Green Car Congress: U. Mich. Battery Spin-Off Lands $3.0M in State Funding

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U. Mich. Battery Spin-Off Lands $3.0M in State Funding

26 September 2008

Sakti3, an Ann Arbor, Michigan-based spinoff of the University of Michigan, received a $3 million grant from the Michigan Strategic Fund (MSF) to establish a Center of Energy Excellence focused on next-generation lithium battery technologies and processes. As part of the award, the University of Michigan will contribute research on battery lifecycles.

Sakti3 intends to develop and commercialize an advanced manufacturing method for high- power batteries primarily for placement in electric vehicles. The premise of this new manufacturing process is to produce batteries capable of withstanding the rigors of automotive usage.

Sakti3, formerly Arbor Energetics, is headed by Dr. Ann Marie Sastry, the University of Michigan Arthur F. Thurnau Professor of Mechanical, Biomedical and Materials Science and Engineering and the Director of its Energy Systems Engineering Program.

Sakti3 is part of Khosla Ventures’ battery portfolio; Khosla provided $2 million in Series A funding. In March, Sakti3 announced plans to invest $1.1 million. The company plans to scale up to some 230 jobs in the state by 2018.

Earlier this year, the Regents of the University of Michigan approved the licensing of two technologies to Sakti3 (formerly Arbor Energetics), which Khosla characterizes as a thin-film battery company:

UM OTT File No. 3633, “Micromachined Deposited Battery”
UM OTT File No. 3668, “Hybrid Battery Supply for EV, HEV or PHEV”

Skati3 has an exclusive royalty-bearing license with the right to grant sublicenses. The University retains ownership of the licensed technology and may continue to further develop it and use it internally.

Resources

Sastry Research Group publications
Y.-H. Chen, C.-W. Wang, G. Liu, X.-Y. Song, V. S. Battaglia and A. M. Sastrya (2007) Selection of Conductive Additives in Li-Ion Battery Cathodes: A Numerical Study. Journal of The Electrochemical Society, 154 (10) A978-A986

September 26, 2008 in Batteries | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBack (0)

Comments

The plug-in-hybrid vehicle does not require new and improved batteries because it has an engine that operates on fuels to keep it going. EFFPOWER makes a bipolar lead battery that could be modified to make great PHEVs. Hydraulic hybrids get all of the advantages of hybrids with less weight and cost. Electric cars should all have "range-extender" engines just to stop all concern about limited range. The more than ten year old ZEBRA battery has similar or better capacity to lithium ones and far better environmental and safety characteristics, but it is only suitable for cars with constant use or constant power available. All high performance battery cars, including lithium, are unsuited for only occasional use, and small regular cars should be used instead. High fuel costs are only because of US government allowed crude oil speculation gambling. ..HG..

Posted by: Henry Gibson | September 26, 2008 at 11:25 PM

As the stock market fumbles, speculation in comodities will return. That can't be helped. On another note, the insistance that EV's should have a 300 mile range is an abitrary and unreasonable one. Most trips ar less than fifty. Rent a car if you want to drive to timbuktu.

Posted by: | September 29, 2008 at 10:32 AM

I'm sick of all of this 'death to capitalists' talk. The US government didn't do a disservice to Americans because it allwoed the free market to operate. Free choices by free individuals is the basis for our entire economic system. Our economy equals one third of the entire world economy because people are self interested and profit motivated. If you want socialism and central planning... see: Venezuela, Iran, China, and North Korea.

Posted by: Bryan | October 01, 2008 at 06:56 AM