Page 170 - CW E-Magazine (17-10-2023)

News from Abroad

LONG-DURATION ENERGY STORAGE

Honeywell and ESS to accelerate commercial deploy-

ment of iron flow battery energy storage systems

Honeywell has announced a stra- market opportunity within the energy global energy storage market is estimated
tegic collaboration with ESS Tech to transition and the combination of Honey- to be $50-bn per year and is forecast to
advance technology development and well and ESS technology can accele- grow significantly with a cumulative
market adoption of iron flow battery rate decarbonisation for the commer- investment of up to $3-trillion by 2040,
(IFB) energy storage systems. Honey- cial, industrial and utility sectors,” said according to the LDES Council and
well has made an investment in ESS Mr. Bryan Glover, chief growth officer, McKinsey & Co.
as part of this collaboration. Honeywell Performance Materials and
Technology (PMT) group. As the shift to renewable energy
The relationship builds upon each accelerates, challenges associated with
company’s development of energy stor- Honeywell and ESS are working the intermittency of wind and solar en-
age systems, and brings together ESS’ together to meet growing global de- ergy are becoming more apparent. Safe
patented IFB design with Honeywell’s mand for long-duration energy storage and sustainable IFB technology enables
advanced materials and energy systems (LDES), driven by the rapid increase the transition to clean energy using
expertise. in renewable power generation. This is Earth-abundant materials – iron, salt
creating a substantial and fast-growing and water – to provide energy storage
“The demand for long-duration en- market as countries worldwide transi- without reliance upon limited minerals
ergy storage represents a compelling tion to zero carbon energy. The current such as lithium, cobalt or vanadium.

QUANTUM CHEMICAL CALCULATIONS
Fujitsu and Atmonia discover novel catalyst candidate

for clean ammonia synthesis

Japanese multinational information per by Atmonia, Fujitsu, University of synthesise ammonia. After that, based
and communications technology firm, Iceland and Tokyo Institute of Techno- on Atmonia’s knowledge of the catalyst
Fujitsu, and Atmonia, an Icelandic logy in September 2023. development so far, selection criterion
start-up company developing a sustain- for determining a promising catalyst
able process for ammonia production, Fujitsu and Atmonia initiated joint candidate was set including factors like
have achieved a milestone in an ongo- research in April 2022 to accelerate the whether it preferentially adsorbs nitro-
ing joint research initiative to accele- search for ammonia synthesis catalysts gen rather than hydrogen, and whether
rate catalyst development for the clean by using Fujitsu’s simulation accele- it has low electrical energy input at the
synthesis of ammonia. ration technology and causal discovery time of synthesis. The catalyst combi-
technology. nations from the simulation data were
Drawing on Atmonia’s knowledge narrowed down, leading to the disco-
about catalysts and high-speed quantum As part of the discovery process, the very of a promising catalyst material
chemical calculations developed by two companies first designated approxi- candidate that combines non-precious
Fujitsu, the two companies discovered a mately 2,400 different catalyst combi- metals by alloying molybdenum oxide
novel catalyst candidate in May 2023 in nation candidates, and then performed as base with tungsten (patent pending).
which tungsten (W), a relatively inex- about 18,000 quantum chemical simu- Moving forward, Fujitsu and Atmonia
pensive substitute for precious metals, lations that considered the reaction will work to verify the effectiveness
replaces a part of molybdenum oxide process at high speed for all of them, of the new catalyst material candidates
(MoO ). This research was published collecting simulation data to conduct a through experiments to one day realise
2
in the international journal Cell Reports comprehensive search for a relatively their ultimate goal of clean ammonia
Physical Science as a co-authored pa- inexpensive catalyst that can efficiently synthesis.

170 Chemical Weekly October 17, 2023

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