Enzinc

Enzinc makes a zinc battery anode structured as a three-dimensional micro-sponge, a metallic lattice that gives zinc the energy and cycle life associated with lithium while keeping zinc's tolerance for heat and abuse. Data centers, telecom sites, marine vessels, and industrial backup all need storage that will not burn, and lithium is ruled out of much of that work on safety grounds. The factories that could serve those markets are stranded on chemistry a generation behind, and retooling them for lithium costs more than the lines are worth. The Enzinc anode drops into those lines as they stand: a recyclable battery from a stable domestic metal, with no new gigafactory behind it.

Zinc has been a promising dead end for decades, undone by the dendrites that short the cell. The micro-sponge is the first architecture we've seen that answers that failure and still fits equipment installed forty years ago.