Zero Emissions Developments seeks funding to establish graphene-based solar battery manufacturing plant

Zero Emissions Developments (ZED) is an Australia-based company that has announced the development of a technology to build longer lasting, greener, more efficient and more affordable graphene-based solar and EV batteries. It is now seeking AUD$30 million (around USD$22,300,000) in private investment to build a manufacturing plant that will produce these batteries.

The planned manufacturing plant will produce the PowerCap batteries in southeast Queensland through the entity, PowerCap Un Ltd.

Unlike lithium-ion batteries, which are made entirely from mined components, PowerCap batteries use recycled waste converted to graphitic carbon to create its anodes. ZED will use the waste garnered from its own recycling plant in Bowen to create its form of graphene substance.

At the end of its life, the PowerCap battery is 100 percent recyclable.

By using a recyclable graphitic carbon, the battery behaves like a non-faradaic supercapacitor, which lasts twice as long. PowerCap batteries are a hybrid of faradaic and non-faradaic (electro-chemical and electro-static) interactions, known as pseudocapacitors. The Electro-Chemical architecture is provided by metal-oxides and the Electro-Static is provided by a unique doped graphitic carbon chemical architecture. This asymmetrical architecture allows a greater and more responsive cycling life (circa 20,000 cycles before it goes below 80 per cent of the original capacity), with improved charging and discharging properties.

The PowerCap Metal-Oxide-Graphitic Pseudocapacitor Battery is a sustainable energy storage system which lasts two to three times longer than standard lithium-ion batteries. Not only is it safer, cleaner and more affordable than traditional batteries, it also assures the equivalent energy density found in lithium-ion batteries and provides up to ten times more power density. This means the energy is delivered almost instantly, important when powering mobile devices like EVs.

PowerCap Un Ltd. principal engineer and CEO, Ahmed El Safty, and his team of post-doctorate researchers and engineers have been developing the PowerCap technology for over a decade. We know this technology is going to help advance our ability to rely on solar energy and manufacture electric vehicles, El Safty said. By building the batteries here in Australia, we’re able to control the quality of the batteries we produce and create jobs for Australians at the same time. We welcome those wanting to invest in technologically advanced renewables to make contact.

Further investment will be sought via IPO late in 2022. The company plans to list on the ASX in 2023.