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Unlisted Companies Battery Technology Receives Venture CapitalThe Southern Cross Renewable Energy Fund has invested $530,000 in a company that is developing a cost effective energy storage technology to enable 24/7 renewable electricity. Founded in 2011, Boulder Ionics is a producer of high-performance electrolytes and electrochemical-grade ionic liquids for energy storage devices. Ivor Frischknecht, chief executive of ARENA, which is a key investor in the Southern Cross Renewable Energy Fund, said the project aims to create a pathway to market for the home-grown ionic battery technology. "Ionic liquids have the potential to provide a cost effective renewable energy storage solution that improves energy distribution and enhances the safety and performance of battery storage," he said. "This investment will help commercialize Australian research in ionic liquids and catalyze an Australian subsidiary of Boulder Ionics, a dynamic US company. Boulder Ionics will bring its unique ionic liquid production method to experts at CSIRO who will use it to improve the way they make battery electrolytes. This has the potential to greatly reduce costs of ionic liquid production, currently a barrier to commercializing it." Australian venture capitalist Paul Fox of the US based CalCEF Clean Energy Angel Fund has been assisting Boulder Ionics Corporation, which gained an initial round of venture capital from the Fund in February 2012. This was part of a US$4.3 million Series A financing round, and grants totaling almost US$2 million from the National Science Foundation, US Air Force and US Navy. Mr Fox, who recently re-settled in Australia, said the Fund was proud to have helped Boulder Ionics bring its game changing energy storage technology to Australia and to bring Australia's leading ionic liquid research to the world. Other recent good news from the company is a licensing agreement with HydroQuebec. The Fund says ionic liquids are important because they can act as a new kind of electrolyte for batteries that is non-volatile, non-flammable, with stable temperatures and higher voltages. However, until now the high purity needed means they have been very expensive and not scalable. Boulder Ionics has "developed a number of novel ionic liquid electrolytes for batteries and super capacitors giving around 2 times performance in early tests. Perhaps more importantly, they have developed a method to make the ionic liquids cheap, eventually less than a tenth of the current cost." The company says its electrolytes will enable cost-effective production of advanced battery chemistries with up to ten times the energy density of lithium-ion batteries. Mr Fox said Boulder Ionics uses microfluidic reactors, so a complete production unit is the size of a telephone box. "Each reactor is inexpensive relative to its annual production. Scaling production for a new order is simply a matter of building another telephone box and plumbing it into the raw materials feed. This is advanced manufacturing of the kind we should be doing in Australia and the US," he said Boulder Ionics has already delivered kilogram quantities to customers around the world for use in tiny batteries and capacitors, but in a few years they may be able to power much larger applications such as electric cars and homes. Ionic liquid electrolytes can be used in a wide variety of battery technologies including lithium ion, lithium sulphur, metal air, etc. Ionic liquids can also be used to refine metals, dissolve pollution, process biofuels or build a transistor that mimics learning in a human synapse. Mr Fox said Australia is already a world leader in ionic liquids research. "This deal creates an opportunity to cement that position and become a centre of excellence for commercial applications." Mr Fox is also looking for opportunities in Australia for the Fund's other portfolio companies.
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