Zinc8 Energy Solutions Inc (CSE:ZAIR) has said it is receiving advisory services and up to $500,000 in funding from the National Research Council of Canada Industrial Research Assistance Program (NRC IRAP).
The company said the funding is to support a research and development (R&D) project titled: "Improvement of sub-component efficiencies of the Zinc-air battery system."
"The support from NRC IRAP will help us accelerate Zinc8 Energy Solutions' committed efforts to deliver a low-cost, long-duration energy storage system by establishing solid technical foundations for our next-generation zinc-air fuel cell and zinc generator," Zinc8 chief technology officer and vice-president of product management Dr Simon Fan said in a statement.
"Integrating these new stacks into future energy storage systems will unlock the full potential of Zinc8's proprietary zinc-air technology by maintaining its cost and performance competitiveness in both the commercial and industrial (C&I), and utilities markets," he added.
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Under the agreement, NRC IRAP will provide advisory and funding support to the R&D division on the two-year project aiming at improving individual subcomponent efficiencies by material and process variations for its patented zinc-air energy storage system (ESS).
The company said the system efficiency will be improved by reducing the overpotential of the electrochemical reactions, whereas the operational efficiency will be improved by reducing potential parasitic losses.
NRC IRAP's support will allow it to deploy resources to optimize critical components of the system, aiming to improve ESS round-trip efficiency. It is intended that the project will increase Zinc8's product visibility in the market, it added.
Zinc8 noted that the support comes in addition to a continuing six-month project on techno-economic assessment and competitive landscape analysis of the flow-battery technology, where NRC IRAP is providing it with up to $75,000 in R&D funding.
With respect to employee support and engagement activities, the company also said it has granted an aggregate of 800,000 restricted share units to certain key executive and non-executive employees in accordance with the company's long-term incentive plan.
Zinc8 has assembled an experienced team to execute the development and commercialization of a dependable low-cost zinc-air battery. This mass storage system offers both environmental and efficiency benefits. Zinc8 strives to meet the growing need for secure and reliable power.
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