World’s first sustainable battery lasts 6,000 cycles, could offer 30-year life

The team, led by material scientist Serhii Kaminskyi, SorbiForce’s CEO and co-founder, came up with the idea after realizing agriculture generates up to 2.1 billion tons of waste each year.

Moreover, the limited and often hazardous methods of recycling conventional batteries further highlighted the urgent need for safer, more sustainable solutions.

“With the current way energy storage systems and batteries are designed, they have really big sustainability implications for the planet,” Kevin Drolet, the company’s CMO, says.

Developing the concept

To create the innovative battery, Kaminskyi gathered a team of experts in the late 2010s, which eventually earned them a place in the University of Arizona Center for Innovation’s startup incubator. “We’ve really latched onto this idea that waste is value and that you can derive capital enterprise from waste,” Drolet emphasizes.

Following years of research, the team developed sorption batteries that use three physical processes to transfer electrons through an ultraporous carbon layer at the core, moving them from the cathode to the anode. According to the team, since both electrodes are made of carbon, the battery is totally nonflammable.

“What’s really interesting about our technology is that the ultraporous carbon materials actually get better as they age,” the CMO explains. “The battery life could be up to 30 years as long as you can add more water.”

However, what’s perhaps most striking is that at the end of a cell’s life, as much as 95 percent of the battery can be broken down into organic materials, while the rest of the components can later be reused.

Additionally, Drolet remarks that, unlike lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries, which often become toxic plastic waste or pose safety hazards when recycled, SorbiForce cells pose no risk of explosion, thermal runaway or toxic leaks thanks to their metal-free chemistry and closed-loop design, even if cut in half.

Looking ahead

As the startup gears up for its initial 60 kWh to 150 kWh pilot projects slated for the second half of the year, it is currently seeking to raise USD 5 million in seed funding before the round closes. Drolet is confident the low costs and high demand will help the company expand rapidly.

“Compared to lithium-ion batteries, our capex costs are much lower because the salt and materials for the battery are in massive abundance here in the United States,” Drolet says.

With a lifespan exceeding 6,000 cycles and the ability to stack modules, Drolet says moving from pilot projects to full-scale manufacturing is simply a matter of learning, as the demand is already there.

“There’s a big need to develop technologies that are non-flammable, nonexplosive and made in the U.S.,” Drolet says, adding that the company plans to begin rolling out its first batteries later this year through initial sales.

“If you can build something that doesn’t catch on fire, that’s really valuable; we can do that while building a circular economy for energy storage,” he concludes.