Ambri is a Boston-area startup that’s constructing molten-salt batteries from calcium and antimony. The firm not too long ago introduced an illustration mission deploying power storage for Microsoft information facilities, and final 12 months it raised over $140 million to construct its manufacturing capability.
The firm says its expertise might be 30-50% cheaper over its lifetime than an equal lithium-ion system. Molten salt batteries may exceed 80% effectivity, that means {that a} comparatively low quantity of power that’s used to cost the battery is misplaced to warmth.
Ambri was based in 2010 based mostly on analysis from Donald Sadoway’s lab at MIT. The purpose was to develop a low-cost product for the stationary storage market, says David Bradwell, the corporate’s founder and CTO.
The inspiration got here from an unlikely place: aluminum manufacturing. Using comparable chemical reactions to what’s used for aluminum smelting, the group constructed a lab-scale, low-cost power storage system. But turning this idea into an actual product hasn’t been so easy.
The magnesium and antimony-based chemistry the corporate began out with proved troublesome to fabricate. In 2015, after persevering with points with the batteries’ seals, Ambri laid off 1 / 4 of its employees and went again to the drafting board.
In 2017, the corporate pivoted to a brand new method for its batteries, utilizing calcium and antimony. The new chemistry depends on cheaper supplies, and will show easier to fabricate, Bradwell says. Since the pivot, the corporate has labored out technical glitches and made progress on commercialization, going via third-party security testing and signing its first industrial offers, together with the Microsoft one.
There are nonetheless main challenges forward for the startup. The batteries function at excessive temperatures, over 500°C (about 900°F), which limits what supplies can be utilized to make them. And shifting from single battery cells, that are concerning the measurement of a lunchbox, to large container-sized methods can current challenges in system controls and logistics.
That’s to not point out deploying a product to the actual world means “dealing with real world things that happen,” as Bradwell places it. Everything from lightning strikes to rodents can throw a wrench in a brand new battery system.