Aquion Energy

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-HAZMAT end product that is made from widely available material inputs and which operates safely and reliably in a wide range of temperatures and operating environments.^[2]

History

The company was founded in 2008 by Professor Jay Whitacre, a professor at Carnegie Mellon University, and Ted Wiley, setting 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.^[3]

The company was the corporate winner in the energy category at the 2011 World Technology Awards.^[4]

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.^[5]

In April 2015 they announced the have been Cradle to Cradle Certified.^[6] It was also reported they were reducing headcount^[7]

Technology

The ambient-temperature battery is designed for storage for wind and solar power. According to the company, it will be 85 percent efficient. The battery uses use non-toxic materials.^[8] The cathode uses manganese oxide and relies on intercalation reactions. In its earlier days, Aquion used an anode made of carbon which relies mostly on pseudocapacitance to store charge resulting in a low energy-density and a tilted voltage-charge slope. Later, Aquion switched to a titanium phosphate (NaTi2(PO4)3 ) ^[9] anode which is a true intercalation material with a large specific charge (Ah/kg) and a flat voltage-charge slope. In many ways, titanium phosphate is similar to iron phosphate used in A123 batteries, but with a low (anodic) electrode potential. The electrolyte disclosed in earlier patent applications was an aqueous sodium sulphate solution, in later a more soluble <5M NaClO4 has been used. (PDF) http://jes.ecsdl.org/content/162/6/A803.full.pdf+html.  Missing or empty |title= (help)</ref> A synthetic cotton separator was reported.^[9] It is worth noting that Aquion targets stationary electric energy storage markets with long runtimes (such as peak shift and renewable energy storage) which requires the use of unusually thick (>2 mm) battery electrode layers, which leads to a trade off in power density.

An individual battery stack will store 1.5 kWh, a pallet-sized unit 180 and a shipping-container-size box holds 2.88 MWh.^[10][11] The battery cannot overheat.^[12] Aquion has yet to divulge precise functional details.

The company expects its products to last for more than 3,000 charge/discharge cycles while retaining 80% of starting capacity,^[9] twice as long as lead-acid batteries but with a lower power density than other technologies. Costs are expected to be about the same as with lead-acid.^[13][14]

In October 2013 they announced a memorandum of understanding with Siemens to adopt their power inverter technology.^[15]

In October 2014 they announced the new generation of their battery that has a 40 percent increase in energy density (whilst staying the same size),^[16] a stack of the battery stores 2.4 kWh and a module (several stacks joined together) 25.5 kWh^[17]

Production

The company has set up manufacturing facilities at a former Sony television assembly plant in East Huntingdon,^[18] initially proposing a capacity of 500 megawatt-hours' worth of batteries a year in 2013 and 2014.^[19] In March 2014 they announced that commercial shipments of batteries would begin in mid-2014,^[20] and in May 2014 announced they had shipped 100 units.^[21]

Key people

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.^[22][23]

References

External links

• Official website
• US application 20110052945