subject: Lithium-ion Battery Startup Actacell Gains Partners [print this page] For a three-year-old company, which is working to commercialize low-cost, high-power, lithium-ion cell materials, thats a rock star list of well-known supporters stretching from the worlds largest search engine to two name brand venture capital firms to the biggest U.S. auto makers, to the U.S. government. To date, ActaCell has raised close to $7 million in funding.ActaCell was actually awarded the $3 million NIST grant two weeks ago, and the funding was one of nine grants compaq dv2000 battery given out under a federal program to support innovative manufacturing technologies. As Josie put it recently, innovation in manufacturing can be just as important as novel designs or materials, particularly when it comes to energy storage and clean power.ActaCells technology is based on research out of the Material Science and Engineering labs of professor Arumugam Manthiram at the University of Texas at Austin. The startup develops materials for battery anodes (which draws in lithium ions when a battery recharges) and cathodes (which draws out current), and is also conducting research on Compaq nc6000 battery cell and pack designs, and has built a module for demonstration in hybrid and plug-in hybrid vehicle applications.ActaCell aims to use the NIST funds to scale up production of its nanocomposite material for compaq nc8000 battery anodes by a factor of 1,000. Eventually, according to ActaCells project description, this could enable safe, powerful and economical batteries for electric vehicles and other demanding applications. While compaq nx6120 battery claims its anode material is in principle, significantly less expensive to produce than state-of-the-art alternatives, the company is still working with small lab-scale batches. To be commercially viable, the company says it needs to bring production up to 5-kilogram batches, from five grams today.
