Innovative Advanced Fuel Cell Manufacturing
Summary:
Building on prior technological innovation, Excellatron Solid State, LLC (Atlanta, GA) has developed a lithium-air battery that has the potential to significantly outperform current lithium batteries.
Technology Description:
Excellatron has developed a lithium-oxygen (lithium-air) battery with the potential for the highest energy density when compared to traditional lithium-ion batteries. The prototypes are currently functioning at a specific energy of 1000-2000 watt-hours/kilogram, which is 4-5 times higher than that of a lithium polymer battery, at approximately twice the cost. Holding costs to the same level as a conventional lithium battery, Excellatron's battery would last about twice as long. The prototypes have been successfully tested and put through 200 cycles of complete discharge/charge. The technology builds on Excellatron's efforts in chemical vapor deposition of electrolyte, and the refinement of novel anode materials which have improved the discharge capacity of the battery.
MDA Origins:
Excellatron received a 2005 Phase II SBIR to develop a lightweight lithium battery for the High Altitude Airship, which proposed to create an electrolyte barrier suitable for manufacturing in large sheets for scale-up requirements. The target specific energy (energy per unit mass) in this proposal is 600 watt-hours per kilogram (Wh/kg), a three-fold improvement over conventional lithium technology.
Spinoff Applications:
Lithium batteries are already a staple of portable electronics, where long-lived batteries are highly desirable. Blackberries, iPods, laptop computers, portable DVD players, and implantable medical devices such as insulin pumps and pacemakers, all stand to benefit from improvements in battery technology. Hybrid and fully electric vehicles would stand to gain a great leap in efficiency and market feasibility with the advent of lighter weight, longer-lasting batteries
Commercialization:
Excellatron's current products include Smart Cards, medical implantable devices, and batteries for nonvolatile static random access memory (NVSRAM), important for long-term memory storage in computers. In order to scale up its lithium battery from its small-scale bench status to sizes suitable for use in cell phones, laptops, hybrid vehicles, etc., the company seeks partnerships with large manufacturers to facilitate introduction and integration into such products.
Intellectual Property
The lithium technology also has some provenance at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, for which the company possesses a limited exclusive license. The battery technology is additionally protected by independently developed intellectual property, with ten patents approved and ten more in the pipeline.
Company Profile:
Excellatron is a seven-employee company that spun off from Johnson Research and Design in 1998 to develop thin-film batteries and other advanced concepts in energy storage. The company has also been engaged in innovative energy storage through funding from the Department of Energy, and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). The NIST funding helped Excellatron develop a plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) technique that contributed heavily to the company's success in producing thin-film lithium batteries, lowering the cost of the process, quadrupling the rate of deposition, and resulting in faster conduction of lithium ions.
Contact Information:
Mr. Anthony C. Pace
Excellatron
263 Decatur Street
Atlanta, GA 30312
(404) 584-2475
fax: (404) 584-6772
email: pace@excellatron.com
web: www.johnsonrd.com
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