Donald Sadowy's Liquid Batteries

LMBC is commercializing liquid metal battery technology invented at MIT for grid-scale energy storage

Compiled by Sterling D. Allan
Pure Energy Systems News
April 17, 2012

Sonald Sadowy presents the basic formula for the liquid battery at a TED talk presentation, April 2012.

MIT Professor, Donald Sadowy, has been pursuing a dream of creating a cost-effective liquid battery for grid-level storage. Rather than tap the expertise of professionals in the field, his approach has been to train new students with the task. And they have formed a new company, Liquid Metal Battery Corporation (LMBC) to expedite bringing their successful formula to market. The idea is to be able to make the batteries larger to bring their cost down, rather than making many small batteries and combining them.

Their battery uses magnesium (Mg) in the top layer and Antimony (Sb) in the bottom layer, divided by a liquid salt layer. To produce current, Mg looses two electrons, to become a Mg²⁺ ion, which travels through the electrolyte salt layer into the Sb layer, accepting two electrons to form an SbMg alloy.

That process is reversed when current is added to the mix, such as from a wind or solar farm or other energy source that needs to be stored.

Battery attributes include: silent, emissions-free, no moving parts, remotely controlled, designed to the market price point, without subsidy. Running at elevated temperatures, the battery can handle the temperature rises that come from current surges.

Major funding has come from the private sector (including Bill Gates and Total) and the U.S. Federal Government.

Sadowy's student, David Bradwell, built the first ever liquid battery.

As of April, 2012, Sadowy's group has grown to 20 post-doc, graduate, and undergraduate students; who share Sadowy's passion for science and society.

The technology has shown itself to be robust and scalable, as the team has moved from its first four hundred 1 Watt-hour batteries to a 300 Wh version.

Here's their 1000Wh version, which they call the "Pizza". They're presently working on a 4kWh version (not showing photo yet).