Qynergy Receives $4.2 M Towards Developing Self-Charging Battery
By Andrew Webb
Journal Staff Writer
An Albuquerque company's attempts to develop self-charging batteries has landed a hefty jump-start from the Defense Appropriations Act.
The $391 billion bill, signed by President George Bush late last year, included $4.2 million for Qynergy Corp. The company will use the money to test and deploy radioisotope-fueled cells that can provide power or keep a battery charged for decades.
The company eventually envisions its QynCell technology could be used to make consumer batteries that last 10 years or more.
But the first uses of the technology are aimed at low-power applications such as remote tamper-prevention sensors and other unattended military uses, as well as implantable medical devices.
Rep. Heather Wilson, R-N.M., who helped shepherd the funding into the bill, said she hoped the QynCell would help solve the growing demand for electricity by an increasingly digital military.
"The problem is power— power that lasts a long time in unusual conditions like outer space and weird remote locations," she said during an event at Qynergy's North I-25 headquarters last week. "Sometimes, you just can't go out and charge the batteries. There's an immediate need in the military and the intelligence community for long-lasting power."
Qynergy was founded in 2001 and later received a total of about $4 million in funding from In-Q-Tel, a venture capital investment organization underwritten by the Central Intelligence Agency that seeks to foster development of technology of interest to national defense.
It has since received several million dollars worth of contracts from the Air Force Research Lab for sensor power supply research. The AFRL will administer the recent $4.2 million in funding.
Qynergy's technology uses radioisotopes— radioactive isotopes of an element that give off electrons as they break down. The radioisotopes are contained in a device that harnesses those electrons and acts like a trickle charger. The device is then attached to a battery, which it can keep charged for up to 20 years and extend battery life by a factor of 20.
The tiny power source could also be paired directly with a computer chip set or other microsystem.
"We say it works like a solar cell, but the sun is in the box," said Qynergy founder and CEO Paul Shirley.
Shirley said such technology could be in use in remote sensing devices by 2008. Fear of radioactive elements would likely delay consumer use for some time.
Shirley compared the acceptance to that of the now common lithium battery, development of which was delayed in the 1970s by public fears of chemical contamination. As it develops the technology, Qynergy is also researching its safety and documenting handling procedures, he said.
"It could be made safe enough to put inside the human body," Shirley said, comparing the QynCell technology to a common household smoke detector, which also contains radioactive elements.
The AFRL funding will enable Qynergy to provide several prototypes to the Indiana-based Crane Division of the Navy's Naval Surface Warfare Center, which will put them through rigorous abuse.
Another Albuquerque company, TPL Inc., announced earlier this month $1.5 million in funding from the Defense Appropriations Act to develop high-energy capacitors to power electric naval guns.
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