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Frost & Sullivan Presents its 2006 Technology Innovation Award to Firefly Energy, Inc., for Ground-Breaking Graphite Foam Battery.


PEORIA, Ill. -- Firefly Energy Firefly Energy is a Peoria, Illinois-based startup company that is an offshoot of Caterpillar Inc. The company focuses on the development of next-generation lead-acid batteries. In 2006, Firefly was recognized by Frost and Sullivan for its research into carbon foam-based electrode , Inc., the Peoria-based spin out of Caterpillar now developing a next generation lead acid battery technology, has announced it has received Frost & Sullivan's 2006 Technology Innovation Award for its graphite foam lead acid battery which it believes has the potential to revolutionize today's $16 billion worldwide lead acid battery market.

Officials at Firefly Energy believe the battery and a patent awarded last December could cause disruptive changes in the battery market. The company is already developing its battery technology for first customer Electrolux, and is also beginning work with the U.S. Army. The Firefly battery technology could also serve emerging applications such as hybrid electric vehicles which historically haven't been served effectively by traditional lead acid batteries due to heavy weight and poor cycle life.

"It's a special honor to receive this prestigious technology innovation award, which clearly recognizes our rapid, significant advancements in the material sciences and what we expect will be the next generation lead acid battery," says Edward F. Williams, CEO (1) (Chief Executive Officer) The highest individual in command of an organization. Typically the president of the company, the CEO reports to the Chairman of the Board.  and a co-founder of Firefly Energy.

Earlier this year, the company announced that it had been awarded a U.S. patent for its battery (U.S. Patent 6,979,513), comprised of an electrical current collector constructed of carbon or lightweight graphite foam. This foam exhibits a sizeable increase in surface area for chemical reactions This is the 18th episode of television drama Men in Trees. It originally aired on June 25, 2007 on the TV2 network in New Zealand as a continuation of season 1. Recap
Marin and Cash have a stew cook off, she admits his is better than hers.
 to take place and enables the removal of heavy lead plates found in traditional batteries. The graphite material resists corrosion and sulfation build-up, thus contributing to longer battery life while being lighter in weight than today's lead acid batteries.

Kurt Kelley, the inventor of Firefly's graphite foam battery technology, adds that removal of corrosive heavy lead grids and replacing them with graphite foam helps unleash the innate power of lead acid chemistry.

"We have introduced a material that doesn't corrode cor·rode  
v. cor·rod·ed, cor·rod·ing, cor·rodes

v.tr.
1. To destroy a metal or alloy gradually, especially by oxidation or chemical action: acid corroding metal.
 and enables the weights and sizes of lead acid batteries to be reduced significantly. While somewhat newer battery technologies like Lithium and Nickel Metal Hydride (NiMH) A rechargeable battery technology that has approximately 30-50% more charge per pound than nickel cadmium. Introduced in the early 1990s, it uses nickel and metal hydride plates with potassium hydroxide as the electrolyte.  offer alternatives to traditional lead acid cells, they have their own set of issues including higher costs."

He believes Firefly Energy's battery can rival other advanced chemistries in performance, take advantage of an existing manufacturing base and address environmental concerns through the removal of up to two-thirds of the lead content.

Frost & Sullivan, a major technology consulting firm Noun 1. consulting firm - a firm of experts providing professional advice to an organization for a fee
consulting company

business firm, firm, house - the members of a business organization that owns or operates one or more establishments; "he worked for a
, says its award is presented annually to a company carrying out new research which has resulted in innovations that have or are expected to bring significant contributions to the industry. It recognizes the quality and depth of a company's research and development program as well as the vision and risk-taking that enabled it to undertake such an endeavor.

Firefly Energy is gaining recognition worldwide in 2006. The Frost & Sullivan award A Sullivan Award may refer to:
  • Algernon Sydney Sullivan Award or Mary Mildred Sullivan Award; awarded at 29-grantee institutions of the Algernon Sydney Sullivan Foundation.
 follows the recent announcement by Red Herring Red Herring

A preliminary registration statement that must be filed with the SEC describing a new issue of stock (IPO) and the prospects of the issuing company.

Notes:
 magazine that Firefly Energy was named one of the top 200 private technology companies in North American North American

named after North America.


North American blastomycosis
see North American blastomycosis.

North American cattle tick
see boophilusannulatus.
 for 2006. More than 1,000 privately held companies privately held company

A firm whose shares are held within a relatively small circle of owners and are not traded publicly.
 submitted entries and were judged on such factors as financial performance, innovations, quality of management and their ability to execute their strategies.

About Firefly Energy, Inc.

Firefly Energy (www.fireflyenergy.com) is a Peoria, Illinois-based company which has developed a next generation lead acid battery technology that has the opportunity to address major portions of the $30 billion worldwide battery marketplace. Firefly's graphite foam-based battery technology can deliver a unique combination of high performance, extremely low weight, low cost and, all in a battery which utilizes the best aspects of lead acid chemistry while overcoming the corrosive drawbacks of this same chemistry. This product technology delivers to battery markets a performance associated with advanced battery chemistries (Nickel Metal Hydride and Lithium), but for one-fifth the cost, and can be both manufactured as well as recycled within the existing lead acid battery industry's vast infrastructure. The company was formed after its technology, technical founder, and initial seed funds were spun out of Caterpillar, Inc. (www.cat.com), a Fortune 90 company, in May 2003, and is headed by co-founders Edward Williams There have been several well-known people named Edward Williams, including:
  • Sir Edward Leader Williams, English engineer
  • Edward Williams Morley, American scientist
  • Edward Williams, better known as Iolo Morganwg, (1747-1826), a Welsh antiquarian
 (CEO), Mil Ovan (Senior VP), and Kurtis Kelley (Chief Scientist). Investors include Caterpillar (www.cat.com) (NYSE NYSE

See: New York Stock Exchange
: CAT), BAE Systems (www.baesystems.com) (London Stock Exchange London Stock Exchange

London marketplace for securities. It was formed in 1773 by a group of stockbrokers who had been doing business informally in local coffeehouses.
 over the counter symbol: BAESY), Chicago-area Venture Capital firm KB Partners (www.kbpartners.com), the State of Illinois' Illinois Finance Authority, and Electrolux (www.electrolux.com) (SSE (1) An earlier full-screen editor in OS/2.

(2) (Streaming SIMD Extensions) A series of additional instructions built into Pentium CPU chips for improved multimedia performance by performing mathematical operations on multiple sets of data at the
: ELUX-B).

About Frost & Sullivan

Frost & Sullivan, a global growth consulting company, has been partnering with clients to support the development of innovative strategies for more than 40 years. The company's industry expertise integrates growth consulting, growth partnership services, and corporate management training to identify and develop opportunities. Frost & Sullivan serves an extensive clientele that includes Global 1000 companies, emerging companies, and the investment community by providing comprehensive industry coverage that reflects a unique global perspective and combines ongoing analysis of markets, technologies, econometrics, and demographics. For more information, visit http://www.awards.frost.com or http://www.batteries.frost.com.
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Publication:Business Wire
Date:May 2, 2006
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