BioSolar Extends Research Agreement with UCSB for Next Phase of its Super Battery Technology
BioSolar, Inc. , a developer of breakthrough energy storage technology and materials, recently announced that the company has signed an agreement to extend the funding of a sponsored research program at the University of California Santa Barbara (“UCSB”) to support the next phase of its super battery technology development.BioSolar’s research program with UCSB first started in July 2014 with a focus on low cost and high performance materials and structures for supercapacitors and batteries. The lead inventors of the technology are UCSB professor Dr. Alan Heeger, the recipient of a Nobel Prize in 2000 for the discovery and development of conductive polymers, and Dr. David Vonlanthen, a project scientist and expert in energy storage at UCSB.
Based on the technical breakthroughs achieved in 2014, BioSolar applied its technology for enabling high capacity and long-life lithium ion batteries, which have very large markets across a broad spectrum of applications. The Company believes its breakthrough technology can double the storage capacity, lower the cost and extend the life of lithium-ion batteries – all features that are highly sought after in industries spanning electric vehicles, smartphones, solar, and more. This extension funds the research program for another 12 months until June 2017.The Company recently announced that it successfully completed the first phase of its super battery technology development, with test results indicating that lithium-ion batteries incorporating BioSolar’s technology can achieve significantly higher capacity with costs below $100/kWh, less than half of today’s lowest cost lithium-ion batteries. The next phase of development requires the design and building of prototype electrodes and battery cells at sufficient quantity that will allow extensive evaluation of the technology’s performance in various Li-ion battery configurations.
“We are pleased to extend our agreement to fund the sponsored research program at UCSB to further the development of our super battery technology,” said Dr. David Lee, CEO of BioSolar. “As one of the top research universities in the world, UCSB is considered to be a global leader in bioengineering, chemical and computational engineering, materials science, nanotechnology and physics. We are confident that this team of scientific professionals will continue to advance the technology closer to our goal of achieving a $100/kilowatt-hour cost milestone for energy storage.”UCSB boasts six Nobel Laureates (five in sciences and engineering) and one winner of the prestigious Millennium Technology Prize. The 2014 Academic Ranking of World Universities ranked UCSB Engineering/Technology and Computer Science as #7 in the world.
