Rechargeable carbon-oxygen battery: A new class of ultra low-cost, lightweight energy storage technology

Noon Energy has developed a new class of battery technology that will cost-effectively turn intermittent solar and wind electricity into on-demand power. It uses ultra-low-cost storage media and can match the energy efficiency of lithium-ion technology. It stores energy by splitting CO2 into solid carbon and oxygen in a flow battery configuration, utilizing abundant materials and simple reaction chemistry. At <$1 per kWh capacity for the storage chemicals, it will provide long-duration (hours to days) storage at below $30 per kWh capacity, much lower than existing storage technologies. It will also offer more than double the energy density of lithium-ion batteries, enabling longer range electric vehicles. After a few years of materials R&D, Noon has demonstrated lab-scale proof-of-concept cycling for hundreds of cycles. Now in the Cyclotron Road fellowship program at Berkeley Lab, Noon has designed and assembled the first bench-scale system prototype of this new storage technology, done initial modeling of the full system and carried out techno-economics analysis. The proposed ARPA-E project will enable Noon to further de-risk key system components, scale up to stack level demonstration of a next-stage prototype and to develop and integrate heat management, bringing us close to a full-scale product. If successful, this technology would provide unprecedented low-cost storage and make a major contribution to revolutionizing the energy sector with local clean energy from the sun. These impacts address all of ARPA-E’s mission areas to enhance U.S. economic and energy security: reducing energy imports, reducing emissions, and improving energy efficiency.