Harnessing a New Source of Green Energy
Friday, December 16, 2022 / Online
Even as a child, Brian Adams felt a personal obligation to do whatever he could to protect the environment from the destruction caused by humans.
Now he’s the co-founder of Salient Energy, a start-up company supporting a rapid transition to clean energy by providing a scalable alternative to lithium-ion with affordable zinc-ion batteries.
Brian’s love of nature is part of the reason he chose to study at Lakehead where he earned a Chemical Engineering Technology Diploma, an Honours Bachelor of Science in Chemistry, and a Master of Science in Chemistry. He also wanted to move far enough away from his hometown of Mitchell, Ontario, so that he wouldn’t be tempted to return every weekend, while allowing him to appreciate everything Northwestern Ontario has to offer.
“Being an outdoorsman, I loved my time in Thunder Bay, particularly ice fishing,” he says.
Brian’s training with Professor Aicheng Chen started him on his path to creating a better battery.
“I received a tremendous foundation in electrochemistry at Lakehead University,” he says.
After graduating, Brian went to the University of Waterloo to get a PhD in Chemistry, which is where he met Salient Energy’s co-founder, Ryan Brown. It was near the end of his PhD that Brian started exploring aqueous, or water-based, batteries that could be produced in an open atmosphere.
Pictured right: Rendering of a prismatic cell format battery that Salient plans to produce when they go into full-scale production. They are currently producing pouch format batteries.
“After seeing some early performance results on the zinc-ion battery, I was hooked and knew that this is one alternative battery that the world needs,” Brian says.
The pair developed a technology for zinc-ion batteries that can be recharged thousands of times and launched Salient Energy in 2017.
Since then, they’ve grown from only three employees, including themselves, to 30 full-time employees with a 24,000 square-foot manufacturing facility in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, and a team in Oakland, California. The North American market will be their starting point and they anticipate doubling or tripling their workforce in the coming years to meet demand.
“We plan to scale up the manufacturing of zinc-ion battery cells and modules by setting up gigafactories. This is the only way for this battery technology to have a meaningful impact,” Brian says, adding that batteries are good for the environment because they are accelerating the transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources.
Pictured left: Brian Adams says that “the engineering diploma that Lakehead offered attracted me because I was indecisive about going to college or university when I was in high school.”
Salient batteries could be used in several different ways, but generally they are best suited for stationary energy storage applications rather than electric vehicles or consumer electronics.
One application would be as backup power in homes instead of gas generators, which will also benefit the environment by not using gas. Another application is as commercial batteries for “peak shaving,” which levels out peaks in electricity use.
“With a large battery and predictions of times of high electricity usage, companies can use the battery to cut down on the amount of electricity required from the grid,” Brian explains.
This would save businesses massive amounts of money on electricity bills and benefit grid utility companies because “peak” electricity loads put a strain on the infrastructure, often causing outages when cables and transformers are not large enough to accommodate the electric current.
Read more inspirational news and stories in Champions of Change—Lakehead’s 2021-22 Annual Report.