“Extreme electrochemist” Donald Sadoway wins European Inventor Award 2022 for liquid metal batteries
- European Patent Office (EPO) honours Donald Sadoway in the "Non-EPO countries" category for inventing liquid metal batteries to store renewable energy at a large scale
- His battery stores energy in layers of liquid metal separated by a liquid salt and can help bring more wind and solar power onto the electricity grid
- The batteries will soon be installed at a site in Nevada, US, storing energy from 500 megawatts of on-site renewable generation, the same output as a natural gas power station
Munich, 21 June 2022 - The European Patent Office today honoured Canadian-American scientist Donald Sadoway with the European Inventor Award 2022 in the "Non-EPO countries" category. The MIT chemistry professor has developed batteries made of liquid metal that can be used to store renewable energy at scale, increasing the reliability of solar and wind power and enabling them to play a bigger role in electricity supply.
"By enabling the large-scale storage of renewable energy, Donald Sadoway's invention is a huge step towards the deployment of carbon-free electricity generation." says António Campinos, President of the European Patent Office. "He has spent his career studying electrochemistry and has transformed this expertise into an invention that represents a major advance in the transition to green energy."
Sadoway was honoured at the European Inventor Award 2022 ceremony, a hybrid event watched online by a worldwide audience. The Award is one of Europe's most prestigious innovation prizes and is presented annually to outstanding inventors from Europe and beyond who have made an exceptional contribution to society, technological progress and economic growth.
Working at the extreme
Sadoway has spent his career studying what he calls "extreme electrochemistry": chemical reactions in molten salts and liquid metals at over 500° Celsius. The liquid metal batteries he developed consist of three liquid layers of different densities, which naturally separate in the same way as oil and vinegar do in a salad dressing. The top and bottom layers are made from molten metals, with a middle layer of molten liquid salt.
To keep the metals liquid, the batteries need to operate at extremely high temperatures, so Sadoway designed a system that is self-heating and insulated, requiring no external heating or cooling. They have a lifespan of more than 20 years, can maintain 99% of their capacity over 5 000 charging cycles and have no combustible materials, meaning there is no fire risk.
In 2010, with a patent for his invention and support from Bill Gates, Sadoway co-founded an academic spin-off called Ambri to develop a commercial product. In 2015, Ambri built its first room-sized liquid metal battery and the company will soon install a unit on a 3 700-acre development for a data centre in Nevada, US. This battery will store energy from a reported 500 megawatts of on-site renewable generation, the same output as a natural gas power plant.
Sadoway, who has spent his entire career at MIT, is also a passionate educator and developed a celebrated series of introductory chemistry lectures. He has the following advice for inventors: "You can become a great concert pianist by following the work of great masters, but if you want to be a composer, or an inventor, you can only trust yourself."
Notes to the editor
Donald Sadoway received a PhD in chemical metallurgy from the University of Toronto in 1977 and the next year joined the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he is currently the John F Elliot Professor of Materials Chemistry. A specialist in non-aqueous chemistry, Sadoway patented his first inventions in the mid-1980s in the area of aluminium and steel production, before turning his attention to energy storage technology. He has received honorary doctorates from the University of Toronto and the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim, as well as awards for his teaching at MIT. His TED-talk on liquid metal batteries received 2.4 million views, leading Time magazine to name Sadoway one of the world's 100 most influential people of 2012.
Sadoway is named inventor in European patent EP2973837B1 (granted 2019).
About the European Inventor Award
The European Inventor Award is one of Europe's most prestigious innovation prizes. Launched by the EPO in 2006, the award honours individuals and teams' solutions to some of the biggest challenges of our times. The finalists and winners are selected by an independent jury comprising former Award finalists. Together, they examine the proposals for their contribution towards technical progress, social and sustainable development and economic prosperity. The EPO confers the Award in five categories (Industry, Research, SMEs, Non-EPO countries and Lifetime achievement). In addition, the public selects the Popular Prize winner from the 13 finalists by voting on the EPO website in the run-up to the ceremony.
This year, for the first time, the EPO is also awarding bright young minds with the Young Inventors prize. The new prize offers a monetary reward to the three finalists to further encourage them to find creative solutions to pressing sustainable development challenges.
About the EPO
With 6 400 staff, the European Patent Office (EPO) is one of the largest public service institutions in Europe. Headquartered in Munich with offices in Berlin, Brussels, The Hague and Vienna, the EPO was founded with the aim of strengthening co-operation on patents in Europe. Through the EPO's centralised patent granting procedure, inventors are able to obtain high-quality patent protection in up to 44 countries, covering a market of some 700 million people. The EPO is also the world's leading authority in patent information and patent searching.
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