A New York-based clean tech startup, Ioxus, raised $21 million in a round from Energy Technology Ventures (a GE-NRG Energy-ConocoPhillips joint fund), Northwater Capital, Aster Capital and their previous backers Braemar Energy Ventures, the companies announced today.
Ioxus makes lithium-ion hybrid capacitors, and ultracapacitors, which are (often alongside other battery technology) used to charge and run: wind turbines, light rail and other public transportation systems, hybrid and electric vehicles, medical equipment, LED lighting, power tools and other consumer electronics.
Chief executive officer of Ioxus, Mark McGough, said that the funds would go towards the development and manufacture of ultracapacitors that can generate more power, store more energy and work with higher device operating voltages than those offered today. In particular, the CEO wrote in an email to TechCrunch:
“[The company] will continue to work on [developing ultracapacitors] with higher power density that maintain higher energy density with a wide temperature range. We will be coming out with a new generation of ultracapacitor cells later this quarter with a concentration on these features.”
As Inhabitat blogger Timon Singh has noted:
“[The latest Ioxus hybrid capacitor] has huge potential. It could lead to hybrid [vehicles] being fully charged in mere minutes and improve the life cycles of electric vehicles. Currently, vehicle braking systems demand recharging hundreds of thousands of times, but that would not be the case with a lithium-ion ultracapacitor.”
Ioxus has been experiencing growth in sales in Asia, aided by partnerships with wind power technology distributors GTAE and Mouser Electronics, and the increasing popularity of hybrid transportation in China.In the U.S. market, the company has been selling more ultracapacitors to the makers of consumer electronics industry, especially LED lighting.
Companies like Sinautec also sell ultracapacitors in China. Meanwhile, ARPA-E (Advanced Research Projects Agency for Energy) in the U.S. is funding a number of companies and labs developing energy storage technologies, especially capacitors, that can improve electric vehicles and public transportation.