Argonne-led innovation results in new company

LEMONT - Research led by Argonne National Laboratory has led to the creation of a new company, Blue Current, that aims to produce a new type of electric car battery.

An arm of Koch Industries has invested $30 million in Blue Current to build its first pilot factory in Hayward, California. Blue Current's target market is electric vehicles, Argonne said.

In 2015, an innovation hub led by the U.S. Department of Energy's Argonne addressed the shortcomings of both glass ceramics and polymers in batteries by bonding them together. The resulting composite "solid electrolyte" demonstrated good conductivity and an ability to stick chemically active materials in battery electrodes that store lithium ions. Inspired by the composite's potential, Blue Current developed it further.

A Blue Current executive said the innovation hub - the Joint Center for Energy Storage Research - has made the pilot program possible.

"The idea of using composites in batteries was new and unproven prior to the JCESR program," said Kevin Wujcik, Blue Current's chief technology officer. "JCESR put resources behind composites because the materials had potential to address a market need for safe, solid-state batteries while solving important technical challenges."