JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – German battery group JenaBatteries has agreed to study the use of Talga Resources’ graphene products in its flow batteries, potentially opening up a new supply avenue for the Perth-based advanced materials company’s products.
Under a collaboration agreement, announced on Tuesday, Talga will supply graphene for testing in components producing JenaBatteries’ patented polymer flow battery, a type of redox flow battery suitable for commercial scale and grid applications.
Talga said its graphene would aim to reduce manufacturing costs and increase the performance and longevity of the flow battery components by using graphene’s renowned properties of conductivity, chemical inertness and impermeability.
“The collaboration provides a platform for Talga’s graphene to be introduced to the large stationary energy sector, using variants of its graphene already developed for mobile energy applications,” Talga reported.
Each company would contribute its own intellectual property and products to the collaboration and could share jointly in any new technologies resulting from the collaboration.
A flow battery, or redox flow battery, is a type of rechargeable battery where rechargeability is provided by two chemical components dissolved in liquids and separated by a membrane. Energy is stored in the liquid electrolyte in external tanks, rather than in the battery cell.
Flow batteries are technically similar to fuel cells and are targeted at large-scale energy storage solutions.