SuperDielectrics' water-based zinc battery lasts 13x longer than lithium-ion under high power

Full text

QinetiQ testing of SuperDielectrics' water-based zinc cells showed up to 13x longer high-power cycle life, 100C discharge in 36 seconds, and zero thermal runaway

The company is pitching its solution to AI datacenters as a 'shock absorber' that can deal with power requirement spikes safely and reliably

SuperDielectrics' Faraday 3's first commercial deployment is slated for early 2027 as it goes up against existing Lithium-ion battery-based energy storage as an alternative that can be deployed inside the data center

Cambridge-based advanced battery technology company SuperDielectrics recently published independent test results for its upcoming water-based Zinc battery, which could help cement its de facto presence in most projects that leverage renewable energy, whose output is often inconsistent.

The next-generation battery offers up to 13 times longer life cycle under high-power cycling, zero thermal runway, and charging and discharging gains that eclipse those of Lithium-ion-based batteries.

This makes it a great add-on for critical infrastructure, as well as for a new, fast-growing sector that is extremely power-intensive with huge power spikes in tow: AI data centers.

A solution that caters specifically to the AI power problem?

SuperDielectrics is painting its battery technology as the holy grail for AI data center problems, and with good reason: it is where all infrastructure spending will be concentrated over the next decade, and the firm decidedly wants a piece.

SuperDielectrics’ core innovation is a unique, patented polymer that enables it to deliver results that dwarf those of similarly configured single-layer lithium-ion cells. With the battery leveraging Zinc in addition to the proprietary polymer, the abundantly available metal could mean that batteries would be cheaper, immune to geopolitical and supply chain vulnerabilities, and easier to scale.

Room temperature testing of the battery showed impressive results when compared to lithium-ion-based alternatives, with SuperDielectrics claiming:

- Up to 13x longer cycle life under high-power cycling (10 mins charge and discharge, 100% depth of discharge);

- 10x better discharge performance (maintained >85% nominal capacity, achieved at 36 seconds)

- 8x better charging performance (maintained >70% nominal capacity, achieved at 1 minute, 12 seconds)

“These results provide independent benchmarking of the technology at the heart of our batteries: a proprietary polymer separator that combines rapid ion transport with the safety advantages of an aqueous electrolyte system," noted Shelley Brown, CTO of SuperDielectrics.

"The outcome is an energy storage solution purpose-built for high-power, fast-cycling applications, offering an alternative to lithium-ion systems that typically rely on extensive oversizing and additional safety infrastructure to manage demanding power profiles."

There is more to the story that makes the solution ideal: Unlike lithium-ion-based solutions, the battery is safe to deploy in datacenters, whereas off-site deployments are currently required for lithium-ion-based solutions due to their potential as a fire hazard.

AI datacenters are known to be particularly power-intensive and often require significantly higher peak power when performing certain computing tasks. Lithium-ion batteries are not ideal for this because not only do frequent charging and discharging degrade them fairly quickly, but they also do not charge or discharge as fast as the Zinc-based offering from SuperDielectrics.

As a result, as noted by the CTO of SuperDielectrics, data centers need to overcompensate for this limitation by buying more capacity than needed to allow smooth operations without pushing existing lithium-ion-based infrastructure too hard.

There is a trade-off, however: Zinc batteries generally sacrifice energy density to offer advantages over lithium, and SuperDielectrics' silence on capacity does not work in its favor here.

Despite this, thanks to AI compute requirements' near-violent power swings requiring a moderator, SuperDielectrics seems to have a winner on its hands, at least on paper, but it might have its limits for datacenters that require longer backup times. The question that comes to mind is whether a smoothing layer can grow into genuine storage, especially for rack-scale product deployment.

On the flip side of the equation, SuperDielectrics is not the only one toying with a 'safe' battery solution; Chinese researchers are concentrating on a similar approach even as the automobile industry is already using sodium for EVs, which is already racking up wins in extreme low-temperature conditions.