Allegro Energy
What is a redox flow battery?
Redox Flow Batteries (RFBs) can be used for large-scale, long-duration applications such as storing excess energy from solar panel farms or wind turbine farms for periods of 4+ hours. The missing link for renewables to provide all our energy needs is the need to partner with large-capacity batteries to ensure sufficient energy is always available for the grid’s demands. So during intermittent times of wind or sun or overnight; the energy stored by Allegro’s RFBs can still provide energy to the grid.
What is a supercapacitor?
The supercapacitor is more appropriate for mobile applications such as cars, trains and trams. It can also be used to stabilise the electricity grid by matching supply and demand. When there is an excess supply, the supercapacitors can act as an energy bank to ‘absorb’ this excess and charge quickly, and conversely, they can dispatch energy quickly to the grid when there is insufficient supply. Whilst supercapacitors are still energy storage devices, they work a bit differently from a battery via storing charged particles on electrode surfaces, rather than within the electrode. The advantage is that they can be used when a lot of power needs to be delivered in a short time period. The supercapacitor can deliver this power much faster than a battery.
“Allegro’s electrolyte is much cheaper and safer while performing on par with current technology. Their lower price means they can cater to more solutions that were not previously commercially viable.”
What is your USP?
Allegro’s unique value proposition is the use of its patented set of electrolytes (microemulsions) in RFBs and supercapacitors. An electrolyte is a fluid mixture that allows the transfer of charges from one side of the energy storage device to the other (positive charges to the negative electrode and vice versa). It allows these charges to flow in a controlled manner when charging and discharging the device. Our electrolytes are water-based, non-flammable & non-corrosive.
How does that compare to your competitors?
Allegro’s electrolyte is much cheaper and safer while performing on par with current technology. Their lower price means they can cater to more solutions that were not previously commercially viable. For example, EVs and grid stabilization, because the solution is so cheap it becomes competitive for these applications.
For supercapacitors, Allegro will sell tailored solutions for the needs of their customers. This would comprise a bank of supercapacitors and an electronic management system that monitors the health of the capacitors. Solving problems, rather than selling a single product.
With RFBs, again our safe & cheap electrolyte gives us an advantage in the large-scale, long-duration market. This is the scale of megawatt (MW) and megawatt-hour (MWh) to gigawatt (GW) and gigawatt hour (GWh). This is a relatively young market, so it is a bit of a race to be the dominant company in the market internationally.
Tell us a little bit more about the research team and the progression of Allegro.
Fraser Hughson, Chief Technology Officer, focused his PhD on how to use microemulsions in supercapacitors. Rohan Borah, Chief Science Officer, dedicated his PhD to investigating how the emulsions could be used in RFBs. Thomas Nann is the CEO of Allegro and was the supervisor for Fraser and Rohan during their doctorates. Mark Wojcik joined the research team in 2020, with a background in engineering and project management. Allegro was launched at the start of 2022, with an aim to turn those research findings over those years into commercially viable and available products; that being RFBs and supercapacitors.
What have been your top three biggest challenges?
“As a young company, I’d say learning to do everything for the first time has been our biggest challenge”, Mark Wojcik. The team recently commissioned a pilot-scale manufacturing line for the supercapacitors at The Melt, which is located at Dashworks Warners Bay. Connecting the machines up, commissioning them and figuring out how they all work was an interesting journey for the team.
Another challenge was shifting their collective mindset from research-based to manufacturing-based. Further, we have continually been refining our pitch to potential investors and customers, tailoring it to communicate the interests of that party concisely.
What is Allegro’s five-year goal?
Allegro will build and operate out of a gigafactory, manufacturing both the supercapacitors and RFBs for customers in Australia and internationally. Ideally, this factory will be located in Australia. It will operate sustainably and utilise circular manufacturing principles.
Learn more about Allegro through their website (www.allegro.energy).
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