Handbook of Energy Storage for Transmission or ... - W2agz.com

Regenesys Electricity Storage Technology
Business History, Status
EPRI Proprietary Licensed Material
Development Programs
The Regenesys chemistry was not originally developed by Innogy, but by Ralph Zito, an
independent inventor working at the time in North Carolina, who assigned the rights to his
inventions on the Regenesys chemistry and related topics in the early 1990s to Innogy. In
parallel with Zito’s work, Innogy performed a lot of research to elucidate the Regenesys
chemistry, some of which work was contracted to universities in the UK. Innogy also
collaborated with Du Pont (the manufacturer of Nafion membranes in the USA) to try to ensure
availability of membrane with both acceptable performance and acceptable cost.
In parallel with the chemical and electrochemical research, Innogy initiated a cell stack
development effort, engaging a plastics molder (Linpac of Birmingham in the UK) and
Electrosynthesis, a technology development company in the Buffalo area of New York state, to
assist in these efforts. Ultimately, Innogy acquired Electrosynthesis, which company continues
to work on a variety of electrochemical engineering projects. Innogy built many multi-kW
batteries in their development program, see for example Figure 6, with this part of the effort
culminating in construction of 100kW cell stacks (modules) with electrodes of up to one square
meter in area.
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