Innovation

Mr. Giuliano Scaltriti in his company in the last few years has caught results from studies carried out in South Africa about the potential usage of salt based batteries - properly common salt that each of us uses for cooking (sodium chloride, NaCl).

UNE L.t.d. 's CEO has improved this technology and has tried to implement it on a product that could be suitable for the market, in order to achieve the company's mission through the distribution of its products on a large scale and contributing to increasing the use of zero environment impact products.

Specifically, the salt based batteries that are already available for sale, are used to store the energy collected by the photovoltaic systems, allowing its use in a deferred manner over time. This allows to compensate for the moments when the solar panels don’t produce energy, supplying electricity constantly with zero impact.

In addition, the company is working on implementing this technology in commonly used cars but it’s necessary to solve some issues about the shape of the batteries (they must be with cubic shape to produce the chemical reaction) and improve the battery’s recharge time (that currently is 3h, in comparison with 1 hour of lithium batteries). The deadline for this job that UNE L.t.d.’s R&D has given is 24-36 months.

Nowadays the company is testing this solution on vehicles operating in logistics since batteries are more suitable for bigger vehicles such as vans.

These improvements could exponentially widen the scope of application of this technology.

In general, this technology could be a small step for the company, but a giant leap for the sustainable future of mankind.

U.N.E. L.t.d. batteries. [From the first one produced (left), to the last one innovation (right)]

Inspiration

UNE's idea to open the company came from the conviction that we could not continue to use raw materials in such a harmful way, as is still being done in some parts of the world. So the company came up with the idea of creating a truly innovative product that would be universal but above all, natural and with no impact on the environment or on the people themselves.

Twelve years ago when they started, all this was a bit of a utopia, because the market was instead very much oriented on the photovoltaic part and no one was looking to create eco-friendly integrative equipments that could store energy and redistribute it throughout the day such as maintaining lithium batteries. This prompted them to create their own products and make them available to as many people as possible in order to create a better world for present and future generations.

The first step was to look for something that was already there in the market, but there was almost nothing except salt, a common raw material that can be found easily. However, it has very important physical characteristics like electrical and ionic conduction, and that's where they started.

The technique had already been thought of in the 1950s in South Africa, where extensive studies were done on raw materials such as sulphur, salt and other raw materials, and their uses. Later in the 1990s, salt studies were done in Germany and for the past 12 years the company has been helping to improve the use of this technology in applications. They have had 4-5 years of studies and prototype applications in the field, and then in 2015 came to patent what they created, as well as all the components within their system.

In recent years, the project has become more and more widespread, and this energy has been applied in many areas. People, also due to recent events, have become more interested in environmental impact, and in raw materials such as gas.

Overall impact

UNE L.t.d. has been positively impacting its area and with their projects around the world, they’re both trying to reduce the emission of CO2 and making our planet safer through their products such as salt battery since compared to lithium batteries, they cannot explode.

Moreover, Une L.t.d. has been training special technicians since 2017 and in its vision, they should widen the installation of their product especially abroad. This has been having an important impact in its area because it has given work to a number of young workers (in accordance with the fourth SDG - ”Quality education”).

Worthy, innovative, and durable salt batteries generate a strong social and economical impact, mitigating the deficit of electricity in some remote places at certain hours of the day. This is what happens every day in Burundi where with Une’s products, a local market can use refrigerators during the night avoiding the waste of fresh fishes (according to SDG n.12 ). Moreover, since the electricity usage is low compared to developed countries, that plant can also supply electricity to neighbouring towns.

Business benefit

Une ltd started market operations in 2018, reaching economic sustainability from that year up to that moment they went ahead with private financing from big companies in energy business.

The forecast for the next three years is an increase of sales approximately 33% from the previous year and an increase of awareness among society .

The best plus sides for companies who decide to use these technologies, are:

• The maximisation of the security deletes the issues of explosion, for example, in naval industries boats, yacht, cruises and transoceanic ships must be as secure as possible in order to avoid disasters in the middle of oceans/seas/rivers - UNE L.t.d. has contacts with naval manufacturers in this regard.
• With the energy accumulation, companies can have a backup that avoids the risk of remaining without electricity that could generate a number of technician problems like data loss.
• According to researchers, salt batteries have a longer life span compared with lithium technology and this allows firms to save money in the long-term. Moreover, their capacity might grow through the years as demonstrated by scientific studies from third-party: batteries capacity had grown from 100% to 110%.

Social and environmental benefit

As for the environmental benefits, Une L.t.d. 's innovation has zero impact on the planet because the batteries they produce are made of materials that are 100% recyclable; moreover, in this way it’s possible to provide to the market a full-renewable photovoltaic energy production system.

Another important thing is that these batteries are completely safe because they aren’t inflammable like lithium batteries. For this reason, they are excellent for all the situations in which there is danger of explosion such as maritime transport or hospitals.

In terms of social benefits, this company has worked in Burundi, where it has created a micro grid (a process by which energy is stored in batteries from solar panels) capable of powering an entire supermarket and the houses in its vicinity, avoiding the use of generators. In this way, the supermarket has been able to use fridges for 24-hour storage and they have been able to extend the opening hours of school (according to the 2nd and 11th SDG).

UNE L.t.d. attaches great importance to the continuous training of the stakeholders and potential stakeholders (for example people who work in the same sector and people interested in the topic), for this reason it promotes courses to improve their skills.

Interview

Scaltriti Giuliano, Founder, Director, Ceo