Orbite Collaborates With NRC on HPA Benchmarking in Lithium-Ion Batteries

Orbite Technologies Inc. today announced that the National Research Council of Canada (NRC) will evaluate Orbite's High Purity Alumina (HPA) for use in lithium-ion battery separators.

Orbite's Technology Development Center (TDC) will work with National Research Council experts to develop composite separator formulations containing Orbite's HPA. These substrates will then be applied to commercially available ceramic separators. NRC scientists will use their expertise and cutting-edge facilities to characterize various separator formulations, and benchmark the efficiency of batteries with separators containing Orbite's HPA against those with commercially available separators, containing no or competitors' alumina.

"The advantage of collaborating with NRC on this benchmarking exercise, is that we believe the standing of NRC will impart greater visibility of and credibility for the results than other third party analysis, and hence facilitate execution of our go-to-market strategy," stated Yves Noel, Vice President, Business Development for Orbite.

The currently achieved cost-performance ratio for batteries has been the main factor limiting the wide-spread adoption of electric solutions for applications such as automotive. This ratio, as well as battery safety and longevity, have the potential of being improved significantly through the application of HPA on battery separators, and this is why the lithium-ion battery sector has been identified by industry as a potentially strong growth sector for HPA demand. Orbite believes it can play an important role in the development of this market sector by being able to reliably supply HPA at purity levels of 5N (99.999%) and above.

"With planned production at our HPA plant months away, this initiative is another step in the transformation of Orbite from a technology development company to a commercial entity," added Glenn Kelly, CEO of Orbite. "HPA is a fascinating material with high-end applications that have the potential of making it a very important product, both for retail applications such as smart screens, and for emerging technologies, such as battery powered vehicles. We believe we are well positioned to capitalize on these dynamics and look forward to our work with NRC."