After three years of research and development, Ed Shaffer, CEO of
Advanced Battery Concepts, is ready to unveil his new GreenSeal technology for improving battery performance in industrial applications.
“We’re licensing our technology to
Crown Battery of Fremont, Ohio, and they will manufacture our first product under the Crown Battery name,” he says. “The product is a battery the size of a golf cart that can be used in variety of industrial applications, including fork lift trucks, tow motors, pallet movers and floor scrubbers.”
Ed Shaffer started Advanced Battery Concepts in 2008 in his Midland, Michigan, garage. In 2009, he established a partnership with Crown Battery in Fremont, Ohio.
“Crown was seeking new technologies to improve battery performance and they were interested in what we were doing,” he explains. “In 2010, they invited us to use space at their Crown Battery Renewable Energy Center (CBREC) in Port Clinton to help us accelerate our technology development.”
The partnership with Crown Battery and their space at CBREC enabled Advanced Batter Concepts to apply for and receive Ohio Third Frontier funding, he notes.
For two years, Advanced Battery Concepts refined and conducted internal tests on its GreenSeal technology at CBREC in Port Clinton and at a facility in Clare, Michigan.
“GreenSeal technology improves lead-acid batteries,” Shaffer explains. “It reduces their weight and size, increases their cycle life and their power and energy. It also decreases the amount of lead in each battery, reducing their environmental impact while keeping them 100 percent recyclable.”
The technology will also speed up adoption of much-needed energy solutions, such as renewable energy, smart grid and electric vehicles, he says.
“Manufacturing this product will put us in a much stronger position in the changing environment of energy storage,” notes Patrick O’Brien, manager of business development at Crown Battery. Crown Battery has grown from 400 to 600 employees during the past three years. “With production of Advanced Battery Concept’s new product, we anticipate hiring more employees.”
Plans call for early production samples to be in customers’ hands by the fourth quarter of this year.
Advanced Battery Concepts is one of the portfolio companies of Rocket Ventures of Toledo, one of the six nonprofits that form the core of Ohio’s Entrepreneurial Signature Program.
Source: Ed Shaffer, Patrick O'Brien
Writer: Lynne Meyer