Last week I had a chance to talk to Altairnano President and CEO Dr. Alan Gotcher.

Fundamentally, I wanted to find out how things are going with the company’s lithium titanate battery and what its strategy is for the future.

The division that works on the batteries is the advanced materials and power systems (AMPS) section. If there’s one word I took away from our conversation, it was “safety.”

Using its uniquely structured lithium titanate batteries—which operate just like a conventional lithium ion battery pack—not only do you get three times the power on a fraction of the charge time, you also get a battery that can be used exponentially longer at a much wider temperature range. Most important, it’s drastically safer.

Ironically, since our conversation, Dell has recalled 4 million-plus laptop batteries and now Apple Computer is recalling another 1.8 million. These are the issues most consumers miss when they purchase rechargeable battery products, especially as the power demands on the units increase.

Some of the operating range benefits of Altairnano’s battery aren’t key concerns in the portable tools and devices sector; there aren’t a lot of people blogging or laying shingles at -10 C. But these advantages do come into play when it comes to electric and hybrid vehicles and other stationary and military uses.

Regardless of the end use or user, Altairnano’s battery has proven itself under very grueling tests. Head-to-head testing and isolated tests have been done to rigorous industry standards.

In one such overcharge test, a standard lithium ion battery was charged to 250 percent at two cycles (about two and half times standard capacity at about double the charge power and rate). The batteries got exceedingly hot; some began smoking.

Altairnano’s battery was subjected to 250 percent capacity at 20 cycles. There was only a modest warming of the battery, even at exponentially higher levels of charge.

Cool, running batteries become more highly prized as the size of the device or equipment you put them in increases. Charging your car battery in a North Dakota winter isn’t a “nice to have” feature. Having batteries for a remote power relay station that will reliably kick in when needed is essential.

Think about it. Just like in your computer, if you run something that gets really hot, you need to cool it. That means heat sinks, fans, etc. If you don’t have to engineer that stuff into the product, you have less weight and less parts able to fail. The heat also affects other components in the system. No heat, no issue.

If you’re a numbers guy or gal, Altairnano’s battery operating temperature range is -50 C to 75 C versus 0 C to 40 C for typical lithium ion batteries. Plus, the Altairnano battery can receive 90 percent of its charge in temperatures as low as -30 C.

Gotcher’s mantra for Altairnano’s products within each division is “entry strategy.”

In the AMPS division, he’s added a number of electric vehicle (EV) heavyweights to the company’s advisory board in recent months. Altairnano has also developed a strategic partnership with Ojai, Calif.-based Phoenix Motorcar. Phoenix builds custom EVs and is also attempting to exploit EV technology within fleet cars and trucks in California. It’s purchased $750,000 worth of Altairnano batteries this year.

The companies will work together to move into this market as quickly as possible. The advantage of the fleet market is that the vehicles are heavily used under a variety of conditions and will be able to give the companies more real-world information than they could gather on their own in a similar time frame.

Also, since fleet sales are bulk orders, selling into this market accelerates sales volume on the products, which lowers production costs quickly and makes the batteries more price competitive.

Gotcher discussed partnerships with a handful of other battery companies that could easily be seen as competitors. But Altairnano’s lithium titanate is so different that it can complement other manufacturers’ products—a nice source of revenue—while Altairnano picks and chooses the best sectors for its own products.

Gotcher noted partnerships with Advanced Battery in China, Electro Energy in the nickel cadmium sector, as well as a couple potential clients. Advanced Battery is working on electric buses; Electro Energy’s partnership is fairly new, but has some big promise in the fact that Electro Energy has a well-established relationship with the military and aerospace industries.

On the pharma side of the company, it has a licensing agreement with Spectrum Pharmaceuticals to market Altairnano’s RenaZorb, targeting an emerging billion dollar-plus market for phosphate control in patients with chronic kidney disease and hyperphosphatemia–high phosphate levels in the blood–associated with end-stage renal disease. These products are non-aluminum, non-calcium-based phosphate binders, which utilize Altairnano’s proprietary lanthanum nanomaterial technology.

Altairnano also has inked a deal with Elanco, the animal health division of pharmaceutical behemoth, Eli Lilly. The agreement provides Elanco with exclusive rights to develop animal health products using Altairnano’s nanotechnology-based products.

When I posited the theory that drugs testing for animals is less stringent and less costly than Food and Drug Administration human trials—and therefore an efficient testing ground for the viability of Altairnano’s products before having to go through costly and time-consuming human trials–Gotcher diplomatically replied, “That may not be inaccurate.”

At this point, Altairnano’s pharma and AMPS divisions are getting the most traction in the marketplace. It does have a number of other end products in the pipeline, but Gotcher is well aware that you have to be patient, pick your spots and commit to a successful launch of each individual product.

The other key to this up-and-coming company is that, underpinning its nano product work, it has a solid performance materials business. And it’s continued to expand this side of its operations, using this income stream to fund its newer projects.

On the stock side, Altairnano is in the hands of momentum traders who are very happy to toss the stock around, making money off small moves up and down—which they create by churning the stock.

Gotcher noted that expecting a huge, sustained upside move anytime soon is unrealistic. Slow and steady wins the race when you’re building a company. But he also noted that we should expect some big announcements in the third and fourth quarter of this year.

We’ll be waiting.