Battery maker Boston-Power has recently closed $45 million in third-round funding with investors betting on its newest round of research for fast-recharge batteries.  Whereas some researchers and battery makers change the chemical makeup of their batteries in an attempt to combat fire risk and improve battery life, Boston-Power stuck with the tried and true Lithium-ion technology.

Boston-Power tweaked elements in lithium-ion batteries to build a battery for notebooks that has in the area of 4.4 amp hours of power per cell. Typical common notebook batteries today have only 2.6 amp hours of power by comparison. News.com reports that Boston-Power has signed an agreement with GP Batteries in China that will give it the production capacity to make one million batteries per month by the end of 2008.

With the massive battery recalls due to fire hazard in 2007 lots of attention is focused on the safety factor of lithium-ion batteries. The risk of fire lithium-ion batteries pose has long worried the FAA and air travelers and resulted in new battery bans from the FAA that went into effect on January 1, 2008.

Boston-Power says that it uses a new housing for its battery that is made from a metal alloy, rather than iron and will remain intact in the event of a short circuit. Boston-Power also builds a unique interrupt system into its batteries to shut them down permanently in the case of an impending thermal reaction.

Boston-Power CEO Christina Lampe-Onnerud told CNET she gets four hours out of the Boston-Power Sonata battery in her notebook computer. Another big improvement in the battery is that it can be recharged to 80% capacity in only 30 minutes and can maintain like new performance for three years.

Boston-Power also plans to move into the rechargeable battery market for hybrid and plug-in electric vehicles. The company reports its experimental lithium-ion batteries are capable of power output in the 5 to 10 amp hour range -- enough to power small electric vehicles.