Neah Power Systems was chosen by the U.S. Department of Energy to work with Argonne National Laboratory to increase the capacity and manufacturability of its rechargeable lithium-metal battery.
The relationship will help the company’s technology leapfrog, said Chris D’Couto, Neah Power’s president and CEO.
Neah Power will work with the laboratory near Chicago for a year. The laboratory time and expertise is valued at $300,000.
Neah Power was based in Bothell, but is relocating to Edmonds. The batteries are manfuctured in Beaverton, Oregon. The company is developing a high-density, rechargeable lithium metal battery called Neah PowerChip Battery for defense, commercial and consumer uses.
The unique architecture using lithium metal and porous silicon is making the battery five times more powerful than batteries in production today, D’Couto said.
Theoretical modeling of the battery shows that it should be producing even more energy storage and output than it already does, D’Couto said.
With assistance of the national laboratory, Neah Power hopes to identify the changes that need to be made so the practical application matches up with the theoretical modeling.
There’s long been a search to build a better battery that can store and produce more energy and “live forever and cost nothing,” said Ira Bloom, senior chemist and group leader at Argonne National Laboratory.
He pointed to the carbon zinc batteries at hardware stores, noting how they come in many shapes and sizes. He said changing the battery’s chemistery also changes everything.
“It’s a scientific discipline, but how you make it can be an art form,” Bloom said. “Once you figure out how to produce it, it’s very re-produceable.”
He said he’s unfamiliar with Neah’s PowerChip, but looks forward to working on it.
“It presents an interesting challenge, no question about it,” Bloom said. “I hope everybody learns from this project.”
The PowerChip Battery is already generating interest.
Neah Power has a deal with Santa Rosa, California,-firm Liquid Image to produce 100 batteries for wearable police body cameras. Those batteries are expected to hold enough charge for 13 hours instead of four hours with current standard rechargeable batteries, D’Couto said.
If testing is successful, Liquid Image wants to buy 200,000 PowerChip Batteries.
This type of battery technology could also be used for the increasing number of electric vehicles, D’Couto said. And that could extend the range for electric cars by hundreds of miles.
The design uses the same manufacturing technologies that made television sets, cell phones and laptops more compact and capable, D’Couto said.
So it could be manufactured at existing semiconductor foundries around the world.
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