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Pinnacle VRB and Unisearch Agreement To Commercialize VRB

March 08, 1999 by Jeff Shepard

Pinnacle VRB Ltd. (Australia) recently signed an agreement with Unisearch Ltd. (Sydney) to commercialize the vanadium redox battery (VRB) developed at the University of New South Wales (UNSW, Sydney). Under the agreement, Unisearch, which is UNSW's commercial company, assigned all interest in the battery to Pinnacle in exchange for A$1.5 million and A$6 million worth of Pinnacle shares. Pinnacle has acquired all intellectual property rights to the battery, including licensing agreements with Mitsubishi Chemical Co. (Japan) and Thai Gypsum Products Co. Ltd. (Thailand)."The VRB is an electrical energy storage system which can be used for electric vehicles and in small or large stationary applications such as remote area power supplies or it can be linked to power stations for load-levelling," stated Pinnacle Managing Director Malcolm Jacques. "Pinnacle VRB plans to maintain and build on the existing license agreements with Mitsubishi and Thai Gypsum and to establish new licensing agreements worldwide for a wide range of additional applications."According to Pinnacle, the VRB has a high efficiency, can be fully charged and discharged without damage, and retains its charge indefinitely. The battery can be recharged in a conventional manner or it can be "refueled" by replacing the discharged liquid electrolyte with charged electrolyte.