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26 Aug 14. Alcoa, clean technology company Phinergy and HEIG-VD University, debuted a zero-emissions electric demo boat powered by an aluminum-air battery at Lake Neuchâtel in Switzerland. Alcoa and Phinergy announced earlier this year that the companies are collaborating on new materials, processes and components to commercialize the aluminum-air battery for various applications, including electric cars, electric boats and stationary energy. The aluminum-air battery used in the electric boat demonstrator contains 15kg aluminum which provides about 25 hours of additional navigation time, for a given navigation profile. Without the aluminum-air range extender, using the same navigation profile, the range of the vessel would be only 5 hours. Martin Briere, President of Alcoa Global Primary Products (GPP) Canada, Europe and Africa, together with Aviv Tzidon, founder and CEO of Phinergy and Prof. Jean-Francois Affolter, Researcher at HEIG-VD University, unveiled the aluminum-air battery electric boat at Lake Neuchâtel, Switzerland on August 26th at 10.30 a.m CET. “The use of aluminum as a clean energy source has the potential to help move the global marine navigation market towards electric propulsion,” said Martin Briere, President of Alcoa GPP Canada, Europe and Africa. “Alcoa and Phinergy are already collaborating on aluminum-air technologies for electric cars, with the launch of an aluminum-air battery equipped car in Canada in June, and look forward to extending this collaboration to other growing markets. When it comes to the harsh marine environment, Alcoa has developed products in special alloys to provide the strength, workability and corrosion resistance that marine applications require. Bringing long range electrical propulsion to the nautical environment opens up a wide range of additional possibilities for marine operators.”