Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), India’s largest fuel retailer, has joined hands with Israel-based start-up Phinergy for development, manufacturing, assembly and sale of aluminium-air batteries.
“IndianOil has taken a minority equity stake in Phinergy (Israel). IndianOil and Phinergy are now in the process of forming a Joint Venture in India for collaboration in the field of Al-Air battery system including research & development, customization, manufacturing, assembly, sale and service of aluminium-air energy systems technology,” the company said in a statement.
In a bigger picture, the major intention of the joint venture will be to set up a factory in India to manufacture aluminium-air batteries (Al-Air Batteries) for electric vehicles and stationary applications and facilitate the development of Al-Air technology.
The Oil refiner had plans to enter into the energy storage application industry and they made their plan workable by tying-up with an Israeli company for the same.
Phinergy specialises in aluminium-air battery systems (Al-Air).
Metal-air batteries have been showing great ability in electric mobility and stationary applications. The metal aluminium is naturally available in India and their extraction and recycling technologies are also well established.
Sanjiv Singh, Chairman at IOC said in a statement: “We are confident that this Al-Air battery technology would complement Lithium-ion batteries to provide a hybrid solution for large-scale adoption of electric vehicles in the country. Al-air battery technology has advantages on several factors like range, energy density, the safety of operations, life-cycle etc.”
Aluminium is used as the anode in a metal-air battery and air is used as the cathode, alongside with a liquid electrolyte. In the system of aluminium-based metal-air battery, oxygen from the air compounds with the metal to produce aluminium hydroxide, in turn, it activates the electrolysis process and generates an electric current. These batteries are lighter and compact with high energy density.
S S V Ramakumar, Director of Research and Development at IOC stated that “metal-air batteries, when combined with conventional chemistries for powering vehicles, can provide a range of up to 500-600 Km per charge.”
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