The U.S. Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory, located outside of Chicago, and California Lithium Battery, Inc. (CalBattery), a Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator portfolio company, announced today that they have signed a licensing agreement for an Argonne-developed, silicon-graphene composite anode material for high-energy lithium batteries.
CalBattery plans to move forward rapidly in the commercial scale-up and production of this breakthrough novel composite anode material, which tests show triples the energy capacity of the state-of-the-art graphite anode.
CalBattery has worked with Argonne for more than a year under a Work for Others agreement to develop the technology under the DOE’s Startup America program, which is part of a White House initiative to inspire and accelerate high-growth entrepreneurship.
Startup America pairs innovative individuals, businesses, universities and foundations with a broad range of federal agencies with the goal of significantly increasing the number and success of American entrepreneurs.
“The CalBattery-Argonne collaboration is a shining example of the national public-private partnership enabled by DOE’s America’s Next Top Energy Innovator part of Startup America,” said Dr. Karina Edmonds, Technology Transfer Coordinator for DOE. “This technology was originally developed at the Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory as a result of Argonne’s ongoing pursuit to produce advanced battery materials that will substantially improve battery performance with products that startup companies can then take to global markets. This is the type of partnership envisioned by Startup America to boost U.S. competitiveness by supporting the high-growth startups across the country.”
“An important part of a national laboratory’s role is to perform research that enables U.S. industry to develop and manufacture advanced technologies to be marketed both domestically and internationally,” said Jeff Chamberlain, who heads Argonne’s Energy Storage Initiative and is Deputy Director of the Joint Center for Energy Storage Research Energy Innovation Hub.
“Argonne’s research efforts support the continued development of the American economy, as well as job creation; so we are extremely pleased that the lab has been able to help CalBattery attain its goals by working with the company to develop an anode technology that it will be able to manufacture and commercialize,” Chamberlain added. “This deal demonstrates the Department of Energy’s enthusiastic and practical support of research that supports entrepreneurship and U.S.-based start-ups. It also reflects the value DOE places on basic science as the basis for innovative advanced technologies like advanced lithium-ion batteries.”
CalBattery is a portfolio start-up company headquartered at the Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator (LACI), which was started by The City of LA and the LA Department of Water and Power in 2011.
Source: Argonne
