Enable IPC Acquires Ultracapacitor Company
30 September 2008
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| A Ragone plot with two SolRayo candidate materials indicated. Click to enlarge. |
Enable IPC Corp. has acquired a controlling interest in SolRayo LLC, a Wisconsin technology company developing new inexpensive nanoparticle-based ultracapacitors for use in various renewable energy, industrial, consumer, and automotive applications.
The SolRayo acquisition is in exchange for in kind contributions from a major grant to be announced shortly. SolRayo was founded by the same scientists who developed Enable IPC’s patent-pending ultracapacitor technology.
SolRayo has developed a new method of fabricating ultracapacitors that utilizes less expensive carbon cloths or papers as the electrode backing material. These materials are coated with nanoparticles that are able to improve the performance at a lower cost.
Dr. Mark Daugherty, CTO of Enable IPC, having previously served as CEO of Virent Technologies, will serve as the new SolRayo President. SolRayo’s co-founder, Kevin Leonard, will stay on as Chief Technology Officer.
Enable IPC (Intellectual Property Commercialization) was formed to bring new technologies to market either through licensing, manufacturing, or a combination of the two. It currently is developing two primary products: a nanowire-based microbattery, and a nanoparticle-based ultracapacitor with more energy capacity.
Among future products Enable IPC is considering are carbon nanotube/quantum dot-based Li-air batteries and ultracapacitor/battery combination units.
What's are the internal combustion engine and fuel cells doing on a Ragone plot? Their specific energy capacity depends on the size of the attached fuel tank, whereas batteries are the fuel tank of an EV. The graphs compares apples with oranges.
Posted by: Rafael Seidl | 01 October 2008 at 10:21 AM