Soon, International Battery (IB) CEO Ake Almgren will be able to say the lage-format, lithium-ion cells and batteries his Allentown company makes are out of this world. Last month, IB announced it received a contract to build a battery prototype for NASA that would provide backup power in support of its space shuttle program.
The news comes on the heels of $2.1 million in federal funding also announced in September to develop advanced, high-energy storage batteries for the U.S. Army’s combat tactical vehicles.
“It’s confirmation we can do great things with this technology,” says Almgren. “We think both the military and NASA confirms that these big building blocks give a great advantage.”
IB is the first purpose-built commercial manufacturer of next-generation, large-format lithium ion batteries in the country. The company, which employs about 60 and recently added six engineers to help meet the surging demand, is also the only one in the country that procures batteries using a water-based process. That is almost as big a selling point as the large-format, high-density cells that allow for greater power and efficiency than standard small, round cells that require more connectivity.
“The large format is a new approach and the advantage is you can monitor and control each individual cell and balance the modules,” says Almgren. “We can build a better system.”
The battery prototype for NASA, which will be a rack system containing 19 batteries, is expected to be tested at the end of the year at Kennedy Space Center and, if successful, is targeted for launch at other space centers.
Source: Ake Almgren, International Battery
Writer: Joe Petrucci