Posted 09.01.2009

Small biz: tech Startup: Boundless Corp.

COMPANY
POROUS POWER TECHNOLOGIES LLC

INITIAL LIGHT BULB: As co-workers at the Boulder-based Boundless Corp., Kirby Beard and Tim Feaver helped develop a new separator material for lithium-ion batteries out of a PVDF polymer similar to Gore-Tex. When Boundless, a leading supplier of lithium-ion batteries, opted to go in a different direction, the pair decided to spin off a new company based on the technology: Porous Power.

“It’s different than any other battery technology,” says Bernard Perry, the company’s VP of business development. “It has very high porosity and the lowest resistance of any product.”

Feaver is now the seven-employee company’s president and CEO, and Beard serves as COO and VP of technology. Porous Power’s employees are split between Lafayette and Plymouth Meeting, Pa., the site of the company’s R&D lab.

IN A NUTSHELL: “When you use a battery, you move ions through a separator from the cathode to the anode,” Perry says. “By having a low resistance separator, you are able to move energy faster and with less energy lost to heat. Heat destroys batteries.” He points to drills powered by rechargeable lithium-ion batteries. “With these batteries, you would have far fewer lock-up events and you could also drill in more screws.”

The polymer in Porous Power’s separators, dubbed Symmetrix, is twice as porous as the lithium-ion status quo. “It’s an engineering polymer in the same family as a Gore-Tex membrane,” Perry says. “While it is significantly more expensive, we have an advantage because it’s 80 percent air. Number two, it brings us several strategic advantages in the battery-manufacturing process.” Perry says the soft, sponge-like character of Symmetrix makes for a better battery in more ways than one.

Porous Power aims not to license its technology, but to be a materials provider to the battery industry, manufacturing in Pawtucket, R.I., with partner Neptco Inc., as well as offer consulting in the field of lithium-ion batteries. “We have three programs moving forward with very large battery companies that I can’t reveal,” Perry says. “We also currently have sampling programs with a dozen battery companies in Europe and North America.

THE MARKET: Perry says the worldwide separator market for lithium-ion batteries was $560 million and 2007 and poised to grow as next-generation PCs and cars gravitate to more efficient technologies. For example, the new Macs are the first computers to use flat batteries, for which Porous Power’s easily laminable separators are especially well-suited.

The status quo power supplies for computers are cheaper, less efficient cylindrical batteries that are made by the millions in China. A flat design is also critical for larger applications such as vehicles, Perry says, nicely positioning Porous Power in a market that is expected to nearly double to more than $1 billion in 2012. Symmetrix has other applications beyond lithium-ion batteries, Perry adds, including protective apparel and filtration systems.

FINANCING: After initial funding from an SBIR grant helped develop the technology at Boundless, Porous Power was founded with a “friends and family” round in January 2006. The company is currently in the process of closing on a $1 million Series A round.