Company Overview
Superlattice Power, Inc., (OTCBB: SLAT ) was incorporated in Nevada in 2004 and is a development stage technology company that is focusing its resources and efforts on the development and marketing of lithium-powered vehicles and products, as well as on commercial and residential properties. Everything from scooters, bicycles, mopeds, motorcycles, cars and homes are being converted successfully to zero-emission, lithium-powered vehicles and facilities.
Power production has a new standard. Superlattice exhibits power, safety, and environmental concern at a level above anything else. Hybrid Technologies has taken Superlattice from a laboratory scale to industrial scale, and are pioneers in producing nano and submicron materials on a large scale.
SLAT has taken a step ahead to pioneer Superlattice Cathode Material for the use in Lithium Ion Rechargeable. HYBT has successfully introduced Superlattice nano and submicron materials from laboratory to industrial scale.
Superlattice structure is a hexagonal structure and can accommodate more Lithium and more energy. The elements and specially transition metals have been selected precisely to make Superlattice cathode materials safe, environmentally friendly and less expensive.
The Lithium Ion Battery
Lithium ion batteries are rechargeable and composed of cathode, anode, separator and electrolyte composed of LiPF6 or different salts dissolved in different non aqueous solvent.
Lithium Ion Battery is the potential source of rechargeable storage system since it has the capability to provide highest gravimetric (Wh/kg) and volumetric energy density (Wh/L).
Anode
Graphite is the most suitable candidate to be used as anode materials with a maximum voltage difference with respect to cathode material. However, at present different types of graphite materials are being used and developed to enhance electronic and ionic conductivities as well capacity. More powerful anode materials are being investigated to substitute carbonaceous materials and include tin based high capacity nano materials.
Separator
Several industries are still continuing their research works and commercialization to introduce new efficient separators. At present Celgard and DuPont are leading industries in this field.
Development
Several researchers have investigated high capacity and energy density superlattice structures. However, there is no evidence that it has been produced commercially and in large scale amounts. The critical process optimization required to do so is currently been exhibited by Hybrid Technologies. Hybrid is taking superlattice from a laboratory scale to industrial scale.
The target material is a mixed oxide with a general formulation of Li1+xMnaCobNicTidO2.
A series of superlattice cathode materials have been produced under different conditions of time and temperatures.
A process was involved to assure homogeneous mixing of all starting materials. Precursor material was pre-calcined and then subsequently calcined at high temperature ranging 700°C to 900°C.
Project Plan
The following is a breakdown of the steps being taken to produce Superlattice technology on a mass scale. This will allow Hybrid Technologies to incorporate the technology into a wide range of products, improving their efficiency.
Schedule and Work Breakdown Structure of Proposed Program
Task 1: Synthesis of Proposed Cathode Materials
The objective of this task is to synthesis high capacity cathode materials. A number of variations in heat-treatment temperatures and compositions of the cathode materials will be used in the synthesis process. In this preliminary evaluation, samples will be prepared and delivered to sub-contractors for characterization and performance evaluation. A non disclosures agreement will be signed between all parties to protect technical know-how like cathode material preparation, cell assembly, anode materials, separators and all other components associated with lithium ion batteries.
Task 2: Characterization of Cathode Materials
The primary objective of this task is to characterize the developed cathode materials using analytical and electrochemical techniques. The electrochemical performance of the electrodes in the batteries is critically dependent on several properties such as crystal structure, electronic conductivity, surface area and porosity, i. e., the distribution of micro and macro pores within the electrodes. Therefore, a focus of this project will be to characterize these materials by X-ray diffraction, Scanning electron microscopy, EDS analysis, BET surface area, porosimetry, and particle size distribution in order to correlate physical and chemical properties with their electrochemical performance. The thermal stability of the synthesized materials will also be performed using Thermogravimetric Analysis (TGA) technique.
The X-ray diffraction of the synthesized materials as a function of synthesis temperature will provide the information related to the formation and changes of the crystal structure and minimum temperature. The low temperature is critical in obtaining a high surface area material. Scanning electron micrographs, BET surface area measurements, and the Hg-porosimetry will provide the needed information about the particle size and morphology of the material. EDS analysis will provide a qualitative comparison of different elements present on the surface of the oxides.
Task 3: Fabrication of Cathodes
The objective of this task is to fabricate positive (cathode) electrodes of uniform loading, good mechanical integrity with ease of electrolyte accessibility.
Task 4: Development of Half-Cells and Cells using Appropriate Carbonaceous Anode
The objective of this task is to develop half-cells with the cathode materials and metallic lithium anode in electrolyte.
Initially cylindrical cells, 18650 and/or prismatic 5±0.4 mm (Thick) X 34 mm X 50 mm will be fabricated as per customer’s demand. However, once successful the new lithium ion batteries will be examined for high ampere cells for the use in Hybrid and/or electric vehicles. The most efficient way to fabricate cells and optimization will be conducted by all parties involved in a project with proper non disclosure legal agreements.
After estimating a capacity of at least 10-20% higher than LiCoO2 or present commercially available cathode material Task 5 will be conducted.
Task 5: Evaluation of Performance and Assessment of Technical Feasibility
Some information from customer on cell performance and thermal stability are:
a) Less than 20% capacity loss at 400 cycles @ room temperature. Charge at 1C, rest 10 minutes and discharge at 1C rate. Tap current to 20 mA for a 1.3Ah cell.
b) Safety Test (No Fire/No Explosion):
Hot Oven Test (130°C for 2 hours)
Overcharge Test (4.6V @ 3.0A, continue test for 24 hours, or until cell current is <C/10 or until cell temperature is < 30°C
External short circuit at 60°C, continue test until cell voltage is < 0.1 mV or/and temperature is < 54°C
Float Charge at 4.2V at 40°C
Temperature ramp test 20-200°C
Task 6: Final Report
A final report indicating all the experimental procedures, results, critical analysis of the results and recommendation of the future work will be prepared jointly by Hybrid Technologies and participants. We will maintain NDA rules.
Industry Press
In U.S., Steps Toward Industrial Policy in Autos - NY Times
By STEVE LOHR
President Obama has cast himself as a reluctant interventionist in two of the nation’s major industries, Wall Street and Detroit. The federal aid, he says, is a financial bridge to a postcrisis future and the hand-holding will be temporary.
Even so, the scale of the government investment and control — especially by the auto task force now vetting plans at Chrysler and General Motors — points to an approach that has been shunned by the United States more than other developed nations.
“By any coherent definition, this is industrial policy,” said Marcus Noland, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics.
Industrial policy refers to government programs tailored for a specific industry instead of actions whose effects are felt across an economy, like monetary policy or tax rates.
Mr. Obama’s declaration on Tuesday of tougher rules on automobile emissions and mileage standards is both an environmental and an industrial policy. The new national standards require carmakers to produce fleets that are 40 percent cleaner and more fuel efficient by 2016. In the United States, industrial policy has long been viewed with suspicion by many policy makers and economists, who consider it government meddling in the private sector and a violation of free-market principles.
Industrial policy was a hotly debated topic in the 1980s, with the rising challenge from “Japan Inc.” in industries as varied as automobiles and semiconductors. But as the competitiveness of the American economy revived and the Japanese challenge ebbed, the attention to government support faded.
Today, economists, along with public policy and Japan experts, say the model sometimes has a role, and they point to qualified success stories. But with Washington venturing into this area, they warn that industrial policy tends to be strewn with pitfalls, as political influence too often trumps economic efficiency.
The strategy, they say, works best when the path ahead is well defined: catching up in an industry, as Japan did so well with semiconductors for a while; or softening the social impact of industries that are consolidating or contracting, as Japan did in shipbuilding and parts of steel making.
Industrial policy, they say, frequently falters when it approaches a technological frontier.
Japanese industrial policy in computing technology shows both the promise and the limits of the approach. Japan’s government-guided program to develop improved processes for making computer chips in the late 1970s proved quite successful.
By the early 1980s, the American leader, Intel, was staggering under the Japanese assault so badly that I.B.M. stepped in and bought a 20 percent stake in Intel to prop up a crucial domestic supplier. Under attack, Intel made the leap to a new generation of chip technology.
The Japanese chip makers did not make that bold bet on the future. And the country’s computer industry was single-mindedly focused on following I.B.M. in bulky mainframe computers. “Japan missed the big shift to microprocessors and personal computers in the 1980s,” said Edward J. Lincoln, an economist and Japan expert at the Stern School of Business at New York University.
Detroit faces two challenges: first shrinking in size and trimming costs, and then moving toward a future that is expected to rely on alternative technologies, like battery-powered electric cars.
In contracting businesses, industrial policy suggests an active role for government in softening the effects for displaced workers and affected communities. “To me, the strongest argument for industrial policy was always easing the pain and smoothing the adjustment,” said Robert B. Reich, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley.
Mr. Reich, a labor secretary in the Clinton administration, is critical of the Obama administration’s auto rescue plan for being focused mainly on the financial engineering of recovery. He recommends wage insurance and retraining programs linked to economic development projects to bring new industries to communities suffering from auto plant closings.
In the long term, a different and perhaps bright future beckons for Detroit. It could depend on nonfood biofuels, like wood chips and algae, which experts predict could someday be produced for $1 a gallon and substitute for up to half of the gasoline consumed by American cars.
Another potentially promising path, energy experts say, is electric cars, using advanced batteries. Japan leads in plug-in hybrids, and China and other foreign producers have ambitious plans. But G.M.’s entry, the Chevrolet Volt, is scheduled to go on sale next year. And Ford has a prototype car, called Project M.
A lithium-ion battery start-up, A123 Systems, has applied for a $1.8 billion loan from the Energy Department to build a series of car-battery plants, the first planned for southeast Michigan.
Such a future, experts say, might also entail auto companies transforming the way they do business, working closely with electric utilities or start-ups like Better Place, based in Palo Alto, Calif., to provide cars, batteries and electricity as a bundled service with monthly fees.
“The technology is beginning to appear to make us think very differently about cars,” said David E. Cole, chairman of the Center for Automotive Research, a nonprofit organization in Ann Arbor, Mich. “And whole new business models are becoming possible and likely.”
Industrial policy, economists say, can hasten technological shifts by financing research in a field. Such research, they say, benefits the economy as a whole — a payoff beyond the spending that individual companies could justify.
“That is the big argument for public-funded but private sector-conducted research and development,” said Robert N. Stavins, an economist at Harvard. “You want companies and researchers finding the way forward instead of having it defined by government.”
But any alternative future is years down the road for Detroit. It will depend on federal research incentives, environmental policies and fuel prices.
Still, government policy, some experts say, that is merely a lifeline for Detroit is too narrow a goal. That was what was done at the start of the 1980s, when Washington negotiated so-called voluntary restraints on auto exports with Japan. The pact eased the competitive threat on Detroit and forced Japanese automakers to build factories in the United States. Yet it proved a short-lived reprieve because Detroit’s underlying problems — high costs and dependence on fuel-hungry models — were not addressed.
“If all we do is put money into Detroit to give them breathing room, it will fail and we shouldn’t do it,” said Clyde V. Prestowitz, president of the Economic Strategy Institute and a trade negotiator in the Reagan administration.
Yet a more comprehensive, industrial-policylike approach to Detroit carries its own perils, economists say. In trying to manage the industrial shrinkage, they say, there is a fine line between easing the social impact and protecting jobs in ways that inhibit economic change and renewal. In pursuit of new growth, governments risk encouraging overinvestment in areas that prove to be technological dead ends.
In the Japanese experience, economists see evidence of both dangers. Problems, they say, are typically byproducts of what economists call “political capture.” That is, an industrial sector earmarked for special government attention builds up its own political constituency, lobbyists and government bureaucrats to serve that industry. They slow the pace of change, and an economy becomes less nimble and efficient as a result.
Economists say the phenomenon is scarcely confined to nations with explicit industrial policies and cite the history of agricultural subsidies in America or military procurement practices.
But going down the path of industrial policy certainly holds that risk. “You have to bear in mind the opportunity costs of these kinds of government interventions, and remember that life is not an economic textbook and that politics can easily override economic rationality,” said Mr. Noland, an author, with Howard Pack, of “Industrial Policy in an Era of Globalization: Lessons From Asia.”
