technology Ventures, among others.[9]
The company was the corporate winner in the energy category at the 2011 World Technology Awards.[10]
In October 2014 they announced a new generation[11] with a single stack reaching 2.4 kWh and a multi-stack module holding 25.5 kWh.[12]
In 2015, the company announced that it would supply batteries for a Hawaii microgrid to serve as backup for a 176-kilowatt solar panel array. The system will store 1,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity.[13]
In April 2015 they announced they have been Cradle to Cradle Certified.[14] to Bronze level[15] It was also reported they were reducing headcount.[16]
In September '15 Whitacre won the Lemelson–MIT Prize[17]
Technology
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The battery materials are non-toxic.[18] As of early 2014 the cathode used manganese oxide and relies on intercalation reactions. The anode was a titanium phosphate (NaTi2(PO4)3).[19] The electrolyte was <5M NaClO4.[20] A synthetic cotton separator was reported.[21] The electrode layers were an unusually thick (>2 mm), which reduces power density. The device used Siemens power inverter technology.[22]
Production
The company set up manufacturing facilities at a former Sony television assembly plant in East Huntingdon,[23] initially proposing a capacity of 500 megawatt-hours per year in 2013 and 2014.[24] In March 2014 they announced that commercial shipments of batteries would begin in mid-2014,[25] and in May 2014 announced they had shipped 100 units.[26]
Key personnel
Jay Whitacre
Dr. Jay F. Whitacre received a BA in Physics from Oberlin College and a PhD in Materials Science from the University of Michigan. He held various positions at Caltech (as a Postdoctoral Scholar at JPL) and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, studying energy-related topics ranging from fundamental materials function to systems engineering. In 2007 he accepted a professorship at Carnegie Mellon.[27][28]
See also
References
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- ↑ {{Cite Whitacre, J.; Shanbhag, S.; Mohamed, A.; Polonsky, A.; Carlisle, K.; Gulakowski, J.; Wu, W.; Smith, C.; Cooney, L.; Blackwood, D.: A Polyionic, Large-Format Energy Storage Device Using an Aqueous Electrolyte and Thick Format Composite NaTi2(PO4)3 / Activated Carbon Negative Electrodes. Energy Technology 2015, 3, 20-31. }}
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