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The power of zinc: Startup CEO talks zinc-based fuel cells

Washington (Platts)--26Jun2008
Robust supply and softer demand has transformed zinc from a hot to a
lukewarm commodity, but new technology that would make zinc the power running
cell phones and laptops -- and a significant distance down the road -- a fuel
source in hybrid cars, could help launch the base metal's comeback.

Power Air Corp., based in Livermore, California, announced this week it
had entered into a technology-sharing deal with Hawthorne, New Jersey-based
eVionyx to make zinc-based battery units called Powerpacks, that will give
extended-run capability to increasingly sophisticated -- and power-hungry --
mobile electronic devices like Blackberrys, MP3 players, and global
positioning systems.

"People don't know that zinc is a potential energy source," Power Air
President and CEO Donald Ceci, told Platts. "Eventually, if the world was
running on zinc, you'd have sustainable fuel." But, he added, "There's a lot
of development work to be done."

The technology is known as the zinc-air fuel cell, which gets its name
from the underlying chemical reaction that occurs when zinc pellets are mixed
with oxygen from the air, causing zinc oxidation. Lithium is the material
currently used in the batteries powering mobile electronic devices, but
deposits of the commodity are more scattered and scarce than zinc, and
increasingly pricey in the face of insatiable demand for the next big thing in
electronics, Ceci said.

"There's not that much lithium; you get it from salt lakes on the tops of
mountains in Chile and China." While those are not the only regions where the
material is found, he said, "There's certainly not enough to run the world's
hybrid electric vehicles." What's more, Ceci added, "Lithium is getting more
and more expensive because all the portable devices are running on lithium. So
zinc is developing into the next-generation alternative to lithium. We're
pioneering that to an extent."

Although the current crop of hybrid vehicles have fuel cells based on
lithium or hydrogen, the zinc-air fuel cell is safer and better for the
environment, he said. "The nice thing about zinc is, it's nonflammable and
nonexplosive and you end up with zinc oxide as a byproduct, which is totally
recyclable. You don't burn anything up into the atmosphere [so] there's no
emissions." Also, "of all the stable elements, zinc has the highest energy
density, so it is a very good power source," Ceci said.

These qualities could raise the base metal's profile as a fuel source and
drive up its price on the order of metallurgic coal -- the coal used to make
steel -- the price of which has soared on rocketing steel demand from China.
"Broadly speaking, I think this is a trend that going to grow not only in
North America and Europe, but around the world," Bart Melek, a commodities
analyst with BMO Capital Markets, told Platts. "Certainly with oil at
$135-138/barrel, we're going have to use other ways [to get power]."

--Laura Gilcrest, [email protected]