Friday, February 8, 2013

EEStor Advancing Technology





Results continue to show promise. This confirms that they are now able to produce operational layers and to drive a creditable response.

This project has been plagued by research optimism driven by investor enthusiasm. I personally find the development time completely reasonable. I would have been suspicions if they had been clipping along at the speed demanded by observers.

EEStor remains the best possible protocol available for energy storage. They have proven after years of effort that they can produce the necessary powder. It is now all about engineering a working product that can then be perfected over even more research and time.

The design concepts are as difficult as playing with a box of marbles. The devil is in the dimensionality. It would be really neat to design some DNA to do the hard work for us. That is even a plausible proposition today.

EEStor, Inc. shows preliminary results from Paraelectric Dielectric path


CEDAR PARK, Texas, Jan. 28, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- EEStor, Inc. ("EEStor") is pleased to report the materials science context for their work and preliminary (pre-certification) results from energy storage layers built in its pilot production facility during early final tuning. The preliminary results show EEStor's patented and unique composition modified barium titanate (CMBT) powder delivers the benefits of solid-state energy storage when used as a fundamental constituent in a paraelectric dielectric.

On Dec. 28, 2012, EEStor's President Richard Weir hosted Dr. Rick Ulrich, Professor of Chemical Engineering at the University of Arkansas, for a review of and conversation regarding EEStor's work in pursuing a paraelectric dielectric path for high density energy storage applications. In particular Dr. Ulrich was provided access to data and materials related to EEStor's CMBT powder.

Dr. Ulrich made the following comments regarding his meeting and on the test data shown below:

"Dielectrics with the properties shown here would provide unprecedented amounts of capacitance per area. The possibility of obtaining ferroelectric-sized permittivities with the stability of a paraelectric material is very exciting. A dielectric with a permittivity of 1000 is considered high in current capacitor technology, so materials with the permittivities reported here would be an important breakthrough."

"Capacitor dielectrics that show very large permittivities tend to lose storage capacity as voltage increases. It's long been a goal of the dielectric community to solve this problem."

"Materials like this would find immediate applications in both signal and power electronics."

"While there is still work to do in order make these dielectrics suitable for powering electric cars, this level of power storage represents a significant advance in the art."

Preliminary EEStor results and next steps

In prior press releases, EEStor has indicated certain tuning results where EEStor had combined some, but not all, of the constituents of its dielectric to show performance control of some of the parameters that would be required in completed commercial energy storage layers. Engineering tuning work provides the blending, mixing and curing data necessary to optimize finished layer construction where all constituents are combined. EEStor entered the final phase of tuning optimization of commercial layers that include all necessary and desired constituents in the fourth quarter of 2012. Preliminary results of one such production run were recently retested and verified by personnel from System Engineering and Laboratories ("SEAL"), a professional engineering organization headquartered in Tyler, Texas with the following results:

Manufacture Date of tested layers was Nov. 27, 2012. SEAL have verified the following parameters:

Layer
Capacitance measured and verified at 100 Hz & Applied V

(uF)
Dissipation Factor (%)
Leakage current (mA) @ Applied V
Layer dielectric thickness (microns)
Area of layer - 10^-6 M^2
Permittivity (k)
Maximum applied voltage (volts)
Energy density of dielectric layer only (w.h/L)


Testing equipment used included: QuadTech 1715 LCR Digibridge LCR, Keyence GT2-212K, Yokogawa WT3000, Stanford Research PS350/5000B-24W

These data are not the best results achieved by EEStor in any category but are shown to indicate that the benefits of the paraelectric dielectric path are being delivered through EEStor engineering processes and in a pilot production line facility. The samples were chosen to show results with low leakage, some for permittivity. Most importantly, as applied voltage was increased across the samples, there was no detectable degradation of layer capacitance or relative permittivity (i.e.; polarization saturation), thus exhibiting fundamental evidence of paraelectric behavior of the manufactured layers. Breakdown voltages of the samples are not shown.

Next steps for EEStor after final tuning the performance of the dielectric material will be certification of pre-production sample layers produced by the pilot production line. Layers will then be available for purchase by qualified commercial buyers for their independent testing purposes. After layer certification, EEStor, Inc. will work in conjunction with commercial partners to customize and improve throughput of the continuous pilot production facility specific to the needs of customers.

This press release contains "forward-looking statements," including statements related to product plans, product functionality and production plans. These statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, including the risk of development or production delays, the risk that the technology or devices may not perform as expected, component or raw materials delays or shortages, the ability to effectively manage operating expenses and manufacturing operations and the ability to maintain or raise sufficient capital to fund current development and production goals. EEStor's actual results may differ materially from the expected results in this release. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date such statements are made. EEStor does not undertake any obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statements to reflect events, circumstances or new information after this press release, or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events. Dr. Ulrich was not paid by EEStor for the quotes used in this release.

SOURCE EEStor, Inc.

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