Charge battery in minutes electric car, consumer electronics, cell phone, camera

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Potential Difference inc is a sponsored project of Startup America.

(http://potentialdifference.com) Potential Difference is an electrical phrase that is the definition of voltage, and the logo is the symbol for voltage. Elliott chose it because the words can also imply making a difference for science, technology, or the environment.

CHARGETEK FACTORY

We seek your help in providing our patented ultra-fast battery charger technology to charger manufacturers. Those manufacturers will then provide to you products that recharge your ordinary off the shelf batteries in minutes without overheating: batteries used in your environmentally friendly electric cars or cell phones, cameras, power tools, toys, model cars and airplanes, and other consumer electronics. Dramatically faster charging will even be available for forklift trucks and other industrial electric vehicles. For your help, we are providing the perks in the list on the right.

Exciting New Development! Much earlier than expected, our manufacturing partner, Chargetek, Inc. (http://www.chargetek.com) will work with us to develop a programmable microcontroller chip that will be available to charger manufacturers before the end of the year. We expect the first prototype chips to be finished this summer. At that time, charger manufacturers will have the opportunity contract with us for microcontroller chips or for our charging algorithm to be installed on their own chips.

Therefore, rather than receiving chargers from our company or Chargetek, Indiegogo campaign contributors who want fast chargers will be added to the top of the list to receive them from a manufacturer that will use our technology to make fast chargers.

Our company, Potential Difference, Inc. has an exclusive license from the Georgia Institute of Technology for two rapid battery charging patents to charge lithium ion batteries in minutes without overheating: 70% state of charge in 10 minutes, 80% in 12 minutes, and 100% in 16 minutes. With more tweaking, we expect to even further reduce the charge time. See more test details near the end of this page.

Our success with this campaign can also affect the environment as we have successfully tested it on the lead acid battery chemistry used for electric vehicles and solar and wind power battery backup.

Partial News Media Link List

Feature Article in Electrical Engineering Times:

Background

We have collaborated with Chargetek, a charger manufacturer that already ships thousands of chargers monthly for various industries and member of our Indiegogo campaign team, to produce rapid chargers. Elliott Small, president of Potential Difference, has an A.B. degree in Biochemical Sciences from Harvard and has been director of the U. S. Commerce Department funded Technology Commercialization Center in Washington, D.C.

Business Profile

Products:

For Consumer Electronics:

(1) With Chargetek, have developed a design an ultra fast charger for cell phone batteries

(2) Pursuing cooperation of consumer electronics manufacturers for development of rapid charging integrated circuit (IC) to control the charging circuitry inside of cell phones, laptop computers, power tools, etc.

For Electric Vehicles, partnered with manufacturer Chargetek to produce rapid charging stations. With Chargetek, we have completed the design of an electric vehicles charger.

Research and Development:

(1) We built an experimental charger and a production sized electric vehicle demonstration charging station.

(2) After successful testing with a major forklift truck manufacturer, we received an endorsement letter and are working with their dealer network for sales development.

Competitive Advantage:

(1) Electric automobile charging stations need re-charge times similar to gas refueling, using off the shelf batteries. Our 12 minute time is close while the state of the art is 30 minutes.

(2) Among industrial vehicles, 95% of forklift trucks are forced to swap 1 ton batteries between shifts as fast charging alternatives require about 3.5 hours but regularly overheat and damage the batteries, releasing toxic fumes. We eliminate these problems and enable up to 75% savings for industrial rapid charging and double the revenue for automotive charging stations.

(3) Owners of devices such as cell phones, laptops, and power tools are often stranded waiting several hours to recharge. Our 12 minute recharge can solve that problem from a 110 volt outlet.

Markets: (1) 2012 Worldwide Device Sales included 1.7 Billion Cell Phones, according to IDC and 195 Million notebook computers in 2011 (waiting for 2012 data), according to ResearchInChina.com.

(2) 503,681 electric forklifts were shipped worldwide in 2011, according to the Industrial Truck Association and Modern Materials Handling expects 820,000 in 2014. There are about 5 million electric forklift trucks in the world, an existing potential market value of $15 billion for our rapid chargers and $2.46 billion per year.

(3) There will be an $8.1 billion Global Electric Vehicle Charging Station market by 2014 according to TechNavio. Pike Research forecasts 1.5 million charging locations in the United States by 2017, 7.7 million locations worldwide and 150,000 fast charging stations.

Test Results Summary:

Chemistry	Chemistry Application	Charge Range	PDI Time	PDI Temp	Manufacturer Maximum Safe Temp	Normal Times for Slow Charge and Fast Charge
Lithium Ion	Cars & Devices such as Cell Phones, Laptops, Power Tools, etc.	70%	10 min	40°C	60°C	Slow: ~3 hrs for devices; ~8 hrs for cars Fast: ~1 hr for devices; ~30 min for cars to 80%
		80%	12 min	42°C
		100%	16 min	46°C
Flooded Lead Acid	Small Electric Vehicles	100%	31 min	49°C	49°C	Slow: ~8 hours Fast: 2 to 3.5 hrs
Flooded Lead Acid	Electric Vehicles	100%	68 min	44°C	49°C
Flooded Lead Acid	Forklift Truck	80%	90 min	49°C	60°C
Flooded Lead Acid	Forklift Truck	80%	120 min	55°C	60°C

Elliott Small, President and Chief Technology Officer. Responsible for the development and testing of several of rapid battery charging prototypes, participating in procurement of parts, oversight of the engineers that constructed the chargers, modifications of the charging algorithm, and conducting testing of the charger at commercial locations. Developer of high end electric car conversion; director of Commerce Department funded Technology Commercialization Center in Washington, DC; computer consultant; chemist; A.B. Biochemical Sciences, Harvard University.

Lou Josephs, Manufacturing Partner. CEO and founder of Chargetek, a battery charger manufacturer and an electrical engineering graduate of the University of Illinois/ Urbana/Champagne. Lou was a power electronics engineer design consultant for 18 years prior to launching Chargetek. He has designed the power systems and is currently the chief architect for all of Chargetek’s new products.