University spinoff to develop lithium ion batteries

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University of Michigan spinoff gets boost to develop lithium ion batteries
by Tina Reed | The Ann Arbor News
Wednesday September 24, 2008, 8:30 PM

Ann Arbor-based Sakti3 will get $3 million to establish itself as one of the state's first alternative-energy research and development centers, the state announced Wednesday.

The local high-power automotive battery start-up will be one of the state's first Centers of Energy Excellence, the Michigan Economic Development Corporation said. The company, which spun out of the University of Michigan, will partner with U-M to research next generation lithium ion batteries and technologies.

"We are so pleased to be able to accelerate our efforts with this support, to help grow the electrified drivetrain infrastructure in the state," Sakti3 chief executive officer Ann Marie Sastry said in a release.
In March, Sakti3 received state tax credits worth nearly $2.38 million. At the time, the company said it planned to hire 112 people to manufacture batteries for electric cars in Ann Arbor within the next 10 years.

The COEE program was signed into law this summer and allows a state funding board to divvy out $45 million to technology companies that have nearby businesses and infrastructure to create clusters of alternative-energy research and development around the state.

Two other companies have been designated Centers of Energy Excellence in other areas of the state.

Swedish Biogas International is receiving $4 million to create a waste-to-energy center in Flint with the C.S. Mott Foundation. Massachusetts-based Mascoma Corp. is receiving $20 million to create a cellulosic ethanol center in the Upper Peninsula with Michigan State University and Michigan Technical University.


Reporter Tina Reed can be reached at 734-994-6843 or treed@annarbornews.com.
 
Sakti3 in the news again:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-11128_3-20122797-54/doubling-ev-range-with-solid-state-batteries/
Doubling EV range with solid state batteries
by Martin LaMonica | October 19, 2011

Company founder and CEO Anne Marie Sastry provided a few details on the work Sakti3 is doing to make a battery that will double the energy density compared with existing lithium ion batteries during a talk at the EmTech conference at MIT today. Satki3's ambitions offer a view into how emerging solid-state battery technology could accelerate electric vehicle sales and make batteries for electronics cheaper and longer lasting.

AMSLProfSastry.jpg

Anne Marie Sastry
(Credit: University of Michigan)

Many battery startups are using different methods to boost the performance of today's lithium ion batteries which are used in consumer electronics and electric cars, such as the Nissan Leaf and Chevy Volt. Leyden Energy, for example, has developed a new electrolyte for lithium ion batteries to improve the battery life for laptops.

Sakti3 was spun out of the University of Michigan to commercialize the work done at Sastry's lab on batteries that don't require a liquid electrolyte, an entirely different approach from traditional batteries. A solid state rechargeable battery promises to be lighter and pack more energy storage into a given space.

"We believe we'll double energy density, collectively as a community in the next few years and that is what we are targeting at Sakti3," Sastry said. "The reason we are targeting energy density that is 2x is because to do anything less is not really enabling anything else."

Sastry said that the company is using computer models to design and optimize battery cells and electrical properties. To minimize the company's risks of scaling up, it's using manufacturing approach that had already been scale.

"Today at Sakti3 we are making battery cells on equipment that literally used to make potato chip bags, which is pretty cheap, but not low tech," she said.

She said the company plans to have prototypes later this year.
Click to expand...

Full article in the link.

VC funding PR from a year ago:
http://www.businesswire.com/news/ho...Strategic-Investments-General-Motors-Ventures

Thin Sakti3 web pages here:
http://www.sakti3.com/

L0cK
 
Battery startup Sakti3 founder to step down from U-M faculty position
Posted: Tue, Jun 12, 2012 : 4:54 p.m.
Ben Freed
AnnArbor.com

Ann Marie Sastry, founder and chief executive officer of Ann Arbor-based battery startup Sakti3, announced that she will be ending her tenure as a professor at the University of Michigan.

Sastry, the Arthur F. Thurnau Professor of Mechanical Engineering, Biomedical Engineering, and Materials Science and Engineering, received multiple awards for both her teaching and her research while at the university.

According to a report by Xconomy.com, Sastry's decision was driven by a desire to focus all of her professional attention on "building Sakti3 into a 'great company.' " She will, however, continue to interact with researchers at Michigan on a regular basis.

"Fundamentally, I do think that people bringing experience from academia, industry, nonprofits, and government to one another is healthy and it makes for interesting people and interesting workplaces," Sastry said in an email to Xconomy. "The reality is that each of these sectors has profoundly different objectives, but the learnings from each are incredibly valuable, so long as the focus on the objectives stays sharp. So I feel that we can bring the best intentions of the university to an industrial exercise, of creating good technologies that are profitable and that sustain the enterprise, while having an impact that is different, but very important, in society."

Sakti3 develops batteries for electric cars and aims to help curb dependency on oil and fossil fuels. The company started as a spin-off of technology developed at University of Michigan


plus another article:


"City Council will hold a public hearing Monday on a $1.5 million tax abatement request for Ann Arbor-based startup battery firm Sakti3: $151,433 for real property improvements and $1,374,861 for new personal property.

If approved, the abatement would reduce the firm’s annual tax bill by $23,200 for each of the three years in the recommended period.

In addition to a reduction in taxes, the company is expected to create five new jobs and retain 15 existing positions as a result of the project, according to city documents. The company purchased additional equipment to accommodate the growth.

Sakti3, a University of Michigan spinoff, is developing next-generation solid-state lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles and other uses.
The company has attracted venture capital from high-profile investors such as Silicon Valley-based Khosia Ventures, the Farmington Hills office of global investment firm Beringea and General Motors Ventures, the automaker’s investment arm.

The company is headquartered at offices on Victors Way in Ann Arbor, about 1/2-mile west Eisenhower Place near Eisenhower and Boardwalk.
Among Sakti3's backers is the Michigan Economic Development Corp., which gave the company a $3 million Centers of Energy Excellence grant and a $2.3 million tax credit tied to hire 112 workers over several years as the company continues to transition into battery production."
 
Its the real deal, but still years away from production... gets boost from Dyson...
James Dyson on His Company’s High-Powered, Portable Future
Today, Dyson announced a $15 million investment in Sakti3, a solid-state battery company. That is in addition to $50 million Sakti3 already has raised from Kholsa Ventures, General Motors, and others..... “Solid-state batteries are a bit of a holy grail,” says Mark Taylor, Dyson’s R&D chief. He calls Sakti3’s technology “world-beating.” This sounds like an exaggeration, and Taylor admits the technology is “a few years” away from appearing in Dyson products. But he also says that three months of him and Dyson sitting with Sakti3 CEO Anne-Marie Sastry convinced them it’s the real deal. Sakti3’s batteries already boast energy densities above almost any battery, at 1100 watt-hours-per-liter—twice that of a state-of-the-art li-ion battery....
Click to expand...
 
After reading enough articles on Satki3 on the web going back 8 years I reckon Satki3 is a bunch of baloney.
Every time Satki3 pop on in the news it always states how there are no details on how their battery works and ends with millions of dollars from from a bigger company going into Satki3 to make it work. How many times have we seen this story.

I guess a good red flag test would be to see if Satki3 is such a fragile company that preys on bigger dumb companies is that they take legal action against some anonymous weirdo on the internet like me just for suggesting the idea they are dodgey.
 
My understanding is that they are past the proof of concept stage, as the many articles at MIT Technology Review show. Meaning its the real deal. Companies are loathe to reveal too many technical details until they can fully capitalize and go into production. And that's where they are at. Hence, Dyson's statement is based on 3 months of meetings as they are given a privileged insider's view, resulting in further capitalization. The article also makes a conservative statement that they are sill years away from production. Such long lead times then lead to speculation, as you have done, on the negative side. I just want a better battery than I've got, and I've got one of the best of current lithium-ion tech, the A123 AMP20. So will that be coming from Tesla, Apple or Sakti3? Or from A123 as they advance their R&D? Its now a race to the finish.
 
I was told a couple weeks ago that A123 has already sold almost every cell it can produce through 2017. We don't refuse to sell, we struggle to keep up with demand.
 
wb9k said:
I was told a couple weeks ago that A123 has already sold almost every cell it can produce through 2017. We don't refuse to sell, we struggle to keep up with demand.
Click to expand...
Hurrah for A123. I remember another thread on which you speculated this to be the point when we'd see better pricing for A123 cells, since you'd be able to bring your costs down at full capacity. Have you exhausted your factory capacity and so will be expanding?
 
I wish I was more privy to that kind of information--it seems to be getting harder for me to come by. All I can suggest is keep an eye on the new vendor (StorTronics) and see where prices go. Wish I could be more helpful...
 
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