U K firm buys US zinc-air battery rights
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UNDER AN AGREEMENT just signed, Crompton Parkinson Ltd. has acquired the rights for existing and future patents in metaVair batteries developed by the Leesona Corporation of Rhode Island, USA.
The agreement also provides Crompton Parkinson with manufacturing rights in the UK, Eire, South Africa and Commonwealth countries except Canada, Hong Kong and Malaysia and covers access to all technical and production information.
At the centre of the tie-up is the Leesona zinc-air battery. This method of producing electrical energy has been in the news recently as one of a number of novel battery systems that have been proposed, most designed to offer significant improvements over existing lead-acid types.
A zinc-air battery draws its energy from the zinc within the cells and from the oxygen in the atmosphere outside. This means that some of the electrodes (the cathodes) are energy-conversion devices rather than energy stores. The zinc-air battery is in fact part conventional storage battery and part fuel cell.
And although it is not expected that zincair batteries will find application in the immediate future to vehicles as starter-batteries, or as the power source on electrically-propelled vehicles, it is possible that in about two to three years time, with the successful evolution and production of an electrically rechargeable zinc-air battery, they will be applicable to electric-powered vehicles.
At present the electrical-recharging capability is limited, the better method being replacement of the zinc anodes.
A.J.W.