Liquid Metal Battery

Overview of the Nominee

Liquid Metal Battery, a spin out of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a brainchild company of Professor Donald Sadoway. Together with Luiz Ortiz, who is also the President of Liquid Metal Battery, Professor Sadoway founded the company; obtaining the idea for the technology from his experience in making metals at an industrial scale and by looking at how an aluminium smelter functions. The company has since been looking at developing batteries that are scalable to the point where it could store power from wind and solar for several hours, in addition to being low in cost. 

Why/How is this innovative?

As compared to lead acid, lithium iron, and other conventional batteries where the cathode and anode are solid, all active materials of the Liquid Metal Battery are liquid. They are maintained in liquid form at high temperatures. The liquid form avoids the electrodes from degradation. It also promotes high flow of current which makes it bulk storage to be practical enough to be used on grid. In addition to that, the liquid form also means the battery can be built using cheaper components; as compared to the conventional batteries.

Who is the organization?

Liquid Metal Battery is a brainchild company of Professor Donald Sadoway of MIT. The project, as the name of the company suggests, focuses on the development of batteries in liquid form. Having received the Advanced Research Projects Agency grant for the energy sector (ARPA-E) from the United States Department of Energy in the amount of $6.9 million in 2009, the company has been able to progress its research and development as well as expanding its operations through hiring of more chemists, be it students or post-doctorates. In addition to that, Liquid Metal Battery also received a funding of $4 million from the oil giant Total.

Together with his co-founder, Luiz Ortiz and his team of chemists, Professor Sadoway has been able to advance the development of the liquid battery from the size of a shot glass to currently the size of a ping-pong table. The goal of the project is to develop a big enough battery that could store electric generated from renewable source such as wind and solar; to be used at times when there is no wind or sunlight, at the same time being able to produce the battery at a fraction of the cost of producing batteries at present.

At the current stage of the development, the company target consumers would be the single-family homes. Although the target is to be able to develop batteries that are big enough to supply electricity to the grid, Professor Sadoway believes that a battery that could support the need for single-family homes would be the most practical scalable size; considering the stage of their research and development.

What is the core idea or technology?

Although the idea or concept of the liquid metal battery may seem rather simplistic or typical of conventional batteries, the overall aim of the development of the liquid metal battery is so much more complex.

The core idea of the technology developed by the Liquid Metal Battery is to develop battery big enough that it could be used to store a significant amount of electricity for a much longer period than conventional batteries could. It is hoped that such battery could store electricity generated from the wind and solar and redistribute the electricity back onto the grid when demand for electricity exists; at the time when there is no wind or sunlight.

Like most technologies, the major stumbling block to commercialisation of the technology is the cost. Battery technology has always been very expensive. To build batteries big enough to store electricity generated from renewable energy technologies; in terms of physical size and storage capacity, its commercialisation would be almost impossible as producing such batteries would be ridiculously costly. Liquid Metal Battery is trying to overcome the issue of cost and storage capacity by developing batteries in liquid form. Liquid metal batteries would have less degradation effect as compared to conventional solid batteries. It uses cheaper compounds and it lasts longer, which means it can be easily scalable to achieve the storage capacity at a fraction of the cost of conventional batteries.

One of the key challenges faced by the Liquid Metal Battery is to scale up the technology to the required size, while at the same time getting the chemical composition right, keeping the cost low, and containing the high temperature of the battery. The battery needs to operate at a very high temperature to ensure it remains in liquid form.

A scalable, with high storage capacity liquid metal battery would be able to address the intermittent problem of the renewable energy technologies.

What makes it unique?

While the concept of liquid metal battery remains similar to the conventional batteries i.e. the use of anodes and cathodes and the movement of electrons between them, the idea of having the anodes and cathodes in liquid form is rather unique.

Having the battery in liquid form would avoid rapid degradation of the components, as with the batteries in solid form. Hence, it invites lower maintenance costs. Liquid metal electrodes are also more stable.

Furthermore, liquid metal electrodes are produced using cheaper materials as compared to solid electrodes. In liquid form, the batteries can be easily scalable. Coupled with the cheaper material used in its production, liquid metal battery can be scalable at an acceptably low cost for the purpose of grid storage and renewable energy technology storage.

Why is it important?

The technology being developed by the Liquid Metal Battery is important for many reasons. Firstly, it will allow for grid-level energy storage i.e. for single-family home. A small-sized liquid metal battery can be stored inside a house where it can acquire and store energy or electric from the grid during off peak and use it throughout the day or export it back to the grid during peak demand period. Bigger sized liquid metal batteries can be installed at power plants which would eliminate the need for bigger or new power plants.

Secondly, the technology is important in resolving the issue of intermittency of the wind and solar energy. Combined with the used of high capacity liquid metal batteries, solar and wind energy can finally be part of the base load for electricity generation to meet its ever increasing demand.

Finally, but most significantly, the liquid metal battery offers a workable technology that is a fraction of the cost of the existing technology. This increases the likelihood of commercialisation of the technology into the energy market.

How important do you think this idea is?

Personally, I think the Liquid Metal Battery technology plays an essential part in meeting the global energy demand and to a certain extent, addressing our energy security issues. I belief the importance of this technology is two-pronged, albeit they are closely interrelated.

The key importance of this technology is the fact that it addresses the issue of high cost in the area energy generation. We have since enough evidence over the decades as to how great ideas and technologies failed to reach their full potential and to reach the commercial market. Most often than not the reasons associated to these letdowns have been the failure to develop the technology at a bigger scale due to excessive investment i.e. cost required. Hydrogen fuel cells or hydrogen combustible technologies are examples of these failures, just to name a few. Based on current stage of development, producing the liquid metal batteries is a fraction of the cost of producing conventional batteries. This will allow the technology to be scaled up to grid level which would potentially make it an economical investment, particularly for private investors such as electricity or energy companies.

Being scalable increases the energy storage capacity of the technology. This would then allow the liquid metal battery to be used as storage for the renewable energy technologies such as wind and solar power, which struggle with intermittency issues. Using the similar rationale of a pump-storage hydroelectric, the liquid metal battery can store unused energy generated by wind turbines or solar panels during low demand period, while releasing the energy back into the grid at the time when demand for energy is higher. This would help solve that intermittency problems of these renewable energy technologies and turn these technologies into a more attractive investments. Indirectly, the liquid metal battery can enhance the development of the renewable energy technologies.