Graphene batteries: Introduction and Market News - Page 14

Nanotech Energy, producer of graphene-based energy storage, has announced that its non-flammable Graphene-Organolyte batteries have been named a CES 2022 Innovation Award Winner in the Sustainability, Eco-Design & Smart Energy category. The CES Innovation Awards program is an annual competition honoring outstanding design and engineering in 27 consumer technology product categories.

Nanotech Energy produces non-flammable, graphene-based batteries that realize graphene’s potential to create real-world benefits, from safer, more cost-efficient, environmentally-friendly personal electronic devices to creating a more efficient way to harness renewable energy. Nanotech Energy’s proprietary electrolyte, Graphene-Organolyte, is not only stable and non-flammable — it’s also made from inexpensive materials and is easy to manufacture.

Lyten, an advanced materials company developing lithium-sulfur battery technology based on Lyten 3D Graphene, has announced that it secured a prototype Other Transaction (OT) agreement in support of the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) around high-specific energy storage and management solutions.

A core objective of the agreement is to demonstrate a lithium-sulfur (Li-S) battery solution that will significantly increase the duty cycle of small satellites for the U.S. Space Force, which is one of many applications for the new Li-S battery technology. The ultimate goal of the effort is to develop a lithium-sulfur rechargeable battery capable of three times the energy storage capacity of current lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries, enabling the use of higher duty cycle spacecraft and those that function longer during an eclipse.

Battery and advanced materials company Talga is working with Mitsui & Co. Europe, a subsidiary of Mitsui, one of the largest global trading and investment companies based in Japan.

The MOU between the Companies, planned to take place until 31 August 2022, is based on the intent to advance potential co-development of Talga's Vittangi Anode Project in Sweden through a Joint Venture, and is expanded to include marketing, sales and partnership opportunities across Talga’s portfolio of lithium-ion battery products.

Graphene Manufacturing Group (GMG) has announced that its graphene aluminium-ion batteries ("G+AI Battery") 2032 type coin cell prototypes have been sent to a number of prospective customers around the world.

GMG reports that coin cell testing to date has demonstrated that the GMG 2032 type G+AI Battery coin cell prototypes are fully rechargeable in several seconds, retain capacity for several thousand charge and discharge cycles, are non-flammable, and are relatively non-toxic and almost fully recyclable. These characteristics compare favorably against typical rechargeable Lithium-Ion 2032 type coin cells which take 3-6 hours to recharge, are toxic and can be quite harmful if ingested, are difficult to recycle, are flammable under certain conditions, and degrade more rapidly in performance.

VoltaXplore, a joint venture formed by graphene producer NanoXplore and partner Martinrea International to develop electric vehicle (EV) batteries enhanced with graphene, will take part in Canada's Project Arrow.

Image credit: Cleantechnica and Project Arrow

Canada’s Automotive Parts Manufacturers’ Association has decided to build an electric SUV almost entirely from Canadian sources, including the battery, in the new Project Arrow.

Researchers from the ARC Centre of Excellence for Electromaterials Science (ACES), UOW and the Australian National Fabrication Facility (ANFF), led by Professor David Officer and Distinguished Professor Gordon Wallace, have developed a new form of graphene, called Edge Functionalized Graphene (EFG), that is both highly conductive and processable.

EFG has reportedly been demonstrated to have high utility in energy storage (both for batteries and supercapacitors), as well as in composites for use as sensors, reinforcement materials or non-metallic conductors. Further applications in biomedical engineering are also under investigation.

Alpine 4 Holdings has announced that it has acquired ElecJet/Real Graphene, entering the field of lithium and graphene battery manufacturing and design.

The Companies are also exploring plans with the State of Indiana to convert its South Bend, Indiana facility into a US battery production facility and bring graphene battery production to the United States.

NanoMalaysia (NMB), a company under the Malaysian Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation (MOSTI) set up to promote nanotechnology commercialization activities, has an ongoing collaboration with and UMORIE Graphene Technologies (UGT) that has recently yielded a working prototype of Malaysia's first graphene-based pouch cell battery to be used in electric vehicles (EV).

This full-cell lithium-ion battery enhanced with graphene will reportedly be a more efficient storage platform for clean and renewable energy source that will aim to revolutionize the EV industry. The battery's intellectual property (IP) is jointly developed by NMB, UGT and Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM).

FLAG-ERA has announced the funding of 10 new projects on graphene and related materials, which will become partnering projects of the Graphene Flagship. The projects split between basic and applied research and innovation, covering areas from magnetic memories and photodetectors to novel batteries and neural inter-faces.

The FLAG-ERA initiative establishes links between the EU-funded FET Flagship projects and national and regional funding agencies in Member States. Through different strategies, FLAG-ERA fosters multi-disciplinary collaborations to expand the scope of the Graphene Flagship and the Human Brain Project. Among these was their latest Joint Transnational Call (JTC) 2021, announced earlier this year. JTC 2021 has resolved funding for the 10 projects, seven of which involve partners from widening countries like Bulgaria, Hungary, Slovakia, Slovenia and Turkey.

In January 2019, Elecjet announced its plans to launch a Kickstarter campaign for its graphene-enhanced USB-C / A fast charging power bank. Now, Elecjet is back with the Elecjet Apollo Ultra - a 37Wh (10,000mAh) power bank that can be charged at 100W, and can output at up to 87W across its two ports.

Elecjet improves the lithium cells that are inside every device, by using what it calls "composite graphene cells. It presumably means mixing a graphene solution in with the lithium in the cathode, and then adding layers of graphene coating the anode.