MGX Renewables Announces Production of Next Generation Cathodes for Zinc-Air Fuel Cell Battery

VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA / September 3, 2019 / MGX Renewables Inc. (“MGXR” or the “Company”) (CSE: MGXR) is pleased to announce production of next generation carbon based cathode for its Zinc-Air Fuel Cell Battery.  To date the Company has produced 300 cathodes for use in its initial mass storage battery systems.  Each 5kW fuel cell stack utilizes 50 cathodes.  MGXR has developed proprietary and patented fuel cell and battery technology and will continue to specialize in the design and manufacture of cathodes in-house.  The planned initial scale-up of cathode production is for 36MW of annual equivalent capacity with a minimum storage of 8 hours or 288MWh of storage followed by the addition of similar scale fabrication machinery as necessary.  The Company continues to develop a hybrid manufacturing strategy of leveraging its proprietary designs utilizing fabrication partners for standardized components such as injection molded pieces, with the most technically advanced and proprietary components, such as the fuel cell cathode, being manufactured in house.

MGXR Energy Storage System
The MGXR ESS is a modular Energy Storage System designed to deliver power in the range 20kW – 50MW and energy storage in the range of 120kWh – 1GWh over extended periods of time. With the advantage of rechargeable zinc-air battery technology, the system can be configured to support a wide range of discharge power, recharge power and duty cycle requirements. Since the energy storage capacity of the system is determined only by the size of the zinc storage tank, a highly cost-effective and scalable solution now exists as an alternative to the fixed power/energy ratio of the lithium ion battery.

Technology
The MGXR ESS is based upon unique patented zinc-air battery technology. Energy is stored in the form of zinc particles, similar in size to grains of sand. When the system is delivering power, the zinc particles are combined with oxygen drawn from the surrounding air. When the system is recharging, zinc particles are regenerated, and oxygen is returned to the surrounding air.

Applications
The flexibility of the MGXR ESS enables it to service a wide range of applications. Typical examples include:

  • Storage and smoothing current from renewable energy sources such as wind and solar
  • Commercial, industrial backup replacing diesel generators
  • Industrial scale, on-demand power for peak shaving or standby
  • Grid scale energy storage for energy trading and arbitrage

Architecture
The MGXR ESS is designed according to a modular architecture that enables a wide variety of system configurations to be created from a small number of common subsystems. Each subsystem implements a single element of the technology:

  • The Zinc Regeneration Subsystem (ZRS) provides the recharging function
  • The Fuel Storage Subsystem (FSS) provides the energy storage function
  • The Power Generation Subsystem (PGS) provides the discharging function