1. Starting an engine at -43°C. Yes we can!

Most of us have experienced frustration when having to start their car the first time it has been freezing during the night. The battery (a lead-acid accu) is dead. At very cold temperatures like -20°C even a new battery will not have enough energy left to crank an unwilling engine. The oil will be sticky and the fuel is cold. Note that even electric cars will have a hard time starting to move. At -20 °C Lithium-ion batteries have no energy left and they need to heat themselves during the night to avoid this situation.
But how do you crank an engine at -40 °C? This white paper explains it and shows test results using a 70 Ah power capacitor battery based on our 18650 cells. It turns out that it is not a battery problem but one of pre-heating the air and the fuel. And yes at -43°C, some self-heating of the battery is needed as well.

The graph above is a recording of the current. After some initial self-heating and heating of the inlet air, the start current reaches 1000 A for several seconds. Read the white paper here:

Read the white paper here:

starting_engines_extreme_cold_V2

2. Visit us at the Battery Show in Stuttgart, …. in 2021.

 While we are still planning to attend the Battery Show 2020 in Stuttgart (Germany), the organiser has decided to postpone the exhibition till May 2021. We agree that with the COVID rules in place, it certainly would have been easy to get there and have a deep contact on the exhibition booth.

But, in case you still want to meet up, we can “virtually”. Mail us at info(dot)request (@))altreonic(dot)com or contact us directly here.

3. Seal of Excellence and European projects

Altreonic has obtained a Seal of Excellence from the European Commission and is part of a soon to be announced large Horizon-2020 project that aims at the roll-out of a multi-purpose M-class urban vehicle. Altreonic-Kurt.energy takes care of the powercapacitor car battery.

4. In search for a better battery

What if a better battery is a hybrid device combining the best of supercapacaitors with the best of li-ion cells?

Read a short paper on it here.

5. Open positions

Altreonic is recruiting.

Interested to be part of the powercapacitor revolution? Following positions are open:
– Experienced power electronics engineer or equivalent by experience.
– Junior power electronics engineer with hands-on experience.
– Business development manager willing to travel worldwide.

Forward your motivated interest and resumé to Annie Dejonghe: a(dot)dejonghe (@) altreonic(dot)com. If selected as a candidate, be prepared for an intellectually challenging test.

www.kurt.energy