Physics:Form Energy
Form Energy is an American energy storage startup company. It is focused on grid-scale iron-air batteries.[1] The company claimed that it would be able to offer its batteries at ~ $20/kilowatt-hour, some 10% of the cost of a lithium-ion battery.[2]
History
Form Energy was founded in 2017 by Mateo Jaramillo, former head of battery development for Tesla, and MIT professor and battery scientist Yet-Ming Chiang.[3]
In 2021, it announced that it had completed a successful lab-scale prototype of its technology.[1]
Technology
Initial research leveraged the redox reaction, oxidizing and reducing iron with oxygen. Iron releases energy when it is oxidized (rusts) during battery discharge, and stores energy when reduced during recharge. Iron is the fifth-most plentiful element in the Earth's crust, while oxygen makes up 21% of the Earth's atmosphere.[1] The battery features a lower overpotential than earlier iron-air designs.[2]
The prototype battery used 18,000 iron pellets in a 1x1 m cylindrical battery cell. A battery was expected to combine 20 cells. Thousands of batteries would be combined to create a utility-level installation. Charge/discharge times were expected to be on the order of several days.[3]
Competitors are proposing alternatives such as flow batteries, compressed air, pumped storage, or hydrogen.[3]
The company's cathode technology was purchased from failed battery maker NantEnergy.
Finance
Investors include steel maker ArcelorMittal, Breakthrough Energy Ventures, itself funded by Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, and MIT’s investment fund The Engine.[1] ArcelorMittal led a $200 million 2021 funding round.[3]
See also
- Metal–air electrochemical cell
- Grid energy storage
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Von Drehle, David (July 27, 2021). "Iron-air batteries: Huge green-energy breakthrough, or just a lot of hype?" (in en-US). Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/07/27/iron-air-batteries-huge-green-energy-breakthrough-or-just-lot-hype/.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Wang, Brian. "Iron-Air Utility Scale Stationary Battery at 1/10th the Cost of Lithium Ion | NextBigFuture.com" (in en-US). https://www.nextbigfuture.com/2021/08/iron-air-utility-scale-stationary-battery-at-1-10th-the-cost-of-lithium-ion.html.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 Gold, Russell (2021-07-22). "Startup Claims Breakthrough in Long-Duration Batteries" (in en-US). Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. https://www.wsj.com/articles/startup-claims-breakthrough-in-long-duration-batteries-11626946330.
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