Strategic Elements Ltd (ASX:SOR) has achieved another significant milestone with its self-charging battery technology successfully generating an output of over 4V from moisture in the air over a testing period of around 5 hours.
This was achieved through the development of a prototype battery pack containing multiple connected battery ink cells.
The self-charging battery ink technology is being designed to generate electricity from humidity in the air or skin surface and is being developed under a collaboration partially funded by a Federal Government grant with CSIRO and the University of New South Wales.
“Encouraged with the milestones being achieved”
Strategic Elements managing director Charles Murphy said: “We are obviously very encouraged with the milestones being achieved by UNSW and the team.
“In response to that, we are adding in PhD material science expertise and developing a panel of industry specialists.
“The technology sits across two of the strongest 2021 investment sectors in batteries and environmental technologies and is a very good fit for our high-risk, high reward Pooled Development Fund structure”.
Technology demonstrating the early potential
The technology is demonstrating early potential by recently scaling up to 1-litre ink batch size and now rapidly increasing from 0.8V in a single cell to a maximum voltage of 4.4V from the prototype battery pack developed.
Further development on reducing battery ink cell size whilst retaining the same voltage output and developing battery ink cells capable of being fabricated onto a flexible textile material has started.
The self-charging battery technology has strong potential competitive advantages over traditional batteries and power sources that suffer from flexibility, dimension, weight and/or safety issues whilst needing a constant power supply or to be charged.
Development to date has been focused on voltage and the ability to harvest energy from humidity in the air and the initial market focus remains on wearables and IoT related devices as they have lower energy output requirements such as cosmetic, pressure, environmental and health.
Higher performance applications will require the development of a capacitor for energy storage and regulation and will be focused on at a later date.
The sector produced USD 10 billion in revenue in 2019 and is forecast to grow to nearly USD 40 billion by 2030.
Further development
A further development milestone is to develop battery ink cells capable of being fabricated onto a flexible textile material and the experiment of the flexible textile material prototype is expected to be conducted over the next 6-8 weeks.
The mechanical capability of the cells to be flexed will then be tested. The Company has an initial goal of achieving 500 bending cycles.
Development on reducing battery ink cell size whilst retaining the same voltage output and developing battery ink cells capable of being fabricated onto a flexible textile material has already started.
The self-charging battery technology has strong potential competitive advantages over traditional batteries and power sources that suffer from flexibility, dimension, weight and/or safety issues whilst needing a constant power supply or to be charged.