Avanti Battery, an American energy storage tech startup founded in 2021, develops and commercializes a new type of aluminum-sulfur (Al-S) battery that was discovered at MIT. This innovative aluminum-sulfur battery is cheap, has a high capacity, can be rapidly charged, and won’t catch fire. It is designed for small-scale stationary energy storage with a storage capacity of several tens of kilowatt-hours, which is enough to power a single home or small to medium-sized business.
Challenges: lithium-ion battery
As more and more renewable energy systems, such as solar and wind, are installed worldwide, the demand for cost-effective, large-scale energy storage systems to provide uninterrupted power is increasing at a rapid rate. Lithium-ion batteries are strong candidates for this solution due to their small spatial footprint, mechanical simplicity, and siting flexibility. They have been used to store energy on a grid that integrates intermittent solar and wind power.
The high cost of lithium-ion batteries, however, prevents their widespread use in such applications. Low-cost technologies, such as pumped hydroelectric, are preferred despite their low energy and power densities and geographical limitations. Several dozens of stationary lithium-ion energy storage systems have reported explosions or fires, raising safety concerns about lithium-ion batteries used in stationary energy storage applications.
Therefore, it is necessary to develop low-cost, high capacity, and safe battery technology.
Avanti Battery Technology
Avanti Battery utilizes aluminum, sulfur, and molten salts to produce aluminum-sulfur batteries with rapid charging, high capacity, and fire resistance. Aluminum, sulfur, and molten salts are earth-abundant, low-cost resources. The capital cost of aluminum-sulfur batteries is only 10 to 15% of that of today’s lithium-ion batteries. Additionally, the volumetric energy density of aluminum-sulfur batteries is comparable to that of lithium-ion batteries.
Avanti aluminum sulfur battery
Avanti Battery's technology is different from other aluminum batteries because it uses an elemental-chalcogen positive electrode instead of different low-capacity compound formulations and a molten-salt electrolyte instead of high-polarization ionic liquids at room temperature.
The diagram below depicts the structure of the Avanti aluminum-sulfur battery.