Laboratory Moves Toward $100 Million Agreement to Develop Zinc-Air Fuel Cell Technology

Business Wire, Sept 11, 1997

LIVERMORE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 11, 1997--Zinc-air fuel cell technology, long a promising, clean energy and storage recovery alternative, begins a move towards commercialization with the signing today of a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) between Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and Power Air Tech, USA, a consortium of Australian companies.

Discussions are underway to bring other U.S. companies into the consortium.

The MOA could lead to the signing of a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) totaling about $100 million of industry funding, with $30 million directed at further research and development on a zinc-air fuel cell (ZAFC) and its zinc recovery unit (ZRU) at Livermore Lab over the next four to five years. An estimated $70 million would be required for commercialization and manufacturing applications of the refuelable zinc-air technology and ZRU.

The U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Heavy Vehicle Technology provided key funding for development of the refuelable zinc-air technology to date. Livermore Lab is operated for DOE by the University of California.

"This agreement may prove to be a watershed in the nation's development of alternative energies," said Tony Chargin, Deputy Associate Director of the Livermore's Energy, Manufacturing, and Transportation Technologies division. "We've known of the environmental and economic benefits of zinc-air for years, but the lack of high-risk capital has kept the technology bottled up in the lab. Today is zinc-air's coming out, and we're convinced it will have an impact."

Zinc-air fuel cells mix zinc pellets and electrolyte with air to create electricity. They create five times as much power as lead-acid batteries of the same weight. The Livermore design is unique because it is refuelable. Spent zinc can be recycled into zinc pellets. Refueling is quick and simple.

CONTACT: Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

Gordon Yano, 510/423-3117

E-mail: yano1@llnl.gov