User:WCS100/KAir

KAir Battery, LLC is a company started by a team of six graduate students from the Fisher College of Business at the Ohio State University that commercializes a technology created by Ohio State doctoral students and associate professor Yiying Wu. The company's battery technology is efficient, uses environmentally safe materials, and can to store more energy per volume than existing battery technologies.

History
KAir's battery technology was developed at Ohio State University by Dr. Yiying Wu and Xiaodi Ren. Dr. Wu is a professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry who was ranked #6 worldwide on the Times Higher Education “Top Material Scientists of the Past Decade”.

In the summer of 2013, PhD Chemistry student Damian Beauchamp attended the American Chemical Society Green Chemistry and Renewable Energy Summer School at the Colorado School of Mines where he learned of Wu and Ren's new technology. In October, he gathered a team of chemists and MBA students to enter the Ohio State Business Plan Competition. Over the course of six months, the team worked to develop the commercialization strategy to form a business that provided a high performance and cost efficient battery technology. As KAir continued to advance through rounds of the business plan competition, they began to consider national business plan competitions and applied to compete in the Rice Business Plan Competition.

In April 2014, KAir competed against 5 other teams in the final round of the Ohio State Business Case Competition, taking first prize. Two days later, the students competed in Houston at the Rice Business Plan Competition. Over the course of three days, 42 teams were narrowed down to one winner. While KAir did not proceed past the semi finalist round, they were the recipients of the US Department of Energy's National Clean Energy Prize, which also included a bid to the DOE’s National Clean Energy Business Plan Competition in Washington DC that summer.

Before competing in Washington DC, KAir was able to identify a CEO, John Bair, which helped to better define their plan and prepare them for the DOE National Clean Energy Business Plan Competition. In 1989 John founded Pinnacle Data Systems, taking the company public in 1996 and served as director since the company’s inception as the Chairman of the Board. He has also severed as CEO, President and CTO in charge of all engineering functions. The company was acquired by Avnet in 2012.

While at the National Clean Energy Business Plan Competition, KAir won the Southwest region and received a $100,000 prize as well the ability to advice to the national level competition.

Technology
KAir's battery functions by using potassium as a negatively charged anode while the positively charged diode is made of oxygen-rich carbon which pulls in more oxygen form the air as the battery is used to make potassium oxide.

When the battery is charged, the potassium oxide breaks down to its original components, restoring what was lost during usage. This process uses non-toxic materials which are cheap and easy to produce, compared to many batteries. The battery has proven to operate with 98% efficiency.