Ambri is expanding its liquid-metal battery energy storage system (ESS) capacity in Massachusett, USA. 

Ambri is expanding its liquid-metal battery energy storage system (ESS) capacity in Massachusetts as well as adding an expanded R&D lab and hosting an on-site pilot system. The facility will triple its manufacturing capacity to 200,000 battery cells per year with plans to be commissioned in 2023 and ramp up production over 2024.

Over 85% of antimony demand is in lead-acid batteries and flame retardants, both of which have seen substitution reduce antimony demand levels in recent years.  The decline in demand for lead-acid batteries is set to continue with the shift to low-antimony value-regulated lead-acid (VRLA) batteries and the impacts of electric vehicles on the automotive battery market.  Antimony consumption in flame retardants (largely plastics), however, has scope to return to modest growth.  The metal’s lead-hardening characteristic makes the antimony’s use critical in military applications such as armour-piercing bullets, explosives, and nuclear weapons. As a result, antimony is on the front lines of USA congressional efforts to secure strategic reserves for minerals critical to the defence-industrial supply chain.

Ambri’s ESS battery is comprised of a liquid calcium-alloy anode, a molten salt electrolyte and a cathode comprised of solid particles of antimony. While the ESS landscape evolves and battery technologies like vanadium redox and others jostle for competitiveness, Ambri’s battery adds a new growth opportunity for antimony against a generally stagnant outlook.