# Ilika plc Q&A: Record Energy Density Achieved for Stereax (LON:IKA)

- Link: https://www.directorstalkinterviews.com/ilika-plc-qa-record-energy-density-achieved-for-stereax-lonika/412761111
- Published: 2018-11-09T12:24:32+00:00
- Author: Amilia Stone

**[Ilika plc](https://www.directorstalkinterviews.com/company/ilika-plc/ika.l)**(
[LON:IKA](https://www.directorstalkinterviews.com/company/ilika-plc/ika.l)) Chief
Executive Officer Graeme Purdy caught up with DirectorsTalk for an exclusive interview
to discuss the levels of energy density achieved for Stereax, wireless edge node
and the first commercial deployment.

 

**Q1: You provided an update to the market on the energy density of your Stereax
solid state batteries in which you mentioned a perpetual power pack. Graeme, can
you describe for us what you mean by this?**

**A1**: A perpetual power pack is a combination of an energy harvester, such as 
a small photovoltaic panel, and a means of storing that energy and then supplying
it at a rate, a power, that is useful to the device you’re trying to supply power
to.

So, the concept of a perpetual power pack is effectively that the power pack takes
its original energy from the environment, harvests it and then it stores it until
its ready so that you can use it usually to power something like a sensor or a small
electronic device.

 

**Q2: What are people using at the moment?**

**A2**: At the minute, people either run a wire or a cable to the device or they
use a disposable battery.

So, the disadvantage of having to run a wire is that it’s actually quite expensive,
particularly if you’re trying to over long distances.

The disadvantages of using a disposable battery is that at some point you have to
replace it, it’s not so much the cost of the replacement cell, it’s more to do with
the fact that actually you have to deploy a labour crew to do it. So, in an industrial
environment you need a team to go out and replace those cells and so that’s got 
quite a high operating cost associates with it.

The other downside of using disposable cells is that they’ve got an environmental
impact and that’s becoming increasingly important as the number of batteries that
we deploy starts to increase.

 

**Q3: Just coming back to today’s headline, how has it been possible to increase
the energy density so dramatically?**

**A3**: Like many technologies, Ilika have been gradually improving the performance
of our technology along the lines of the Japanese concept of ‘kaizen’ so continuous
improvement. So, there’s been a number of small improvements to the process and 
the way that we make our material but also the architecture of the cells that when
added up have amounted to this significant step forward.

 

**Q4: You also mentioned a wireless edge node, for those of us that are no so technical,
could you just explain what that is?**

**A4**: There’s quite a lot of jargon associated with the Internet of Things and
an edge note is what is often referred to as really the sensors at the edge of a
data network. So, you imagine that you’re trying to monitor process parameters in
say a chemical plant or a refinery, you’re gathering data from different pipes and
compressors and pumps and valves around the refinery and the point in which you 
acquire that data is referred to as an edge note.

That data is generally relayed back to a telemetry point where the data is then 
consolidated and transferred back to a control room. So, the edge note is really
the perimeter of your data acquisition network.

 

**Q5: Just looking at the bigger picture, what do you think will be the first commercial
deployment of this and could you give any timing around that?**

**A5**: Industrial IoT is very important for Ilika plc, we’ve got quite a large 
pipeline of interactions with companies that are assessing this technology at the
moment. I’ve talked to the market about this regularly over the past couple of years
and demonstrated how that pipeline is growing and continues to have significant 
momentum.

Also, we’re seeing interest in asset tracking, so not necessarily throughout the
whole supply chain although that is important but more specifically in complex environments
where you’ve got scarce resources. So, expensive equipment or people that are distributed
throughout that establishment, you need to track where they are, so you can deploy
those scarce resources.

So, a hospital would be a good example of that where you may have some mobile equipment
such as ECT equipment and you may need that on different wards, you haven’t got 
a replica set of equipment for every ward in the hospital and you want to be able
to know exactly where that is very quickly.

So, you can monitor the locations of that equipment using asset tracking concepts
that you can power using power packs that we’ve been talking about today.

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