Celgard Completes Contract for Grant with U.S. Department of Energy for Expansion of Electric Drive Vehicle Battery Separator Capacity

02/08/2010

CHARLOTTE, N.C. - Celgard, LLC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Polypore International, Inc. (NYSE: PPO) and a leading global supplier of microporous separators used in lithium-ion batteries, today announced that it has completed a contract for approximately $49 million in grant funding from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE).

Celgard was originally selected for the DOE grant in August 2009. Funds will be used for a previously announced expansion of production capacity in the United States, as well as to support three joint projects to develop additional quality controls used to test separator performance for Electric Drive Vehicle (EDV) applications. Partners for these projects include the Savannah River National Laboratory in Aiken, South Carolina; ESimLLC in Columbia, South Carolina; and North Carolina State University College of Textiles (NCSU) in Raleigh, North Carolina.

Celgard is a leading global supplier of microporous separators used in lithium-ion batteries and is one of the largest participants in the U.S. lithium battery supply chain. Celgard® separators are used in lithium-ion batteries for personal electronics devices such as notebook computers, mobile phones, digital cameras, power tools, and new applications such as reserve power/grid management systems and EDVs. These separators play a critical role in the performance and life of lithium-ion battery cells by providing a barrier between the positive and negative electrodes – preventing short circuits while controlling the exchange of lithium ions from one side of the battery to the other.

The DOE grant funding is provided under the Electric Drive Vehicle Battery and Component Manufacturing Initiative (DE-FOA-0000026) of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) that provides up to approximately $2 billion in federal stimulus funding to support the creation of American jobs while promoting the development of U.S.-based advanced battery production for the EDV market.