For now, CFX’s best battery prototypes power the roadsterlike electric car that sits in a spotless warehouse at the company’s new facility. Fisher brings the car out for exhibitions to prove that his company’s technology can work, even while still being engineered.
It took the melding of minds from two continents to form CFX: Rachid Yazami, a visiting professor at Caltech from France and a world-renowned battery expert, and Robert Grubbs, a Caltech chemistry professor with a penchant for founding businesses, among them Pasadena-based chemical company Materia Inc.
Grubbs, who won the Nobel for chemistry in 2005, said he hadn’t given much thought to batteries before meeting Yazami. But when they started talking, the prospects excited him.
“Energy storage is going to be one of the big issues in the future,” Grubbs said. “I’m a Prius driver, and I’d like to be able to plug my Prius into the wall. But the battery technology to do that is still expensive and has safety issues.”
Along with Dr. Andre Hamwi, another visiting Caltech professor, Grubbs and Yazami founded CFX in 2007. About a year ago, they hired Fisher, whose three-decade stint at St. Louis-based Energizer Battery Co. Inc. included managing its rechargeable battery division.
CFX will first focus on building so-called “primary” lithium batteries, which can’t be recharged but still last longer than other batteries. By the end of the year, the company plans for three manufacturers to buy those batteries to power products that could include military devices and defibrillators.
CFX then intends to reinvest that revenue into its rechargeable battery unit.
Its Azusa building is tucked away off the 210 Freeway, with the San Gabriel Mountains in the background and a Miller beer brewery down the road. Inside, folding chairs, bare walls and chemistry equipment still in shrink wrap testify to the newness of the facility.
“When my wife visited, she said, ‘You guys need to get a decorator,’” Fisher said.
On a recent Friday, a small group of researchers – some in lab coats, some in jeans and polo shirts – stirred chemicals and consulted charts. One worked in the facility’s “dry room,” a 1,350-square-foot space that is kept free of water, which can combust when it comes into contact with lithium.
Too costly?
The biggest barrier now for companies like CFX is to overcome is cost. To make lithium technology more accessible, the U.S. Department of Energy has set a target price of $1,700 to $3,400 for an all-electric car battery that could go 40 miles on one charge. However, Cole expects the battery in the first generation of the Chevy Volt to cost $8,000 to $10,000 each.
