VANCOUVER, British Columbia, May 25, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- MGX Minerals Inc. (“MGX” or the “Company”) (CSE:XMG) (FKT:1MG) (OTCQB:MGXMF) is pleased to announce that 100% wholly-owned subsidiary ZincNyx Energy Solutions, Inc. (“ZincNyx”) and its research partners will receive a grant from Canada’s Natural Science and Engineering Research Council (“NSERC”) to develop nanostructured material for their next generation Zinc-air energy storage.
The drive toward a renewable energy economy was recently given a big push by NSERC in this year’s Strategic Partnership Grants announcement. ZincNyx, in a consortium with researchers from the Universities of Waterloo, Calgary, and Simon Fraser University, are exploring and developing materials for their next-generation Zinc-air energy storage system. The project, titled Grid-scale Energy Storage Using Zinc-air Fuel Cells with Nanostructured Electrodes, will receive a grant of $580,000 over the next three years to support research. The consortium will be studying the use of graphene-based materials that have shown impressive performance in the lab, and are ready to graduate to commercial applications.
“Graphene is getting a lot of attention for many applications, but is particularly promising for electrochemical reactions since it can perform on par with traditionally used platinum” says project lead Prof. Jeff Gostick of the University of Waterloo. “As engineers and applied scientists, it’s very exciting for us to see our ideas leave the lab and get into the hands of an industrial product, it’s what it’s all about”
“ZincNyx is very pleased with the timing of the grant, which ties in perfectly with our business plan. We are entering early commercialization, but saw a strong need on the horizon to drive down costs to fuel further growth,” points out ZincNyx CEO Suresh Singh. “We are very pleased to be working with this particular group of researchers.”
The Team includes two Canada Research Chairs (Drs. Viola Birss and Erik Kjeang) as well as veteran electrochemical engineer Ted Roberts.
About ZincNyx Energy Solutions
ZincNyx has developed a patented regenerative zinc-air flow battery that efficiently stores energy in the form of zinc particles and contains none of the traditional high cost battery commodities such as lithium, vanadium, or cobalt. The technology allows for low cost mass storage of energy and can be deployed into a wide range of applications.
Unlike conventional batteries, which have a fixed energy/power ratio, ZincNyx’s technology uses a fuel tank system that offers flexible energy/power ratios and scalability. The storage capacity is directly tied to the size of the fuel tank and the quantity of recharged zinc fuel, making scalability a major advantage of the flow battery system. In addition, a further major advantage of the zinc-air flow battery is the ability to charge and discharge simultaneously and at different maximum charge or discharge rates since each of the charge and discharge circuits is separate and independent. Other types of standard and flow batteries are limited to a maximum charge and discharge by the total number of cells as there is no separation of the charge, discharge and storage components.
The ZincNyx mission is to provide the lowest cost, longest duration and most reliable energy storage system for markets involving renewables firming, peak shaving, diesel generator replacement, telecom facility back-up, electrification of ferries and tug boats and electric vehicle charging support.
With a portfolio of 20 granted patents and an experienced management team, ZincNyx is now ready to start commercialization of the product.
To watch a short video outlining ZincNyx technology, please visit http://www.zincnyx.com/technology/
About MGX Minerals
MGX Minerals is a diversified Canadian resource company with interests in advanced material and energy assets throughout North America. Learn more at www.mgxminerals.com.
Neither the Canadian Securities Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the Canadian Securities Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
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