Better Batteries: How ZincFive Is Powering The Future
The Problem:
Batteries are essential, but safety and sustainability concerns persist within the industry.
The Technology:
A zinc-based, rechargeable, recyclable battery.
The Boundless Solution:
Provide third-party environmental impact data to get ahead of greenwashing skepticism and prove lower GHG footprint and toxicity potential.
The Outcome:
Product differentiation insights and advantages in global compliance.
Batteries have become critical to our always-on electrified world. Battery safety and sustainability are now at the forefront of challenges facing the industry. ZincFive has made it their mission to address this concern.
Batteries are essential to the modern world. From mobile phones to transportation to power backup systems, they serve as part of the foundation for our interconnected society.
Yet, in spite of (and due to) their importance, batteries also present a safety and environmental concern.
Materials used for traditional batteries, such as lithium and lead, present inherent concerns due to their limited availability and hazardous potential.
One approach to cleaner and safer battery chemistry is nickel-zinc.
ZincFive: Leading a Cleaner Charge
Oregon-based ZincFive manufactures and deploys high-power, rechargeable, and recyclable nickel-zinc batteries that combine high power density and performance with significant safety and environmental advantages.
The company is on a mission to power a brighter future for its customers—and the environment.
“At ZincFive, we believe in a world of positive action powered by uplifting technology. That’s why each of our battery solutions are thoughtfully designed with the wellbeing of your business, employees, and the environment in mind.”
In order to realize their environmental goals, the company needed proof of positive impact.
"We commissioned the Boundless Environmental Impact Analysis because we sensed a shift in private equity and capital. It wasn't enough for our product to be 90 percent recyclable. We needed a third-party validation across the entire life cycle," states ZincFive CEO Tim Hysell.
The company saw the Boundless Environmental Impact Analysis as a way to validate their sustainability and environmental impact story.
Comparing Chemistries: How Can ZincFive Set Itself Apart?
For this study, Boundless compared ZincFives nickel-zinc battery chemistry to lead-acid, lithium-ion, and sodium sulfur chemistries.
Applying our proprietary approach to Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), the Boundless Environmental Impact Analysis for ZincFive assessed how its batteries compare to traditional batteries across seven Environmental Key Performance Indicators.
Results
Material Use:
Nickel and zinc are considerably more abundant in the Earth’s crust, approximately four and five times more than lithium and lead, respectively. The smaller carbon footprint and lower environmental impact of the mining for nickel and zinc start the nickel-zinc battery life cycle with an advantage. Additionally, ZincFive’s battery electrochemistry does not go into thermal runaway, while a lithium-ion battery’s reactivity with air and water poses an inherent fire hazard.
Greenhouse Gas Emissions:
When compared to lithium-ion, lead-acid, and sodium sulfur storage technologies, the production of the ZincFive battery results in lower greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions per kWh of stored energy, producing 58.8 kgCO2e per kWh, a reduction of 63%, 37%, and 54% of kgCO2e per kWh compared to lithium-ion, lead-acid, and sodium-sulfur, respectively.
Clean Energy:
The demand for advanced energy storage is essential to the green transition of the electricity grid and transportation, building, and industrial sectors. ZincFive's technology offers a lower cradle-to-gate carbon footprint, thus enabling users to get 400% faster carbon payback time and a superior carbon return on purchase.
Resilience:
ZincFive’s batteries are meticulously crafted to deliver Immediate Power Solutions (IPS) offering safe, reliable, and sustainable high-rate power technology for critical applications. With their low maintenance requirements, small footprint, and high-temperature operation capability, ZincFive’s battery is ideal for deployment in environments where the demand for green and sustainable power is on the rise
Outcomes
The positive impact of the report became apparent to the company immediately.
"We presented the data to customers by asking, 'If you deploy 1 megawatt of batteries to back up your data center, what does that look like?' We successfully visualized it in a way that is easily understandable, demonstrating the number of mature trees needed to offset lifetime CO2 emissions," Hysell explains.
ZincFive’s customers and investors rely on third-party life cycle analysis to support their evaluation and diligence of the company and its products.
Three years since its first Environmental Impact Report, ZincFive is still going strong.
“We’re working with potential customers in Europe,” remarks Hysell. “Based on the stringent EU sustainability requirements and ZincFive’s global expansion through our OEM relationships the EU is an ideal market for ZincFive. Our advantages stem from navigating EU battery regulations, distinct from those in North America, with the Environmental Impact Report serving as a crucial source document.”
The Boundless Environmental Impact Assessment continues to be a valuable resource for business development and expansion plans.