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estmagBatteries & Energy Storage TechnologyEnergy Storage PublishingThe International quarterly for manufacturers andusers of electrochemical power www.bestmag.co.ukNo. 46Autumn 2014Old dogs, new tricksInside:Hi‐temp VRLA – Can lead take the heat?Sodium‐ion – The best of BritishLithium silicon anodesAnd so much more
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starthere 5BATTERIES & ENERGY STORAGETECHNOLOGYBatteries and Energy Storage Technologymagazine (ISSN: 1741-8666) is publishedfour times a year (January, April, July andOctober), by Energy Storage PublishingLtd., 70 Goring Road, Worthing BN12 4ABENGLAND and distributed in the USA byMail Right International, 1637 Stelton RoadB4, Piscataway, NJ 08854. PeriodicalsPostage Paid at New Brunswick, NJ.POSTMASTERSend U.S. address changes toBEST C/o 1637 Stelton Road, B-4,Piscataway NJ 08854EDITORIAL OFFICEEnergy Storage Publishing Ltd70 Goring RoadWorthing BN12 4ABENGLANDTEL +44 (0) 845 194 7338FAX +44 (0) 845 194 7339E-mail: gerry@bestmag.co.ukEDITOR AND PUBLISHERTim Proberttim@energystoragepublishing.comASSISTANT EDITORLaura Varrialelaura@energystoragepublishing.comADVERTISINGLes Hawkinsadvertising@bestmag.co.uk+44 7885 910 187CHINA AND EAST ASIA ASSOCIATELiang Yunchaolyunchao@vip.sohu.com+86 136 0324 2669SOUTH ASIA ASSOCIATEDipak Sen Chaudhuridipaksc@yahoo.co.in+91 98314 37792OFFICE ADMINISTRATIONSonya Uptonsonya@energystoragepublishing.comPRODUCTIONBen Osborneben@energystoragepublishing.comSUBSCRIPTIONSAngela Croweangela@energystoragepublishing.comIf that was a tradeshow, where werethe products?Welcome to the Autumn issue. Many of you will have attended therecent European Lead Battery Conference (ELBC) in Edinburghand, no doubt, enjoyed what was a pleasant show in a great city.Away from the convivial atmosphere of the evening festivities, BEST hadbeen hoping to learn more in the conference hall about the advances inlead‐acid battery technology, but came away disappointed with what wererelatively rudimentary research presentations. As more than one personcommented, “If this is a trade show, then where are the products?”For all the fluffy talk about climate change and the usual refrains aboutsustainability – do customers or the wider world really care all that muchthat can be lead recycled and lithium can’t? – what the customer reallywants from lead is improved performance, be it automotive, industrial,stationary or standby power. As Tim Ellis said during his maiden ELBCspeech, for the first time in 150 years, lead has got real competition.As our feature on page 53 about high‐temperature VRLAs clearlydemonstrates, there has been some very important progress withlead‐acid batteries, be it grid alloys, expanders, organic additives, aswell as mechanical components. And there continues to be good work,not least from the ALABC, which shows the industry can rise to meetcustomers’ demands.But there were relatively few products launched at ELBC, and this issymptomatic of the lack of market savvy of the lead‐acid battery industry.OK, Entek launched its new separator and offered a tour of its factory (asreported on page 36), Digatron and Bitrode launched equipment and a fewothers in general, but the industry seems to be missing a trick.If you are developing groundbreaking new products, tell the big wideworld, don't keep it a secret, and launch them at a trade show. At the veryleast drop us a line so that we can tell the world about it via our weeklyBEST Battery Briefing newsletter and within these pages.Elsewhere, we keep you abreast of developments in lithium siliconanodes, Germany and Britain’s struggling effort to meets ambitions tobecome a lithium‐ion battery weltmeister/world leader, and a visit tosodium‐ion developer Faradion. Not forgetting our unrivalled series ofin‐depth articles on lead‐acid manufacturing by Mike McDonagh andmarket developments in supercapacitors by Peter Harrop.Enjoy the issue.TimPRINTED IN ENGLANDTim ProbertEditorbestmagazine // Autumn 2014
6 bestcontentsRegulars5Start Here10Second OpinionThe lead‐acid industry needs to getit's act together.12NewsTesla selects Nevada for new‘Gigafactory’128Truly Eventful130Advertisers Index132GroundpathHydrogen: In or out?Features3514thELBC: So muchto do, so little timeBEST visits the 14th ELBCin Edinburgh and wasunderwhelmed by the technicalprowess on display.47Faradion:Boosting sodium‐ionbatteriesBEST visits Faradion, a UKsodium‐ion battery developer.53If you can’t standthe heat…VRLAs able to cope for longperiods operating at elevatedtemperatures are somewhat ofa Holy Grail. The Editor exploresefforts to improve lifetime of ‘hightemperature’ VRLAs.61Germany’s lithiumionweltmeisterambitions:A reality checkLaura Varriale visits Stuttgart’sWorld of Energy Solutions andfinds the reality about Germany’slithium-ion manufacturingambitions fall far short of therhetoric.67Energy storage:Regulation,regulation,regulationThe Editor attended the UKInstitution of MechanicalEngineers’ one-day energy storageconference and finds someoptimism, despite concerns overcosts.35 6147bestmagazine // Autumn 2014
775It’s all gone now.Hasn’t it?The UK's Warwickshire wasonce a world‐class centre ofautomotive engineering but itsformer glory is a distant memory.Laura Varriale visits the HighValue Manufacturing Catapult atthe University of Warwick to learnof attempts to capitalize on theopportunity offered by electricvehicles.83Finishing, storageand dispatch – Thefinal frontier?So, you’ve finishing making yourperfect lead-acid battery. What’snext? Quite a lot, actually, aslead-acid battery expert Dr. MikeMcDonagh explains in the 11thpart of his step-by-step guide.95Panasonic's IndianambitionsSouth Asian correspondent DipakSen Choudhury explores thepotentially significant decision byPanasonic to set up a lead-acidbattery hub in India.97Is graphene themagic sauce forsupercapacitors andbatteries?IDTechEx’s Peter Harrop takes adetailed look at recent advancesin functional materials forsupercapacitors, includinggraphene.107Silicon anodes:The future oflithium-ion?Rick Howards presents the casefor silicon anodes, and describessome of the many ways thismaterial might be utilized intomorrow’s lithium-ion cells.121Transformers:The US leads thewayAnthony Price, director of theUK Electricity Storage Network,attends the annual US DoE’sEnergy Storage Systems Programreview and is impressed.5310775bestmagazine // Autumn 2014
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estnews 13Patent applications for stationaryenergy storage batteries doubled – studyPatent family applicationsfor batteries suitablefor stationary energystorage have doubled. From2006 to 2011, the number ofpatents increased from 2,800to 5,900, according to a study,‘Monitoring innovation inelectrochemical energy storagetechnologies: A patent‐basedapproach’, by TechnicalUniversity Munich.The lithium segment is mostdynamic with a steep upwardtrend since 2008 and 4,900patent family applications in2011. Simon Müller, physicistand economist at TUM toldBEST: “A lot of companieshave high market expectationsfor lithium batteries thatresult in extensive researchdevelopment. As soon as thetechno‐economic data aregood enough, research anddevelopment activities willattract more investments,The Advanced Lead AcidBattery Consortium isseeking participants fora $300,000 US Departmentof Energy (DOE) funded leadcarbon battery researchprogramme.The programme will includesix lead carbon batteries tobe tested in 12V stop‐startautomotive applications.The DOE is to put up$150,000 for the one‐yearresearch programme, whichwhich will generate an evenstronger lead”. The growingEV industry is also a factorthat increases the patents, headded.In second place in termsof the number of patentapplications filed are leadbatteries with only around580 new patent familiesin 2011. The scientistsnoted, however, a recentmarked increase, albeit toa low level, for redox flowbatteries, in which theenergy‐storing chemicalcompounds are used in liquidform: From 2009 until 2011,the number of applicationsmore than doubled from 90to 200. The number of newpatent families for alkalinebatteries dropped slightlyto 240 and sodium‐sulphurtechnologies played aconsistently marginal rollwith 20 applications.is expected to commencein early 2015, with the sixparticipants stumping up$25,000 apiece.Electric Applications’Don Karner, who has beenspearheading the programmeon behalf of the ALABC, saidthe batteries could be ‘pure’lead carbon anode batteries orlead‐acid batteries featuringcarbon additives in activematerial.“We’re calling forAsian countries submittedalmost four times as manypatent applications as Europeanbattery developers. In 2011,2,100 Asian applications werenoted, 530 European and410 US. “If you look at the EVindustry, the big car makersAudi, Tesla and BMW haveAsian battery suppliers. Thesuccess drives research anddevelopment at the companiesand patent applications alreadyreflect that and will in thefuture,” said Müller. The topten lithium battery developersconsists of eight Japanesecompanies, Korea’s Fuji andValence from the US.The study researched theworldwide annual number ofpatent applications for energystorage systems between 1991and 2011.ALABC seeks participants for DOE leadcarbon stop‐start research programmeproduction batteries orat least near‐productionbatteries,” he said. “Let usbenchmark you”.Initial performance testsof lead carbon batterieswould be conducted for twomonths, while cycle life testingwould take place over a year.Quarterly reports are alsoexpected.The ALABC will finalisethe participants by the endof September, and expectsto submit its final proposalsto the DOE by 10 October. ADOE contract is expected to besigned by the end of 2014.Karner said the programmecould be the first step in aplan to work with the USAdvanced Battery Consortium,which excluded lead‐acidbatteries from its research, todesign new researchprogrammes and developfurther their work with theautomotive industry.bestmagazine // Autumn 2014
14 bestnewsInternational air safetyofficials consider limitingnumber of lithiumbatteries on planesThe United NationsInternational Civil AviationOrganization (ICAO) hasdiscussed potential limits onthe number of rechargeable,lithium‐ion batteries carriedby a single passenger aircraft,according to newspaper reports.The discussions, which tookplace during an ICAO conferencein Cologne on 9 September,involve bulk shipments ofbatteries, rather than batteriescarried by individual travelers,reported the Wall Street Journal.The ICAO aims to place the"least possible burden" onbattery manufacturers whilestill providing "the internationalaviation community with "anacceptable risk" level. NancyGraham, ICAO's top safetyofficial, highlighed "concernswith the risks all lithium batteriespresent…on both passenger andcargo aircraft."Meanwhile, the Air LinePilots Association, the largestNorth American pilot union, isstepping up its campaign formore‐stringent standards andregulations.ALPA wants to outlaw bulkshipments of lithium metalbatteries for all cargo carriers. Inthe meantime, it wants to ensurepilots have detailed informationabout the precise location andsize of any battery shipmentson a plane, and that cargo crewscan get access to certain areas inthe event of a blaze.Battery manufacturerswill seek to head off anynew restrictions that mightbe imposed by the ICAO,believing that existingpackaging and labelingrequirements —combinedwith ICAO‐mandated qualitycontrols at factories ‐ provideadequate safeguards."Rules for what you ship andhow you ship it are bound to gettougher," according to BrianMorin, chief operating officer oflithium separator makerDreamwater International.David Shaffer replacesJohn Craig as EnersyspresidentDavid Shaffer hasreplaced John Craigas the president ofEnersys effective 1 Novemberbut Craig will remain with thecompany as chairman andCEO.With this move, Shafferhas been appointed to thenewly created position ofpresident and chief operatingofficer. Shaffer was appointedpresident of the batterymanufacturer’s Europe,Middle East and Africabusiness in January 2013 andprior to that was president ofEnersys’ Asia and Australiabusiness.49 year‐old Shaffer, whohas over 24 years experiencein the battery industry, joinedEnersys in 2005.Shaffer will continueto report to John Craig."Dave is an experiencedexecutive recognized for hisaccomplishments at Enersys,I want to congratulate himon his new position and lookforward to continuing to workwith him," he said."As Enersys continues togrow towards our goal of $4billion in revenue by 2018 thisnew position is one moreelement that will help ensurewe achieve this objective."ABC launches and starts commercial production of AGM VRLA batteryUS battery companyAdvanced BatteyConcepts (ABC) hascommenced commercialproduction of its patented valveregulated lead-acid battery(VRLA).The company launched thelarge format, bipolar, sealedabsorbed glass mat (AGM)VRLA battery at 14 ELBC inEdinburgh.According to ABC, thebattery uses 45% less lead thanstandard VRLA batteries andreduces manufacturing costsas well as cost of ownership. Itis designed to charge in aroundhalf the time than other VRLAbatteries.“It has been a significantchallenge to develop acommercial battery in sucha large format that deliversconsistently high performanceresults and combines theadditional benefits that comewith a sealed unit and AGMtechnology,“ said EdwardShaffer, CEO and founder ofABC.The patented battery is100% compatible with existingcharging and recycling systems."As we move into commercialproduction, we felt that the timewas right for Advanced BatteryConcepts to make a valuablecontribution to ALABC'sprograms,“ said Shaffer.Michigan-based ABC recentlyjoined the Advanced Lead AcidBattery Consortium (ALABC).The company is also currentlydeveloping a low cost and highvoltage partial state of chargeadvanced lead-acid battery forautomotive applications.bestmagazine // Autumn 2014
16 bestnewsSouthern California Edison commissions32MWh lithium energy storage systemSouthern California Edison(SCE) commissioned thelargest lithium-ion batterystorage system in NorthAmerica on 24 Septemberat its Monolith substation inTehachapi, California.The utility plans on runningthe 8MW/32MWh facility forthe next two year to test theperformance of the batteriesin real-world conditions. It willalso test how to automate andintegrate the operations of thestorage facility and its poweronto the grid.The project is located inthe Tehachapi wind resourcearea, which should have4.5GW in installed windcapacity by 2016.The system cost $50m, withthe costs split by SCE and theUS Energy Department.California's investor-ownedutilities are facing mandatesfrom the Public UtilitiesCommission to add 1,325MWof energy storage by 2024. Therequirement for energy storageis being driven by the state'sneed to integrate increasingamounts of variable renewablegeneration under the state'sclimate policies.The 32MWh of batterycapacity represents 604 racksthat collectively hold morethan 10,000 battery modulessupplied LG Chem.bestmagazine // Autumn 2014
Younicos and WEMAG open5MW battery park in GermanyBerlin‐based renewablescompany Younicos andgreen electricity providerWEMAG have launched Europe’sbiggest commercial battery parkin Schwerin, Germany.The lithium‐ion battery packhas a capacity of 5MWh. Thebattery storage is designed tostabilise grid‐frequency and tointegrate wind and solar powerSwitzerland’s automationtechnology group ABB andChina’s battery maker BYDare to jointly develop energystorage solutions.The collaboration willfocus on the development ofelectric vehicle (EV) charging,micro‐grid as well as off‐gridinto the grid. The energy storagesystem (ESS) also comprises ofYounicos’ software. According tothe company, the ESS providesas much control power as aconventional 50MW turbine.Samsung SDI supplied thelithium‐ion cells with guaranteeof 20 years performance.“High power intelligentstorage such as the Wemagenergy storage systems, PVstorage and applicationsfor the fast‐growing marinesegment. Financial detailswere not disclosed.The companies aim tocombine ABB’s experiences inEV charging and grid storagewith BYD’s expertise in batteryBattery Park is the key to amore efficient, greener andmore economic energy system.They make the grid moreintelligent, flexible and resilientand allow us to shrink the old,fossil‐nuclear system as the new,renewable and decentralizedsystem grows”, said ClemensTriebel, CTO of Younicos.The German governmentaims to increase the use ofrenewable energy to lessen thedependence on fossil fuel andnuclear‐generated electricity.Younicos’ software is alsointegrated in a commercialenergy storage trial in LeightonBuzzard, UK and on parts ofItalian grid operator Terna’sstorage lab on Sardinia, Italy.The opening ceremony tookplace on September 16 withGermany’s vice chancellorSigmar Gabriel.ABB and BYD team up for energy storage solutionstechnology in order toaccelerate the introduction ofnew energy storage products."We are pleased to build onour achieved joint success andbroaden our excellentcooperation with BYD. Thisnext step will bring two leadingcompanies with highlycomplementary expertise andmarket access for electricenergy storage closertogether," said ABB ChiefExecutive Officer UlrichSpiesshofer.bestnews 17Malaysiato produceli-ionbatteriesby 2015The Malaysia AutomotiveInstitute (MAI) is to startproducing lithium‐ionbattery prototypes for electricvehicles (EV) and energystorage by 2015."There are only a handfulof lithium‐ion batterymanufacturers on a global level.We're currently conductingresearch on producing aprototype for the local marketand possibly export,” said MAIchief executive officer MadaniSahari.The MAI will produce thebatteries in collaboration withMalaysia’s transport logisticsfirm ARCA and Australia'sEV researcher AutoCRC andSwinburne University ofTechnology.The first battery will bedesigned for an electric busprototype developed byARCA. The first test runs arescheduled for the secondquarter of 2015. "Once wehave successfully tested theprototype battery, we want tothen produce them locally on awider scale,” said Sahari.ARCA is to invest $63.45mover a period of four years intodevelopment and production.bestmagazine // Autumn 2014
Canada’s grapheneproducts developerGrafoid has boughtlithium-ion automotive batterymaker Braille Battery.Grafoid acquired 75%ownership interest in US-basedBraille Battery, which produceslightweight lithium-ion batteriesand AGM lead-acid batteriesfor IndyCar, NASCAR, Formula1 racing cars, motorcycles andbatteries for the marine industry.Braille Battery’s founder BlakeFuller will remain president andchief operating officer.Financial details on the dealwere not disclosed. Grafoidaims to commercialise itsgraphene technology, theso-called MesoGraf products,with the acquisition. “Grafoid’shigh-energy performingMesoGraf graphene combinedwith Braille’s cutting edgeengineering and manufacturingcapabilities create a perfectfit for adapting a novel powerbestnews 21Grafoid acquires li-ion batterymaker Braille BatteryCalifornia‐based energystorage firm EnerVault hasappointed Denis Giorno to itsboard of directors.Giorno currently works asCEO and president for TotalGas & Power New EnergiesUSA. He joined the company1975 and has held numerous,international managementpositions within the Total group.He also serves as one of thedirectors of Californian solarcompany SunPower."His in‐depth knowledge andexperience in utilities, renewableenergy, and internationalmarkets will help guide EnerVaultsource to the needs of our futureelectric vehicle manufacturingcustomers,” said Grafoid CEOGary Economo.“The diverse capabilities ofMesoGraf graphene will enableBraille Battery to improve notonly lithium ion batteries, butother transportation powertechnologies,” said Blake Fuller,who founded its firm 2002 nextto his involvement in racecardriving.According to the company, itsproducts are cheaper, becausethe company managed tosimplify the production processfrom raw graphite to the finalproduct.In 2013, Grafoid launched acommercial platform withFocus Graphite, owner ofQuebec’s graphite depositand he National University ofSingapore’s GrapheneResearch Centre, the IP holderof the MesoGraf productionprocess.EnerVault adds Denis Giorno toboard of directorsas we continue to pursue utilityscale energy storage," said JimPape, CEO of EnerVault.EnerVault manufactureslong‐duration, grid‐scaleenergy storage systemsbased on iron‐chromiumredox flow batterytechnology.The company is currentlyworking on a redox flowbattery storage project inCalifornia’s Central Valley.According to EnerVault, thesystem is designed to deliver1MWh of energy from a 250kWbattery performing for four atthat rated level.bestmagazine // Autumn 2014
22 bestnewsCamel acquires Apollo BatteryChinese batterycompany CamelGroup has boughtYangzhou‐based ApolloBattery for Rmb220m($355.98m).The company acquired100% of the company fromtwo Australian shareholders,Oriental Technologies andIndeveno Industrial Supply.Apollo Battery developsand produces lead‐acidbatteries for the automotiveand shipbuilding industry.The company has an annualproduction capacity of 3munits and has an internationalcustomer base.Camel produces lead‐acid,lithium‐ion and batterymaterials. The companyis also involved in batteryrecycling through itssubsidiaries. Camel mainlyprovides batteries forautomobile engines ande‐bikes.The deal enables Camelto expand in east China.Camel has now productionfacilities in east, west,north and central China.A preliminary stakeacquisition agreement wassigned in April this year.Add morepower tobatteryinnovationIn the race to develop increasingly betterlithium-ion batteries, it is more crucial thanever to remain one step ahead at every stageof the process. And as the world’s leadingpowder engineering specialist, we’ve gotwhat it takes to keep you there.At GEA Process Engineering, we know thatthere’s no such thing as “one size fits all”when it comes to developing Li-ion batterymaterials. That’s why we’ve developedexceptional GEA Niro spray drying solutionsthat can define and deliver superior qualitypowders to your exact specifications – in themost energy efficient and cost effective way.GEA Process Engineering has been pioneeringthe spray drying industry for 75 years. Theexperience has allowed us to developexceptional process expertise and uniqueproprietary GEA Niro technology – all ofwhich give you a competitive boost whenit comes to drying applications.GEA Process Engineering A/SGladsaxevej 305, DK-2860 Soeborg, DenmarkPhone: +45 39 54 54 54, Fax: +45 39 54 58 00, gea-niro.chemical@gea.com, www.gea.comengineering for a better worldbestmagazine // Autumn 2014
estnews 23Amara Raja Batteries to entersolar and motive power marketsIndian Amara RajaBatteries (Amara) is toexpand into the solarand motive power marketsand plans to open a secondmanufacturing plant inChitoor, India.Amara aims to target thesolar storage market with itslead‐acid batteries. Its motivepower batteries are aimedto be supplied to a widevariety of electric poweredtransportation systems,including the railway market.The battery manufacturerhas commissioned anadditional manufacturingplant in January in Chitoor,India and is to open anotherbattery factory in the sameregion in December thisyear in order to increase itsexports.Amara is currentlysupplying lead‐acidbatteries to the industrialand automotive market.Amara’s focus has been onIndian Ocean rim countries,especially in the Africancontinent. Its batteries arenow marketed in Nigeria,Uganda, Tanzania and Egypt.“We will also continue toexplore the possibilities forforging strategic alliancesin the industrial batteriesbusiness and cater todynamic technology changesin the storage power sectorglobally,” said Jaydev Galla,managing director at Amara.In 2013, Amara and ExideIndustries have dominatedthe Indian lead‐acid batterymarket with a 90% marketshare.bestmagazine // Autumn 2014
24 bestnewsLockheed Martin buys Sun Catalytix assetsUS aerospace firm Lockheed Martinhas acquired assets from flow batteryenergy storage firm Sun Catalytix.Sun Catalytix, an MIT spinout startup,will become a wholly‐owned subsidiaryand operate under the name of LockheedMartin Advanced Energy Storage in thefuture. 25 employees along with patentsand the company’s business plan willbecome part of Lockheed Martin. Thefinancial terms of the acquisition were notdisclosed.Sun Catalytix was founded in 2008 andfunded with $4m by the US Departementof Energy’s Advanced Research ProjectsAgency‐Energy in 2010 and won morethan $10m in funding from Polaris, Tataand others.Your partner for expanded and punchedplates manufacturing.Reciprocal expandedtechnologyNO LUBRICATIONUp to 450 grids/minWe cut on the nodes !MESHMAKERPUNCHMASTERUnique punching technologyNO LUBRICATIONUp to 400 grids/minHigh performance grid designROCHE M’Tech - 15 Boulevard Marcelin BERTHELOT - 51100 REIMS - FrancePhone +33 326 078 759 - Fax +33 326 026 745 - meshmaker@roche-meshmaker.comOne of the company’s major interestswas to produce flow batteries forgrid‐scale and commercial‐scale storageafter switching from its initial interest,the development of an artificial form ofphotosynthesis to harvest hydrogen fromsolar energy.Unlike vanadium redox or otherestablished flow batteries, Sun Catalyst'selectrolytes are made from metalscombined with ligands, which aremolecules that bind to metal atoms.The company says using metal‐ligandcompounds allows this active material tobe dissolved in a near‐neutral aqueoussolution ‐ rather than a strong acid ‐ whichis safe in the case of a spillage and is notcorrosive to pumps and valves.According to Sun Catalytix, it’sdeveloped storage system can deliver1MW of power for up to four to six hoursusing a battery roughly the size of ashipping container at a cost lower thanthe current long‐lasting batteries used inpublic power grids.Ador Digatron Indiaappoints director forPune facilityAdor Digatron India appoints directorfor Pune facilityAdor Powertron and Digatron PowerElectronics have hired Somnath Singha asdirector for the companies’s Indo‐Germanjoint venture (JV) Ador Digatron India in Pune,India.Singha has worked for critical powersupplier Emerson and was, before joiningthe JV, CEO of Adino Telecom where herestructured the company. He has more than20 years of experience in the uninterruptiblepower supplier and battery industry.Singha will be responsible forstrengthening the JV’s operations as wellas entering new markets with new powerelectronic test equipment and managingthe corporate culture.He holds an engineering degree inelectronics and telecommunication.bestmagazine // Autumn 2014
estnews 25Saft chairman John Searle diesJohn Searle, the British-born batteryexecutive who helped take Frenchbattery maker Saft to the stockmarket, has died suddenly at 60.Searle joined Saft in 1990 andhelped make the firm a significantinternational player, work colleaguesstated. The company was spun out ofthe French telecom giant Alcatel in2004 and under Searle’s management,the company established operationsin 18 countries and became a leaderin the deployment of lithium batterytechnology.Searle has been succeeded by BrunoDathis, CFO of the Group since 2008.Navitas promotesMil Ovan to presidentUS‐based energystorage companyNavitas Systemshas appointed Mil Ovanas the company’s newpresident.Ovan was previouslyNavitas Systems’ aschief marketing officer.Before joining three years ago, he was aprincipal of Nova Associates and senior vicepresident as well as co‐founder of batterydeveloper Firefly Energy. In his new role heas president of Navitas Systems, he will beresponsible for overseeing all functionalareas of the company.“Mil’s leadership in the last eighteenmonths as Navitas Chief Marketing Officerhas continued to positively impact all areasof our products, business divisions, andserved markets. So it was only natural toinstall Mil into this new role and to positionour company for the next level of growth andprofitability,” said chairman and founderAlan ElShafei.“Over the next few months, we’re goingto be unveiling a number of significant newproducts which will demonstrate our growthstrategy of delivering the most innovativeand robust energy storage and powerelectronics solutions in several high growthmarkets,” Ovan said.Navitas also appointed DavidVanAssche as vice president of operationsand strategic programs, located at NavitasAdvanced Solutions Group in Ann Arbor,Michigan, US.Take Control of Your Battery Quality Testing.Contact Your Nearest Representative:United StatesSTS Instruments, Inc.Phone: (1) 580 223 4773Email: info@stsinstruments.comWebsite: www.stsinstruments.comUnited KingdomCaltest Instruments LtdPhone: +44 (0) 1483 302 700Email: info@caltest.co.ukWebsite: www.caltest.co.ukAsiaPPST (Shanghai) Co., LtdPhone: +86 (021) 6763 9223Email: sales@ppst.com.cnWebsite: www.stsinstruments.comGermanyCaltest Instruments GmbHPhone: +49 (0) 7841 68293 00Email: info@caltest.deWebsite: www.caltest.deModel 1652Designed for High VolumeProduction LinesRapid Go/No-Go Test ResultsSafe & Effi cientEasy to UseFor more information visit www.stsinstruments.comSTS Instruments. Your trusted source for Battery Element Insulation Testers since 1964.bestmagazine // Autumn 2014
26 bestnewsEntek reveals lead‐acidPE separator at ELBCLead‐acid separatorcompany Entek haslaunched the LR (lowresistance) separator forlead‐acid automotive batteriesat the European Lead BatteryConference in Edinburgh.The PE separator isdesigned for extended floodedbattery applications andaims to offer high porosityand low electrical resistance.The initial product launch isfor separators with 0.20 and0.25mm backwebs.'What everybody haslearnt is that we can’t haveboth, you can have highpunctural resistance, but youare suffering on the electricalresistance or vice versa. Butour new separators can haveboth,“ David Trueba, vicepresident sales and marketingat Entek told BEST.Trueba said Entek’s LRseparator results in 30% lowerelectrical resistance and 20%higher puncture strengthcompared to a standardseparator with the samebackweb and overall thickness.Entek worked over two yearson the product and carriedout commercial trials. As BESTunderstands, Entek will supplythe separators to a WesternEuropean lead‐acid firm in Q42014.The production of the EntekLR separator production willstart this week at Entek’s plantin Newcastle, UK and lateron as well at the company’sfacility in Oregon, US.The company has invested$17m to develop its nextgeneration lead‐acid separatormaterials at its Newcastlemanufacturing plant, whichcelebrates 25 years ofproduction this week.Digatron launchessilicon carbide basedbattery test equipmentGermany's DigatronPower Electronicshas launched itsnext‐generation battery/celltesters with silicon carbide(SiC) technology.The universal battery testeris designed to test batteriesranging from 0‐20V, the celltester to test cells from 0‐6V.The charging/discharging rateis up to 150A per 1.8kW circuit.According to theAachen‐based company,the SiC technology enablesthe test equipment to becooler and quieter thanother testing equipmentin the industry. “The SiCtechnology is very exciting,but rarely used until now,”Ralf Beckers, DigatronPower Electronics’ head ofmarketing, told BEST.“SiC devices have lowerlosses and higher voltage,”he added. The company’sproducts use SiC junctiongate field‐effect transistorsthat are more efficient athigh reverse voltages thanSi insulated‐gate bipolartransistors.Both systems comprise ofsix independent circuits andhave a packing density of upto 48 circuits per cabinet. Thesystem can utilise twodifferent kinds of energyregeneration. A so‐called'Biconditional Energy Supply'balances the energy flowbetween the circuits andtracks the energy balance ofthe DC link either to generateenergy or to feed excessenergy back to thethree‐phase grid.Oxis Energy to supply lithium sulphurbatteries for marine applications in 2015Britain’s Oxis Energy,in conjunction withcompatriot MSPTechnologies, is to marketlithium sulphur battery packsfor marine applications inspring 2015.Launched as part of MSPTechnologies’ Ghost – Powerrange of diesel/battery hybridpower systems for motorboats,Oxis Energy’s lithium sulphurpacks will be scalable from20 kWh to 50 kWh upwards.The battery will be designedfor Lloyd's Register approval,which Oxis Energy claimswill give safety assurance tocustomers while helping tolower insurance premiums.Ainsworth told BEST:“We are currently achieving265Wh/kg on prototype Li– S pouch cells and around300Wh/kg in R&D cells.“Other companies havepublicised higher energydensities than this, but theyhave achieved them usingvolatile electrolyte systemsthat are unsafe. We havebeen able to achieve ourenergy density figures usingelectrolyte systems that showa high degree of safety.“In terms of cost thecathode cost for our Li‐Scells will be significantlycheaper than for Li – ionchemistries where thecathode material typicallyaccounts for over 25% ofthe material cost of thecell. Additionally, all othermaterial and processing costsin our Li‐S cells are comparableto Li‐ion chemistries, so atvolume cell costs should belower.”bestmagazine // Autumn 2014
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It’s safer with OXIS300 Wh/kg achieved at cell level in 2014400 Wh/kg forecast in 2016Rechargeable Lithium Sulfur batterieshave a wide range of applications dueto their light weight, high gravimetricenergy density and inherent safety.• Solar Energy – Storage• Defence – Mobile Communcationsand Energy Storage• Light Electric Vehicle – Powerinfo@oxisenergy.com+44 (0) 1865 407 017www.oxisenergy.com30 bestnewsVarta launches EFB batterywith ‘unique’ acid circulatorVarta has launchedan EFB battery forheavy commercialvehicles featuring a ‘unique’acid circulator to reducestratification.The battery is specificallydesigned for high‐performancecommercial vehicles withlarge power demands andintense vibration resistancerequirements, includingend‐of‐frame installation.Stanford Universityreveals carbon-coatedlithium anode techniqueResearchers at StanfordUniversity have createda carbon‐coated lithiumanode, which has performed150 charge/discharge cycleswithout forming dendriticspines at 99% Columbicefficiency.The team placed layers ofamorphous carbon to forma protective coat around thelithium anode, thus allowing itto expand and contract withoutcausing dendritic growth at theelectrolyte‐electrode interface,claimed the Stanford team ina research paper published inNature Nanotechnology.To build the coat, theresearchers placed a layerof polystyrene spheres 500nanometers across. A layerof amorphous carbon wasdeposited on top of thespheres. The polystyrenespheres were then ablatedwith heat, leaving the layerof carbon sitting on top of acopper backing. Lithium wasThe German batterymaker, owned by JohnsonControls, claims the innovativecirculator effectively preventsthe acid stratification effect.Florence Bailleul, VicePresident & General ManagerAftermarket EMEA, said: “Theunique acid circulator is aVarta benchmark’ technologythat guarantees betteracid circulation and keepscharge acceptance at thethen electrodeposited ontothe copper, filling in the spacebelow the carbon cap to formthe electrode.The researches claimedthey managed to increase theefficiency of a lithium anodebattery from 96% to 99%.But more research needs tobe done to get the anode’sefficiency up to 99.9% over along period of charging cycles,the team said. The test runended after 150 cycles and thebatteries were not tested atvery high charging rates.A stable performance at highcharging rates is necessary ifthe anode is to be commerciallyavailable and integrated in anEV or consumer electronicsbattery.bestmagazine // Autumn 2014
highest levels. The batterywill last much longer andthe risk of failure is reducedsignificantly.”Meanwhile, Varta hasadded its Blue Dynamic EFBand Silver Dynamic AGMbestnews 31batteries to its range ofautomotive batteries. In astatement, Varta said bothbatteries come with a longercycle life performance andstand for reliability and highstarting power.End YourCARTRIDGEHEATERPROBLEMSwithWatt-Flex ®Split-SheathCartridgeHeatersHot tip optionfor case andcover moldingContinuous coil foruniform temperature ingrid casting and heat platens.No sectionsto burn out as inconventional heaters.Split-sheath expandsin oversized bores for COSand cover sealing; contracts to preventbore seizure and for ease of removal.Watt-Flex cartridge heaters offer up to5 times longer life than conventional heaters.For details, contact:UK to fund researchfor energy storagedevice materialsEnergy storage devicematerials are amongthe low carbon vehicletechnologies given £6m($10m) funding by a UKresearch council.The UK Engineering andPhysical Sciences ResearchCouncil (EPSRC) is fundingtwo new research projects‐ ELEVATE (ELEctrochemicalVehicle Advanced Technology)and Ultra Efficient Enginesand Fuels – involvingacademics from eight UKuniversities.ELEVATE, led by ProfessorRob Thring at LoughboroughUniversity, will develop bettermaterials for energy storagedevices such as fuel cellsand batteries and improveintegration between devices,vehicles and power grids.It will draw on expertisein departments of Chemistry,Chemical Engineering,Materials and Manufacturingand be informed by anIndustrial Advisory Committeethat includes companies suchas Jaguar Land Rover, JohnsonMatthey and IntelligentEnergy.While Ultra EfficientEngines and Fuels, led byDr Robert Morgan at theUniversity of Brighton, willinvestigate how to improvethe operation of internalcombustion engines byas much as one thirdefficiency and how new fuels’performance can be usedin future engines to bringemissions close to zero.It will involve academicsfrom departments ofComputing, Engineering &Maths, Engineering & Design,Physics, and MechanicalEngineering. Industrialpartners include Delphi DieselSystems Ltd, Jaguar LandRover, BP British Petroleum,Ricardo UK.ElectricHeating Co., Inc.TEL:+1 978-356-9844 • FAX: +1 978-356-9846sales@daltonelectric.com • www.daltonelectric.comBatteryMonitoring SystemsBatteryTesting SystemsBatteryMaintenance Seminarswww.batterymonitoring.comCellCare Technologies LimitedUnit J1, Valley WayWelland Business ParkMarket HarboroughLeicestershire, LE16 7PSUnited kingdomTel: +44 (0)1858 468438Fax: +44 (0)1858 468439Email: info@cellcare.comWeb: www.cellcare.combestmagazine // Autumn 2014
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Ambitious Northern Ireland compressed air energystorage project set to be online by mid‐2018An ambitious 268MW compressedair energy storage (CAES) project inNorthern Ireland could be online bymid‐2018, according to developer Gaelectric.Wind energy developer Gaelectric wantsto build the approximately £300m ($491m)CAES project on the outskirts of the NorthernIreland port of Larne. The project wouldrequire the development of three 230,000m3 salt caverns to store compressed airand provide up to six hours of energy forpeak‐time use.Electricity from the nearby Ballylumfordgas‐fired power station fed via a new 5kmcable would be used to power an electricalmotor, which would drive a 300 barcompressor that stores air in the salt cavern.When electricity demand increases, this airwould be released and used to run a turbineNavitas reveals drop-inlead-acid replacementUS-based Navitas Systems haslaunched a lithium battery familyfor commercial, industrial andmilitary applications.The Ultanium line, designed to directlyreplace lead-acid batteries,come in threeversions; a 24V version for electricalsystems of military vehicles, a 12V type formilitary or commercial starting/deep cycleapplications and a 12V version for deepcycle applications."Commercial and military vehiclescontain 21st century electronics, butthey still are saddled with using 19thcentury lead-acid batteries," said NavitasSystems' president Mil Ovan.The batteries are the same sizeas most military, commercial andindustrial lead-acid batteries and workwith existing lead-acid chargers. Thecompany improved cycle life, runtimeof the Ultanium line, which work nearly50% faster in ampere-hours to full stateof-chargethan traditional lead-acidbatteries.The new batteries will be undergoingtesting by the US Army later this year.to generate electricity.To improve the power output of theturbine, some natural gas is used in thecombustion cycle. This will require theconstruction of a 1.8km pipeline.Gaelectric’s programme manager Conallbestnews 33Haughey said the final submission toNorthern Ireland’s planning authorities wasimminent. “We would hope to receiveplanning consent in July 2015, and have thethree caverns operational by June/July 2018,”he told BEST.Well proven mixing technology for lithium ion batteries from Asia.FILMIX allows significant gains in productivity and linear scalability,yielding large economies of scale important to automotive application.The highly effective turbulent mixing process leads across more homogeneousdispersion of the conductive material in the active materialof the cathode slurry and also to better battery properties such as thecharge/discharge behaviour. Find out more:www.buhlergroup.com/batteryBattery Competence Center Europe: Bühler AG, Grinding & Dispersion, CH-9240 Uzwil,T +41 71 955 34 91, F +41 71 955 31 49, grinding.dispersion@buhlergroup.com, www.buhlergroup.comInnovations for a better world.FILMIX.Continuous productionprocess for lithium ionbattery slurries.- High production speedfor thin-film dispersions- Better batteries due tohighly efficient process- Easy to assembleand clean- Ideal for small batchesright through to massproductionbestmagazine // Autumn 2014
14 th ELBC:So much to do,so little timebestshowstopper 35BEST visits the 14 th ELBC in Edinburgh and was underwhelmed by the technicalprowess on display. Good parties, though…Edinburgh in mid‐September2014 was a place of wonder.It felt like the centre of theuniverse. Was this anything todo with the International LeadAssociation’s (ILA) 14th EuropeanLead Battery Conference (ELBC)taking place in ‘Auld Reekie’?Er, no. With the referendum justone week away, there was a vibein Scotland’s capital like the BerlinWall was about to come down.Or go up. A hoarding promotingredevelopment in Edinburgh’sHaymarket district that read‘SOMETHING EXTRAORDINARY ISHAPPENING’ had it dead right.But there was little extraordinaryat the 14th ELBC. The show kickedoff with a scene‐setting openingsession that attempted to placelead‐acid batteries in the forefront ofthe battle against climate change.Julian Allwood, professor ofengineering and the environmentat the University of Cambridge gavea worthy presentation, ‘ClimateDigatron's KevinCampbell aka‘Kevin of Scotland’Change Mitigation, Lead andEnergy Storage’. Sadly, by his ownadmission, Allwood’s knowledgeabout batteries is minimal, andlead‐acid batteries even less.This ‘Climate Change forDummies’ presentation was a goodintroduction to the work of theUN's Intergovernmental Panel onClimate Change but whether ELBCdelegates were convinced that, infact, they are doing God’s work byhelping to the save the planet withlead batteries is moot. Some of theELBC crowd will be dead in 2020,let alone 2050, so making themworry about global temperatures in2100 is a challenge.On the whole, however, it wasa smart move to try to make leadbattery guys feel good aboutthemselves, as the industry can oftenfeel under attack from all sides.Allwood was highly scepticalabout the green credentials ofEVs, and people have been “solda lie”, noting the Toyota Prius hasthe same fuel consumption as theoriginal Mini. Drive a small car tosave the planet? Sure, but you can’tget golf clubs in a 25‐year old Mini…The lead‐acid battery industryis not making enough noise aboutthe high recyclability and lowenergy intensity of the batteryproduction cycle, said Allwood. Butis recyclability of lead‐acid a sexything? You decide, dear reader.Industry stalwart Patrick Moseleyof the Advanced Lead Acid BatteryConsortium (ALABC) gave anotherdummy’s guide to climate change(but not quite as good) beforemoving on to present the resultsof an energy storage project inPeru – Padre Cocha – which theInternational Lead Zinc ResearchOrganization and CSIRO launchedin, wait for it, 1997.This was an attempt to showhow current lead‐acid batteriesare in a pain in the ar*e for energystorage projects and stop‐startapplications, using graphsbestmagazine // Autumn 2014
36 bestshowstopperTechnical Tour: EntekproducedLead‐acid separator maker Entekcelebrated 25 years of production at itsNewcastle plant by organising a tourfor ELBC delegates.The bus trip started at prestigious WaldorfAstoria in Edinburgh’s city to Entek’s facilityin slightly less fancy Newcastle suburbs. Tolighten things up, the trip included a visit ofthe ‘Harry Potter Castle’ aka Alnwick Castleat the end of the trip, too.Entek was not only celebrating itsNewcastle facility, it also revealed its new LR(low resistance) PE separator.On the way to Newcastle, Entek set therules for the factory visit. Sales manager SteveGerts warned that anyone who attempts totake a picture inside the factory would bethrown into the dungeon of Hogwarts.He also took the opportunity to callattention to the predominant Yes signs inEdinburgh of the independence supporters,to the No signs on the fields of SouthernScotland and included the Scottish busdriver who was quite reluctant to unveil hispolitical viewpoint on the microphone.Tour members were welcomed in amarquee next to the facility, set up for theNewcastle birthday celebrations. Entekhas invested $17m to develop its nextgeneration lead‐acid separator materialsat its Newcastle manufacturing plant. Thecompany worked over two years on theproduct and carried out commercial trials.Like a lot of lead‐acid companies whenit comes to publicise new products,Entek was shy about its new PEseparators during the tour.Only during lunch overshrimps and humus, betweenfactory visit and castle tour,did David Trueba, vice president sales andmarketing, answers nosy questions from BEST.The roughly 70 tourists were guided inthree groups through the manufacturingplant. The Newcastle plant comprises ofeight production lanes. As we walk past thecalendaring lanes, the packaging lanes andthe quality lab, some people missed “thefun stuff”. Hearing complaints by Germantour members that there wasn’t much tosee, Trueba explained chemical gases beingreleased during the process of making theseparator material is poisonous and theycouldn’t take the risk of exposing them tothe tour members. …That’s why we had to watch howseparators are put into boxes. Good moveto take everyone to Hogwarts afterwardsas the guided tour through the personalliving room of the Duke and Duchess ofNorthumberland eliminated any priorcomplaints.Next to chemical exposure, one of themain reasons is probably that Entek doesn’twant to reveal the secrets of the newtechnology to curious industry membersfrom other separator companies by accident.Entek also has an Oregon plant that willeventually produce the new LE separators,too. The company tries to standardise itsplants, meaning that the manufacturingprocess and the workflow should be thesame as in England.Trueba wants to “change the way thatseparators are integrated into lead‐acidcell designs”. The new separatorshave high punctual resistance andlow electrical resistance at the sametime. Entek says it’s possible withoutthe magic of Harry Potter.Newcastle staff left to right: Brian Clough, Colin Byrne, Marek Kuran, Dennis Merrittby Ford to demonstratetheir lack of dynamic chargeacceptance. As Moseley rightlyacknowledged, “the same”.In what was to be a recurringtheme at 14th ELBC, the lead‐acidbattery industry needs to up itsgame. “There will only be long‐termprospects for lead‐acid if rapidrecharge and long cycle life isattainable,” said Moseley. So what’sthe solution? The UltraBattery, stupid!Then there were some downbeatpresentations about lithium‐ion’sprospects. Avicienne Energy’sChristophe Pillot’s message was EVswere overhyped and said lithiumbatteries “are kind of a bomb”in terms of safety, albeit in a waysuggesting he was told to say it.Linda Gaines of ArgonneNational Laboratory was alsobrought into be bashed up aboutlithium battery recycling, or thelack of it. When Gaines brieflytouched on the issue of dumpedlead batteries being disassembledby children she was given a mostfrosty stare by session chair AndyBush, the managing director of theInternational Lead Association.Apart from the lack of material tobe recycled, one of the problems isthat there is no danger of demandfor lithium outstripping supply by2050, even if there was no recyclingat all. And only the cathodic materialof certain lithium‐ion batteries usingcobalt and nickel is actually worthrecycling, unlike iron and phosphate,and even that is marginal.But, perhaps most importantly,there is no regulation drivinglithium battery recycling. The USEnvironmental Protection Agency(EPA) is not pushing for lithiumrecycling.No regulations, no bother?Well, the EPA has not been entirelyinactive regarding lithium and,Gaines suggested, the industry maybe wise to come up with its ownregulations to pre‐empt any officialmoves.bestmagazine // Autumn 2014
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estshowstopper 41Molecular Rebar is consideringconnecting batteries to solar arraysto benchmark energy storageapplications. By the end of the yearit expects to be making batterieswith dCNTs and is planning a 200tonnes/year manufacturing facilityin Houston, Texas.Another ‘additive’ worthy ofnote was Tim McNally of BorregaardLignotech, whose paper ‘Innovationsin Vanisperse ManufactureDramatically Improve Cold CrankPerformance’ focused on itsnext‐generation Vanisperse AT. Acommercial trial conducted in tandemwith Superior Battery demonstratedthe use of Vanisperse AT led to a coldcranking discharge time of 53 secondsto 7.2V compared to 44 seconds forVanisperse A at ‐18 degrees C.McNally said these resultssuggested an 8% potentialreduction in NAM, equivalent tosavings of $0.65/battery.Ellen van Beers crownedchampion golferEllen van Beers took the glory at theBEST‐sponsored golf tournament at St Andrew’s.While Ray Kubis of Eco-Bat comfortably shotthe lowest total at St Andrew’s Jubilee course with ahighly commendable round of 78, Ellen van Beers, wifeof Luxembourg metals trading firm's Nizi International'sTheodoor van Beers, secured the overall honours viathe Stableford scoring scheme, which takes handicapsinto account, on the Castle course.John O. Wirtz, president and CEO of WirtzManufacturing, was the winner on the Jubilee course.Other Jubilee course winners were Axion Power’s MikeRomeo, who bagged the nearest-the-pin award, whileNate Deem of Pyrotek took home the longest drivegong.Other winners on the Castle course were Mark Yinglingof Doe Run, who snagged the nearest-the-pin trophy,while Nate Deem pocketed the longest drive accolade fora second time.Ford: Lose some weightFord’s Eckhard Karden served upsome lessons learned from theusage of lead‐acid batteries instop‐start applications. And themessage was there are surprisinglyfew issues, much less than heanticipated a few years ago.EFBs last for two years of robustservice life – good enough – andAGMs are really only necessaryfor commercial vehicles. Whenstop‐start vehicle thinks thebattery is not charged, it probablyis, it’s usually just an electroniccalibration issue.And while poor DCA meansno cycling, this is actually apositive because the battery iseffectively protecting itself.What Karden was moreconcerned with weight. Stop‐startbatteries with a capacity of 60Ahhave added 1‐3kg; if the size wasreduced it would offer similarweight savings.So carbon has a role to reduceweight by getting rid of excesslead. It also would improve realworld fuel economy and improverobustness as the electrical loadof vehicles increases ever higher.But at some point the industry willrun into problems and Ford reallydoesn’t want to use an even biggerbattery and add yet more weight.Yet carbon additives are “notall equal”. Some acceleratewater consumption more thanother, so choosing the right oneis critical. Karden said OEMs willnot put anything that put hotclimate reliability at risk, notingdegradation of existing fieldstop‐start battery reliability dueto water consumption is already“unacceptable”.However, water loss due tocarbon is at least stable overbattery lifetime, unlike the useof antimony in positive plates.A side effect of partial negativepolarization is grid corrosion,another issue it wants to get rid of.DCA is the next challenge. Fordwould like to 0.5A/Ah in its owntest to allow up to three timesmore real road fuel economybenefit. Even so, Ford would still belimited by the battery and not thealternator, which gives it reason tolook to improved performance fromother technologies.bestmagazine // Autumn 2014
44 bestshowstopperThe challenge is whenstop‐start is no longer enough toachieve sufficient fleet emissionsreduction while being able tomanage high loads.Next generation EFBs shouldbe able to offer up to three timesmore recuperative power – a bigimprovement ‐ but much less thanthe alternator can provide, whichis up to 3kW, and it is unrealistic todump 150‐200A consistently into alead‐acid battery.A cheap option would beto upsize the alternator to 14Vwith 3.5kW recuperative power.This would require a secondaryenergy storage device, likely tobe a lithium LFP or LTO battery,and not a supercapacitor, whichwould require an expensiveDC‐DC converter. Karden alsowarned that the threat from 12Vlithium batteries should not beunderestimated.But, the moment, Ford wantsan EFB with higher DCA offering acheap, durable solution at lowerweight without increased internalresistance. Easy? Apparently not.Manfred Gelbke of MollBatterien said it had seen“remarkable” improvementsin so‐called ‘next gen’ EFBsfeaturing carbon additives, i.e.its latest series product, due tomore uniform current dischargethrough the plates, thus reducingacid stratification and thereforepremature aging.But the main message wasEFB (and AGM) had significantimprovement potential but there isan urgent requirement for detailedresearch into how carbon additivesaffect pore size and thereforestratification and, ultimately, DCA.This was one of several paperscalling for urgent research. Over toyou, guys.Saving the polar bears:Lead‐acid batteries for gridenergy storageThe lead‐acid batteries for energystorage session was a mixed bag.Ecoult’s John Wood almost had atear in his eye remembering EastPenn’s tragically deceased SallyMiksiewicz, but he has plenty to behappy about with the progress ofthe UltraBattery.By the end of the year, Ecoultwill launch an updated largeformat UltraBattery, which isclaimed to have double the powerbestmagazine // Autumn 2014
estshowstopper 45output for half the lead, with aPSoC range of 40‐50%. Watch thisspace.The numbers seem to stack up,at least for batteries installed atEast Penn’s manufacturing facilityin Pennsylvania. Wood claimed anIRR of 14% for a 3MW system toprovide frequency response for thePJM market, with multipurposing– demand response and UPSback‐up as well as FR – this risesto an IRR of 43%.Time will tell whether UltraBatteryeconomics are so impressive atinstallations not belonging to themanufacturer, but Wood was veryupbeat about Ecoult’s prospects.Enersys’ Steve Vechy gave aterrifically cynical reality check,reminding the audience that mostprojects thus far have been relianton some form of public money,Thomas Edison thought it was aboondoggle over 100 years ago,and, in any case, if battery energystorage was so good then why isn’tit already ubiquitous?The level of skepticism was notsurprising from Vechy, but Enersysdoes supposedly have a businessunit – OptiGrid – which offers aturnkey lead‐acid battery energystorage installation.Exide has hopes for its TensorSolar branded gel lead‐acidbattery, aimed at Germanhouseholders with domesticsolar PV, replete with fancycasing. While it looks a 21stcentury product, in truth TensorSolar – marketed under itsSonnenschein@home domesticenergy storage brand, is little morethan a battery in a box costingaround €2‐4000 for up to four8kWh modules.Inverters and a BMS are notincluded in this package andif you want IUIa charging it willneed a €5000 converter. WillSonnenschein@home takeGermany by storm? Don’t hold yourbreath.The next ELBC takes place inMalta’s capital city Valletta. Whenthis was unveiled at the gala dinnerthis drew gasps of delight from thewives. Great parties! But theconference…?bestmagazine // Autumn 2014
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Faradion:Boosting the industry’scapacity to makesodium-ion batteriesThe Editor visits Faradion and a finds a small Britishsodium-ion battery developer with, potentially, a big future.bestprofile 47They say that an organisationis only as good its people.That augurs well for aBritish startup, Faradion, one ofthe few companies trying to bringsodium‐ion batteries to market.Faradion is the brainchild ofa trinity of distinguished batteryprofessionals. They includeFaradion’s chairman Chris Wright,former group operations director ofAEA Technology and responsible forlicensing of the highly successfullithium cobalt oxide (LCO) in the1980s.Chief technology officer JerryBarker is a former chief scientistof US‐based Valence Technology,and is claimed to have inventedmore lithium‐ion electrode patentsthan anyone. The last of the trinityis chairman Andrew Dixey, formerCEO of bipolar lead‐acid batterydeveloper Atraverda. In July, Dixeydeparted, with CEO Wright movingto chairman and replaced byLawrence Berns, the former CEO ofbattery module maker Axeon, whichwas acquired by Johnson MattheyLawrence Berns,former CEO of batterymodule maker Axeon.Top: Chris Wrightchair of Faradion.in 2012. Quite a team.Faradion is somewhatunusual in the sense itwas formed by a venturecapital firm, rather thanby a University spin‐outor another form ofR&D spin‐off. AshwinKumaraswamy of EnterpriseVentures, an early stage venturecapital fund manager, had priorexperience of assessing investmentopportunities in this sector andwas keen to invest in reducing thecost of energy storage.Kumaraswamy approachedWright and Barker. Wright, whohad been CEO of IP2IPO (nowknown as IP Group), an early stagetechnology investor in mostlyUniversity spin‐out companies, wasinvited to lead operations.Jerry Barker, who was runninghis own battery consultancy, aswell as in the employ of Culham aschief technical officer, UK‐basedSurion Energy, a now defunctdeveloper of proprietary Li 2 FeS 2cathode technology, was invited tobe CTO. Andrew Dixey also came onboard at this time.Faradion is bornFinance Yorkshire Seedcorn Fundbecame the founder investor inFaradion and remains the largestshareholder. Prompted by Barker,Finance Yorkshire Seedcorn Funddecided to invest in sodium‐ion,deemed to be “most ripe fordevelopment”, says Wright.Faradion swiftly started work in labsat the University of Sheffield in 2011.“We wanted to grow thecompany quickly,” says chairmanChris Wright, “which meant thecompany used facilities andresources wherever they wereavailable. Hence we decided towork in the University of Sheffield,which also housed the companyheadquarters in the early days,and also in Witney in Oxfordshire,sharing the facility with CaterhamFormula One team.Having access to more than onefacility in the early days has proveda successful strategy.”bestmagazine // Autumn 2014
48 bestprofileWork on sodium‐ion technologyprogressed sufficiently well tosecure three UK government grants:an initial £100,000($160841.5)from the Technology StrategyBoard (TSB) to produce ademonstrator, which led to afurther TSB demonstrator grantof £479,000. Faradion has alsosecured from the UK Departmentof Energy and Climate Change a£396,000 grant for a collaborativeproject with Sharp Laboratories todevelop and scale up a ‘new’ largeformat battery for residential andcommunity energy storage systems.With help from FinanceYorkshire, this money has beenused to move out of the Universityof Sheffield and establish its ownprototype sodium‐ion batteryline in rented facilities at itsheadquarters at the SheffieldInnovation Centre, within a stone’sthrow from its former base at theUniversity.The prototype line is end‐to‐end,including cathode making, coating,electrode punching, cell building,electrolyte fill, degas, testing, thewhole caboodle. Faradion is nowat a stage of making cells andpacks for deployment in trials,with the ultimate intention oflicensing the technology to batterymanufacturers.But, first things first, whysodium? “When we started, thesodium‐ion intellectual propertyfield was very, very sparse andthere were very few patentscompared to lithium,” says Wright.“We saw an opportunity for afleet‐of‐foot company like ourselvesto command a great deal ofintellectual property.“One of our first missions was tosynthesise very large numbers ofsodium‐ion materials ‐ we’ve sincelooked at over 2,000 ‐ and we’veso far identified 14 ‘patent families’covering thousands of materials.”Once Faradion started lookinginto sodium, it quickly realisednot only sodium carbonate for thecathode is cheaper than lithiumcarbonate, but also sodiumelectrolyte is less expensive thanlithium electrolyte and sodium saltsare more soluble than lithium salts,requiring a lower concentrationfor the same conductivity. And,whereas in a lithium cell youhave to use one copper currentcollector and one aluminiumcurrent collector, in a sodium cellyou can use two aluminium currentcollectors, says Wright.“Sodium‐ion does everythinglithium‐ion does, but cheaper,” hesays. “If a manufacturer alreadyhas a lithium‐ion plant, there is noincremental capital cost becauseit uses the same equipment.According to Argonne NationalLab’s BatPaC data model, a 16kWhsodium‐ion pack is 30% cheaper.”Characteristics of sodium‐ionOf course, as the ionic radius ofsodium is 30% greater than lithium,graphite cannot be used at theanode because its interlayer spaceis too narrow; it simply does not goin. The obvious alternative is hardcarbon.Hard carbons have a wideinterlayer space. As the interlayerspace is slightly disordered, theaverage space between the carbonlayers is wider than of graphite,allowing sodium ions to beinserted, explains chief technologyofficer Jerry Barker.“If you heat most carbonshigh enough they will crystalliseinto graphite,” he says. “Hardcarbons, on the other hard, can beturbostratically disordered, whichmeans the layers are rigidly heldapart rather than ‘graphitize’ nomatter how high the temperature.”While hard carbons arecommercially available, they tendto be optimised for lithium‐ion.Although they work perfectly wellfor sodium‐ion cells, Faradionmakes its own grades, which Barkerclaims outperform commercialgrades.To create suitable hardcarbons, Faradion dewaters thecarbohydrate source, be it sugar orcoconut shell or another suitablesubstance, leaving a precursorof a pre‐carbon to be heated ina particular range and particularatmosphere. The desired result isfor Faradion to optimise its ownhard carbons to be in a positionwhere a third party would be ableto pick it up and run with thetechnology.Sodium‐ion vs lithium‐ionenergy densityWhile sodium is a heavier metalthan lithium, it does not makea huge difference between asodium‐ion and lithium‐ion battery,says Barker.“Take lithium cobalt oxide,” hebestmagazine // Autumn 2014
estprofile 49says. “The lithium constitutes only~5% of the mass. If you replacesodium with lithium, there’s anegligible difference in terms ofthe formula mass. When you workthe sums it doesn’t make a lot ofdifference by going from an atomicweight of 7 to 23 because it is therest of the cell that makes most ofthe difference.”Faradion is currently claimingan energy density of 140Wh/kg,compared to 150‐180Wh/kg for anLCO 1 8650 cell, and 100‐110Wh/kgfor lithium iron phosphate. Wrightsays Faradion`s ‘roadmap’ targetsan energy density of 200Wh/kgwithin three years.At a cost per kilowatt‐hour basis,which is crucial, energy capacitywill be cheaper than lithium‐ion,says Wright. “There is a prejudiceabout lithium because it was thefirst high energy density cathode.Changing the ion doesn’t makemuch difference to energy densityor rate characteristics.“Conventional thinking was toosimplistic. It is not necessarily thecase that because sodium‐ion isbigger than lithium it will diffusemore slowly. What determines therate of diffusion is how the ionmoves in a very complex lattice,and if you pick a lattice with bigchannels or tunnels then it willhave rapid diffusion.“Because sodium is larger itcan occupy different positionsin the interlayer space, makingthem faster diffusers and thereforehigher rate materials than theirlithium equivalents.”“In terms of voltage, we are alsoat similar levels to lithium‐ion,we’re not taking a big hit,” addsBarker. “We can get it to work andit works well, and we’ve performed1,000 cycles and beyond. Thefade rate, mainly due to gradualcell impedance, is similar tolithium‐ion. We see a little bitof active loss, but the fade ratecharacteristics are very similar.”Jerry Barker andWhitney.Easy peasy, lemon squeezy?Faradion makes it sound easy.Is it? “It has been surprisinglyeasy,” says Barker. “I publishedone of the original sodium‐ionpapers over a decade ago and atthe time I thought there wouldbe major challenges to makeit a commercial reality: cyclelife, rate, impedance, solubility,instability and so on. But it’sbeen easier than anticipatedto make a good performingsodium‐ion cell. There are nofundamental barriers.”If it is so easy, then why isn’teveryone doing it? “There are lotof groups who have publishedpapers on research but only oneor two commercial operators aremanufacturing prototype cellsand packs,” says Wright.“Sumitomo Electric andSumitomo Chemical starteda few years before us and theformer recently announced itwould launch a sodium‐ion cellin 2016. Sumitomo Chemical hastaken a different approach at thecathode. Sumitomo Chemical`sapproach appears to have beenfocused on taking out the lithiumfrom a lithium‐ion battery andreplacing it with sodium, e.g.sodium iron phosphate. We feelthat’s the wrong way round,we’ve started from a bottom‐uplevel and what is required for asodium‐ion cathode material.”Deployment in the fieldDuring its first three years ofexistence, Faradion believes it hasdemonstrated to its satisfactionthat sodium‐ion technologycould deliver the same kind ofperformance at the individualcell level as lithium‐ion. The nextstage is building small, 1kWhdemonstrators in order to generatedata and materials to potentialpartners.By the end of 2014, Faradionwill have demonstratedsodium‐ion modules insmall‐scale applications withWilliams Advanced Engineering,as stipulated by its larger TSBgrant. The sodium‐ion packs willbe demonstrated in an ebikeapplication.Faradion is currently makingpouch cells, but it is agnostic aboutthe format. One of the greateststrengths of sodium‐ion batteries,says Barker, is that they can bemanufactured on lithium‐ionproduction lines as the productionprocess is so similar.“If someone wanted to convert aline to sodium‐ion there is literallynothing that needs to be changedapart from the materials used,”says Barker. “The techniciansrunning the line wouldn’t noticeany difference.“We double‐side coat the anodeand cathode; layer the materialsstep‐by‐step with a separator, webestmagazine // Autumn 2014
esttech 53If you can’t stand the heat…VRLAs able to cope for long periods operating at elevated temperatures are somewhat of aHoly Grail. Tim Probert explores efforts to improve lifetime of ‘high temperature’ VRLAs.As almost everyone readingthis will well understand,one of the major drawbacksof lead‐acid batteries is they donot perform terribly well at hightemperatures.Typically, lead‐acid batteries willhave a ten‐year design life at 25°C.If you increase the temperature to35°C you would theoretically halvethe life of the product, meaningfive years, 2.5 years at 45°C and soforth.Operating at 40°C is generallynot a problem for VRLAs. When youget above 60°C, more than possiblewhen operating in hot climateswithout cooling, you start to runinto big problems and the batterydesign has to be specially adaptedin order to prevent failure withindays.At these temperatures thereare so many components in thebattery that are under stress. Itis a demanding architecture in ademanding environment, and justabout the worst environment for aproduct containing acid.Everybody is trying to improvetheir components, be they grids,pastes, oxides, containers orvalves and so on, but the typicalfailure mechanism of the batteryis almost exclusively positive gridcorrosion and dry‐out. Therefore,the challenges are to increasecorrosion resistance of the positivegrid and to decrease water loss.David Prengaman,RSR TechnologiesPositive grid problemsIn simple terms, the first thing is toadd silver to the alloy and increasethe volume of tin to dramaticallyreduce the rate of corrosion of leadcalcium alloys, as is essential forstop‐start automotive batteries topass high‐temperature testing at60°C or 75°C.The standard alloy for VRLAs islead calcium, with calcium at 0.7%,and tin at 1.2‐1.4%. Silver is usefulprimarily for high‐temperaturecycling, 0.3% is usually sufficientfor corrosion protection.The original high temperaturealloy for positive grids for SLI’s wasGNB’s AG9 alloy, which had 0.6%tin and 300ppm silver, introducedin the late 1990s.This problem all started with theFord Taurus, a car designed to behighly aerodynamic. The airflow nolonger flowed through a grille in thebonnet but over the car, and theengine compartment got hot. Thismeant the batteries lasted only afew months.Ford came with a diabolical testcalled the ‘Hot J240’, which testedreserve capacity cycling at 75°C.Ford demanded their suppliers mettheir requirements, but no‐onecould do until GNB came up with alow‐silver alloy.The genius of it, says lead‐acidbattery industry stalwart BobNelson, was GNB realised that“When you put a small amount ofsilver into a positive grid alloy thesilver would tend to enrich in thegrain boundaries and it creates ahard grain boundary which is muchmore difficult to corrode”.The drawback with AG9,says RSR Technology’s DavidPrengaman, was that the silvercontent made it very difficult tostick active material on to it. Asa workaround, the grids wereplaced into curing chambers athigh humidity and 100°C to form acorrosion layer and paste the activematerial on to it.However, this resulted inextremely low calcium content andthe resulting weak grids were slowin ageing. Furthermore, due to thelow tin content, recharging wasproblematic.Newer alloys, including RSR’s007 and later 009 alloy hadhigher calcium content allowingfor quicker aging and highertin content in order to improverecharge through the grid activematerial interface, as well asslightly lower silver content toavoid ternary eutectic cracking ofthe calcium.“If you don’t control thesilver and tin content the gridswould crack when gassed,” saysPrengaman. “Cracking neveroccurred in calcium alloys before,this was a brand new phenomenonwhich had to be overcome — youhave to balance the silver contentwith the tin content.”Added to the RSR009 mix isbestmagazine // Autumn 2014
54 besttechPb-0.07Ca-1.0% Sn RSR 007 Pb-Ca-Sn-Ag Alloy RSR 009 Pb-Ca-Sn-Ag-Ba-Al AlloyRSR Technologies' ‘00’ Series of positive grid alloys versus standard.aluminium to prevent calcium loss,and there’s a little more calciumthan normal than in the AG9 alloyto allow better aging and handling.Yet, even with these improvements,VRLAs will still suffer from corrosionat the grain boundaries.The next thing added was asmall amount of barium, whichsegregates to the same areas asthe tin and silver. The barium givesa very uniform corrosion on thesurface of the grid and does notcause penetrating corrosion, whichcan cause potential problems.“This took care of the gridcorrosion problems”, saysPrengaman. Be they book cast,rolled‐punched, rolled‐expanded,cast‐expanded or cast‐punched.”While grid corrosion is veryimportant, there are manyother components which needmodification from the standardkit. There has to be higher positivepaste density than normal, eventhough the higher the density, thebetter the resistance to elevatedtemperatures, says Prengaman.This can seem counter‐intuitivebecause conventional wisdomstates lower paste density improvesactive material utilization. Buthigher density leads to extendedlifetime and this is the name of thegame.Another issue is the higherthe temperature, the higher thelikelihood of gassing on floatservice. Adding bismuth in theactive material has been shown toreduce gassing under float service.Adding zinc, either as zinc sulphatein the electrolyte, or to the negativeactive material, can also reducegassing by as much as 15‐20%,notes Prengaman.For cycling batteries, carbonadditives in the negative materialimprove recharge at elevatedtemperatures, but most carbonsincrease the rate of gassing. That iswhere the aforementioned additionof zinc comes in to offset the effectsof the carbon.Among the many other possibleadditives are tetrabasic leadsulphate crystals in the positiveactive material, which allow highercycling ability and life cycle, as theactive material does not fall apart.Prengaman also notes highdensity separators with a highvolume of fine fibres are necessaryto prevent the electrolyte fromstratifying. If the electrolytestratifies just a little, you slowlysulphate both the positive andnegative plates due to the higherconcentration of acid, thusshortening life.Expanding role of expandersNormal expanders do not workeffectively at elevated temperaturesdue to degradation. Newerexpanders from manufacturerslike Penox, Hammond, Addendaand so on perform better at hightemperatures, but some firmsare currently testing materialsoffering the promise of improvedhigh temperature stability, asHammond's chief technical officerAchim Lulsdorf explains.“Over the past 18 months wehave focused our R&D effortsalmost entirely on partial state ofcharge applications like stop‐start,microhybrid and renewable energystorage,” he says. “As an initialresult we released our HammondK2 expander line for PSoCapplications at the 2013 AsianBattery Conference in Singapore.“Ever since we have performedextensive work to investigatepossible interaction effects ofvarious expander materials,mainly advanced carbons andadvanced organic additives. Wewere able to find materials andinteraction mechanisms that allowfor exceptional dynamic chargeacceptance, increased PSoCcycling life, and reduced waterconsumption.“A by‐product of our effortswas the identification of organicmaterials with a high level oftemperature stability. However,currently these materials are stillin test to evaluate whether theycannot only withstand elevatedbestmagazine // Autumn 2014
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esttech 57temperatures but also surviveunder high overcharge potentials atthe same time.“A high temperature VRLAHammond expander is notcommercially available yet, butdepending on the outcome of ourcurrent tests may become realitysoon.”Meanwhile, BorregaardLignotech is testing its VanisperseHT organic additives for thenegative paste, hitherto largelytargeted at improving cold crankfor automotive batteries, forhigh‐temperature VRLAs, with aneye on standby power applicationsin hot countries like India.“We've evaluated it for VRLAsand we've found that you need notonly high‐temperature stabilitybut also high charge acceptance,”says senior research associate TimMcNally. “In countries with veryunreliable power grids like India,these batteries are not so muchstandby as cycling.“They are cycled so regularlythey are not necessarily beingfully charged, so we find chargeacceptance becomes paramount.The more efficient the charge, themore complete the charging.“Working with the ALABC andour suppliers and customers, weare working on a line of Vanisperseadditives being evaluated for hightemperatures and improved chargeacceptance. We do have a coupleof promising organic additivesbased on lignosulfonate, butat this point they are kind ofhush‐hush, as the processof getting from the rawmaterial to the finalproduct is novel.”A design for lifeDespite all theelectrochemical work, itis the mechanical designthat is most crucial forextended lifetime at elevatedtemperatures, according toTim McNally, seniorresearch associate,BorregaardLignotech.Frank Fleming, chieftechnical officer ofNorthstar.Herbert Giess of Pyramid VisionConsulting, who has worked withChinese high‐temperature VRLAmanufacturer Narada.“Grid corrosion is important butthe most critical issue is the batterycontainer,” he says. The killer forlead‐acid batteries is short‐termexcursion to higher temperatures,for example when a cooling systemfails.A thermal excursion to 60°C to65°C will result in standard VRLAsfailing within a week, says Giess.“With high‐temperature excursionabove 60°C, the container willlose mechanical strength andcompression will be lost. If thebattery case is too soft, the platecore is not sufficiently compressedand you will lose capacity. Theloss of compression also changesrecombination behaviour and maycause thermal runaway.“So you need specialhigh‐temperature plastics or somespecial reinforcement allowinghigh temperature operation. Suchplastics which allow operation upto 100°C without deformation areavailable, allowing batteries tosurvive two months up to 70°C. It'sa question of reaching deep intoyour pocket to pay for these exoticplastics, which are 30 to 50% moreexpensive.”Giess questions standard testprocedures for VRLAs, whichdemonstrate grid corrosionand water loss levels, butnot mechanical strength.“People may be wonderinghow it's possible todo high‐temperatureaccelerated life testingat 60°C or 65°C anddemonstrate 16weeks or even a year ofoperation.“This is because thesetests are performed by clampingthe battery between two steelplates or vice which keep thebattery box stable. This isstandard procedure for testing gridcorrosion and water loss, but notthe failure of the battery case. So,in order to get long life withouthaving a steel vice clamping themonoblock in position, you needhigh‐temperature plastics.”Frank Fleming, chief technicalofficer of NorthStar, agrees themechanical stability of the batteryis very important. “If you operatebatteries at elevated temperaturesthen you need to look very carefullyat the valve. Will the valve lastfor a prolonged period at thesetemperatures or will it leak?“If you have a leakage it canallow water to escape whichincreases the dry‐out rate and alsoallow oxygen back into the battery,which would cause the negativeelectrode to run down.”Bob Nelson notes some otherconstruction features that can beimportant for high‐temperatureVRLAs, particularly those on float.“15‐20 years ago VRLAs had terribleproblems with unregulated ‘hots’where temperatures would reach60‐65°C.“Manufacturers started usingtemperature compensation (TC),a small device which sensesthe ambient temperature andlowers the charging voltage tocompensate. You might be floatingat 2.3V or 2.35V per cell at ambienttemperature, but without TC andthe installation heats up to 60°Cit’s as if you’re floating at 2.55V or2.6V per cell.”TC is now standard tech.Using a micro‐catalyst developedby Philadelphia Scientific canalso mitigate thermal build‐upand water loss by correctingthe imbalance in the chemicalreactions caused by impurities inthe active material.A small catalyst valve is insertedinto the cell and gasses, whichwould normally be vented out of thebattery, are diffused out the platestack. Nelson notes this methodbestmagazine // Autumn 2014
58 besttechis expensive and not withoutproblems.“It’s a platinium or palladiumcatalyst, which means hydrogenand oxygen will be convertedto water which is good, but isproblematic. If too much gas comesout of the battery, the catalyst plugcan overheat, and over time theplatinium or palladium can leachinto the cells and significantlyincrease gassing.”Nelson also notes NorthStarhas published papers exploring atechnique called intermittent chargingfor float applications where batteriesare taken offline periodically and thencharged with a short, high currentwhen the battery voltage drops to acritical level, then rests.“It’s a cycle, but then so is aregular use of float batteries. Themain thing is the battery isn’t nearlyas stressed by high temperatures andover a year you may only put in 15%of the overcharge into a float batteryinstallation compared to continuousfloat charging, so it’s very attractive.“NorthStar tried it a few years agoand it didn’t really work. But it couldbe part of the package to make hightemperatures much less abusive toVRLAs.”Doing what it says on the box?East Penn’s Deka Fahrenheit rangeincorporates its proprietary Microcatcatalyst, Helios negative plateadditive, TempX corrosion inhibitorgrid alloy and THT compositeplastic of the outer case to producea battery that its lab tests haveshown to last three times longerthan standard VRLA telecom floatproduct at 60°C. The warranty forthe Fahrenheit telecom battery is sixyears full at 35°C, an improvementfrom its standard VRLA productwarranty, which is four years full at25°C.Does Bob Nelson believe EastPenn’s Fahrenheit battery doeswhat it says on the box? “I’m alwayssuspicious when a new product isclaimed to have three times the floatlife at 60°C in lab testing because inthe field they may not see anythingclose to lab testing conditions,”he says. East Penn told BEST itis “confident that our lab resultswill translate to field applicationsas this product has been underdevelopment for five years”, but“field testing has only just begunwith interested customers andprospects” and “results will takeyears”.Deka Farenheitheat tolerant VLRAbattery.Future researchNorthStar’s Frank Fleming says itis conducting a high‐temperaturebattery research programme ofits own. “A lot of applicationswould be preferred to run at hightemperatures particularly foroutdoor BTS (base transceiverstations), for example.“If somebody can increasedurability of the product at thesetemperatures then it would bea significant breakthrough. Ifyou were able to make a 20‐yearproduct at 25°C then theoreticallydurability at higher temperatureswill increase.”Fleming says NorthStar’sresearch programme is not focusedon a single issue, but is looking atcomponents in the round. “We'veisolated five or six components, beit electrochemical or mechanical,and we are exploring each one.“Of the areas we areconsidering, I have the mostconfidence that we've solved thepositive grid corrosion problem.That's the one that gives me leastconcern, getting the correct grainstructure etc. has been pretty welladdressed.“I have concerns about the valvebeing able to operate at elevatedtemperatures for a long time.Obviously the role of the negativeexpander is critical,you have to maintaina healthy negative,and there's a lot ofunderstanding requiredthere.”Fleming says NorthStarhas been working on it fortwo years. “It will be awhile yet before we get to theproduct development stagesimply because the testing is soprotracted. If you develop along‐life product, then in order toascertain whether you've made animprovement you typically have totest it for one year. This is one ofthe big problems we face.”bestmagazine // Autumn 2014
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estshowreport 61Germany’s lithium-ion weltmeister ambitions:A reality checkLaura Varriale visits Stuttgart’s World of Energy Solutions and finds the reality aboutGermany’s lithium-ion manufacturing ambitions fall far short of the rhetoric.After being footballweltmeister and exportweltmeister, Germany wantsto be a world leader in lithium‐ionbattery production. While Germanyis an eager beaver and has done itshomework thoroughly, this looks tobe a bridge too far.The World of Energy Solutionstrade fair and conference with itsparallel Battery+Storage, e‐mobilBaden‐Württemberg and f‐cell (fuelcell) events aim to provide, as thename suggests, solutions. Takingplace in Stuttgart, in Germany’swealthiest region, with BMW,Daimler, Porsche, Bosch and manymore as major employers, thegrowing trade show and conferencewas attended by 2,700 people from35 nations.The internationalWorld of EnergySolutions tradeshow andconferenceattracted 2,700industry visitors.Of course there were a lot ofmentions about the Energiewende,or energy turnaround, which isGermany’s self‐imposed task tobe an energy, yes, weltmeister.But a solution is not that easy. TheGerman government’s long‐termgoal is to replace fossil fuels withrenewables as her primary powersource, but the Energiewendeis more than that. It needs aturnaround in energy as well asmobility.In fact, there are severalpossible solutions for mobility,power and energy. Energy storageis one of them and possibly themost promising, was the consensusview among the delegates.The technology, it seems,is also set. Lithium‐ion. TheBattery+Storage conference partwas almost entirely dedicated tolithium batteries. There were a fewpresentations about flow batteriesand none for lead‐acid.bestmagazine // Autumn 2014
62 bestshowreportA recurring refrain was thatlithium‐ion mass productionshould take place as soon aspossible. Eric Maiser, managingdirector productronic fromGerman mechanical engineeringassociation Verband DeutscherMaschinen‐ and Anlagenbauer(VDMA), said that nickel‐cadmiumand redox batteries will have afuture, but lithium‐ion batteriesis “the first and only choice” forxEVs and will completely replacelead‐acid in stationary energystorage systems.The global lithium‐ion batterybusiness is expected to be worth€30 billion ($38 billion) by 2020with a 15% annual growth rate,according to Werner Tillmetz,head of the electrochemicalenergy technologies division atZSW (Zentrum für SonnenenergieundWasserstoff‐ForschungBaden‐Württemberg) in Ulm.But there is one problem withlithium. It is too expensive. Thisis nothing new, but it is puzzlingthe industry to find out how todecrease the costs. Battery costsare €1,000 ($1,266) per kWh inGermany, whereas cell packs in theUS, manufactured in China, cost$200 per kWh.“You are preventing theintroduction of lithium‐ionstorage with these prices,” saidProfessor Eicke Weber, directorof the Fraunhofer Institute forSolar Energy Systems. “Thatdoesn’t make sense. Why not buythe $200 batteries, test them,certify them and then sell them for$500 here?”There is no big German massproduction project for lithium‐ionin sight. So far, there are only pilotlines in Germany. The VDMA, theFraunhofer Institute and RWTHAachen University have published aroadmap to lead the way for scale‐up.But the roadmap has identified 15so‐called ‘red brick walls‘ that have tobe broken through.Professor EickeWeber, director ofFraunhofer Institutefor Solar EnergySystems.Prices will decrease when thecells are mass‐produced, says theroadmap. Good old economies ofscale. With big deals comes thescale‐up. No big deals, no scale‐up.How to kick off mass production,then?“You have to stick to onetechnology,” says VDMA’s Maiser,“to achieve better quality whileincreasing costs”. Yet the Germanbattery industry itself is not readyto invest millions in productionfacilities, let alone billions likeTesla. Germany lacks big consortiathat can afford these sums or anenfant terrible like Elon Musk.Tesla was mentioned in almostevery session about batteries.The speakers admired theunconventional business model,but there will not be a Tesla‐likeproject in Germany any time soon.Turning JapaneseThe good news is that theknow‐how is there. But the accessto international‐scale projectsand the ability to offer completeline production are importantrequirements for the competitiveness,especially for German batterymachinery suppliers, is not.The ZSW inaugurated alarge‐scale pilot line for lithium‐ionproduction in September withGerman equipment only. Under realindustrial conditions, the batteryresearch centre aims to assure thatthe quality of the equipment is goodenough for scale‐up. “When westarted everything, many batteryexperts told us: ‘If you want to build astate‐of‐the‐art production line, youhave to use Asian machines’,” saidZSW’s Tillmann.The ZSW followed the adviceand ordered equipment fromJapan. “When we conducted testsand looked at specifications, wefound out that we already haveexcellent equipment in Germany.We don’t have to hide behind Asiancompanies. German engineeringbestmagazine // Autumn 2014
estshowreport 63knows how to do things”.BASF, BMW, Daimler, RockwoodLithium, SGL Carbon and Siemenswill start using the Ulm researchplatform for the first projects inJanuary 2015. Initial tests arealready underway.German engineering giantSiemens has developed anoperating data and automationprogramme for production controland documentation in orderto standardise the productionprocess, a procedure common inother industries. The company istesting it at ZSW.Although Germany is jealousof Asia’s lead in lithium‐ion cellmanufacturing for consumer,automotive and industrialapplications, the industry andresearch speakers were fairlyoptimistic in the ability to catch up.But Pierre Blanc from Swiss lithum‐ionbattery company Leclanché offeredthe German optimists a strong doseof reality.It is simply too late to catch up,he said. But, in fairness, Blanc saidthere were opportunities for Europeanand US battery makers to enter themarket for new cell formats and nichemarkets, thanks to a strong researchtradition, especially in Europe.The market for industrialapplications might be easier toaccess for the expensive Germanbatteries, because it is not as pricesensitive as automotive. Whereas cellmanufacturing is predominantly donein Asia, module manufacturing forstationary, industrial or automotiveapplications is done locally inEurope. This is also due to the marketdemand.Blanc also challenged popularmisconceptions about Germany’sperceived high labour costs. Forbattery manufacturing, these are notthe costs that play a major role for thecell price, he said. The materials aretoo expensive and the only solutionfor that is scale‐up, he thinks. Anda scale‐up has to come with anoptimised production process.“Reduction of the dry room areameans reductions of running costs.We don’t set up a production line in adry room, that’s simply too costly,” hesaid. A production line takes up about6,000 square metres, and that isimpossible to put that in a dry room.Blanc suggested in‐line dryingprocesses to cut production costs.“This will save you a few percent thatcan make you profitable.” The reasonwhy Europe lags behind, lies alsoin the standards, Blanc explained.Europe has high industry standards,which sets the entry barrier high.All the speakers, independentof where they come from, hadsomething in common. They wantgovernments to continue theirfinancial and regulatory support,whether for emission‐free cities,research programmes like theZSW or building infrastructurefor EV mobility. “Especially cellmanufacturing and machineryhave to be supported,” said Blanc.“Continuing supports will give thewhole industry the chance to growand take a part in the overall growingmarket.”In a discussion about next‐genautomotive batteries, chaired byJörg Huslage, group leader forPeter Haan,spokespersonof VDMA batteryproduction &head of businessdevelopmentOEM industries atSiemens.electrochemistry at Volkswagen,a member of the audience askedwhy Volkswagen is not producinglithium‐ion batteries in a similarpartnership like Tesla with Panasonic,especially as it wants to focuson lithium‐ion for EVs and thinkslithium batteries are needed as soonas possible. Huslage replied: “Ifsomeone would tell me that you canearn actual money from producingthem, then we would.” So no‘Gigafactory’ from Volkswagen!The industry has to pay upfrontcosts, there is no way out of that.And return on investments will beyears away. Who will be willing tofinancially take the risk of building upthis industry to volumes that allowit to be competitive and enable theentire value chain to gain a similarlevel of experience and a track recordthat the Asian‐based companies havereached?There’s a need for speed.Germany has to speed up if it wantsto be a star. The country and itsweltmeister dreams of football,exports and lithium‐ion massproduction could be achievable.But someone has tohave the guts tospend upfrontcosts.bestmagazine // Autumn 2014
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estshowreport 67Energy storage:Regulation, regulation, regulationThe Editor attended the UK Institution of Mechanical Engineers’ one-day energy storageconference and finds some optimism, despite concerns over costs.Distribution networksare widely seen as asweetspot for energystorage. Why build a newsubstation, install a transformer,or erect a new overhead line,when batteries in a containercan reinforce grids with real andreactive power and be installed ina matter of a few days?And if those same batterysystems can also providebalancing services such asfrequency response, voltagecontrol and peak shaving ontop, you would have a veryuseful asset. This is what severaldistribution network operators(DNOs) told delegates at theUK Institution of MechanicalEngineers’ excellent energystorage conference in Birminghamon 23 September.DNOs such as Scottish &Southern Energy (SSE), UKPower Networks, Western PowerDistribution and Northern PowerGrid all presented results fromLeft to right:Nigel Bessant,SSE, Ben Godfrey,WPD, Nick Winser,National Grid.various projects funded underthe UK’s LCNF. The resultswere mixed. Not so much froma technical perspective ‐ thebenefits of battery energy storageare real and they are generatinguseful benchmark data – butspeaker after speaker saidthe business case for storage– even with full subsidy – arechallenging.SSE’s head of future networksNigel Bessant spoke on its‘community energy storage’project on a new housingdevelopment near Slough in thecounty of Berkshire. Here, SSEinstalled three 25kW single‐phaseDow Kokam lithium‐ion storagesystems for 100 customers, manywith rooftop PV. The batteriesavert the need for more cablesfurther down the network froma substation and offer peakshaving.Bessant was particularlyimpressed with the reactivepower capability of the inverter,which can help manage voltageby injecting reactive currents.This seems to bear about allthose ideas about energy storagesystems being able to import/export wind power with storagewhile modifying voltage usingreactive power.SSE has also worked on alarger, three‐phase project indown the road in Bracknell. TheThames Valley Vision projectcomprises twenty‐five 12.5kWhthree‐phase energy storage unitsand three 12kVA power electronicunits.Bessant highlighted achallenge that does not typicallyconfront utilities is partialstate of charge. Energy storagesystems need to be optimizedto charge/discharge, whichneeds forecasting and verygood algorithms, which weredeveloped by the University ofOxford and the University ofReading.SSE found only need to usebestmagazine // Autumn 2014
68 bestshowreportstorage 5% of the time to geta 25% reduction in peak. Thisopens the door to making use ofthe batteries for other services.Bessant also noted that 80% ofthe cost is battery, 20% powerelectronics, so if you get away withusing fewer batteries, will help tomake numbers stack up.However, the project was “justabout feasible” with Low CarbonNetwork Fund money. Bessantsays that although Three Valleyswas a £30m bespoke installationwith bespoke algorithms, the aimis for it to be “repeatable” acrosstheir networks. “Let’s see how itgoes,” he says. Yes, let’s.Northern Power Grid hasinstalled six A123 lithium ion‘nano’‐phosphate battery storagesystems across its networks,equivalent to 7.4MWh. At acombined cost of £54m, thesesystems are used to bolster weakareas of its network.The largest of these, a2.5MW/5MWh facility at its RiseCarr high voltage substation nearDarlington in County Durham,is used for peak shifting andreduce thermal constraints on thetransformer.While this was a technicalsuccess, Northern Power Gridis less than enthused with theeconomics of energy storage.“It’s nowhere near economic,”says network technology projectmanager Ian Lloyd. “The cost ofthe 5MWh system was £4m, or£800/kW, a very high figure fornetwork assets.“To cover even the inherenttechnical losses of a storagesystem [battery storage systemsare net consumers and have around‐trip efficiency of around85%], it needs to buy and sellthe full range of services, butcannot due to electricity tradingrestrictions imposed on DNOs.”DNOs seem less than keen toown storage assets”Western Power Distribution(WPD) low‐carbon engineer BenGodfrey said installing its ProjectFalcon energy storage systemsin Milton Keynes was a steeplearning curve. DNOs are usedto cramming in copper wiresin substations; cramming inbatteries is not wise.WPD has had to learn aboutventilation, safety (thermalrunaway, of course), interfacing DCwith AC, and noise pollution. AsGodfrey said, these are not thingsyou want sat next to a block offlats operating at 1am…Source: Smart Control of ESMUs (Energy Storage and Management Units)by Nigel Bessant, Scottish and Southern Energy Power Distributionbestmagazine // Autumn 2014
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estshowreport 71So was Project Falcon useful?For WPD the usefulness lies inbeing able to sweat its assets byincreasing utilization from 80%to above 90%. Godfrey was alsokeen on the advanced invertersimproving harmonics.But, as always, it comes downto costs and even if a positivecase can be found by stackingup all the revenue streams frombalancing services and costsavings from investment deferral,DNOs seem less than keen to ownstorage assets.Godfrey said an ideal solutionwould be to rent mobile storagesystems mounted on trailers,which could be plugged in for afew weeks at a time at times ofsystem stress. Alternatively, itcould buy a small fleet of mobilesystems to moved around itsnetwork as needed or, perhaps,“share” them with third parties,who would aggregate them andtrade electricity/grid services.UK Power Networks is now inthe final stages of commissioningof its flagship batteryenergy storage project – the6MW/10MWh Leighton Buzzardsystem featuring SamsungSDI lithium‐ion. The rationalefor Leighton Buzzard is to usestorage as an alternative tobuilding a third overhead line tocope with peak demand.The 765m2 facility ‐ the sizeof three tennis courts – is amini‐power station, featuring50,000 cells (12 x 264 strings)and 230 tonnes of equipmentinside a cladded building raisedtwo metres off the ground.The plant is heavily insulatedwith thick foam and featuresdouble acoustic louvers.Needless to say this required afull planning process, always aheadache for any developer.While this is very muchgold‐plated project from atechnical standpoint, it isperhaps of most interest forits commercial, or at leastsemi‐commercial, tradingwww.alfakutu.com+90 212 875 13 70High quality plastic partsfor lead-acid batterymanufacturers since 1977fulya@alfakutu.com Birlik Sanayii Sitesi 1 - Cadde No 70-72 - Beylikduzu - Istanbul 34524 - Turkeybestmagazine // Autumn 2014
72 bestshowreportarrangements. London‐basedelectricity trader Smartest Energyis providing UK Power Network’sindirect route to the wholesalemarket and dictate the operatingprofile according to their tradingpositions.Meanwhile, third partydemand response provider KiWiPower will aggregate capacityfrom the system to providebalancing services such as ShortTerm Operating Reserve to helpNational Grid cope at times ofhigh demand.One drawback of usingbatteries to provide theseservices, as opposed to say, adiesel generator, is the difficultyin guaranteeing continualresponses due to lower stateof charge. Further, as UKPN isconsuming power to chargethe batteries, it is liable forrenewable energy feed‐in tariffslevies on that power even thoughit is being used to timeshiftconsumption at a cheaper period.Something for the regulator toremedy.As was pointed out, DNOs areused to fix‐and‐forget coppercables and transformers, whichrequire little maintenance andmay last 40‐80 years. Batteryenergy storage systems requireannual maintenance checks ‐which require downtime – andcould last only 20 years at best.The immediate prospects forenergy storage are not great.The LCNF money has been spentand DNOs expect little if anyinvestment in similar projects forthe rest of the decade.Prospects for other forms ofenergy storage, such as pumpedhydro, seem similarly dim. SSEhas proposed building a 600MWpumped hydro facility, Coire Glas,to the northwest of Loch Lochynear Lochaber at an estimatedcost of £600m. However, buildingpumped hydro plants is likely tobe extremely challenging from aplanning point of view due to theirlocation in protected areas andengineering characteristics.But despite the cost‐benefitworries there was plenty ofhope in Birmingham. What isclear is it needs strong politicalsupport, as seen from that centreof the energy storage universe,California.The Sunshine State hasmandated its three largeinvestor‐owned utilities –Southern California Edison, PacificGas & Electric and San Diego Gas& Electric ‐ to procure 1.325GW ofenergy storage by 2020.Towards the end of theconference, California PublicUtilities Commissioner CarlaPeterman ‐ via Skype ‐ showedthe way: get the regulator to seta big fat target and get electricityconsumers to stump up the cost.The UK Electricity StorageNetwork wants to see a 2GW targetfor 2020. While the UK Departmentof Energy Climate Change isunlikely to adopt a target thisside of next May’s GeneralElection, there was hope the nextGovernment might be interested.Despite the cost concerns,delegates went away thinking that,with a firm push from the centre,grid energy storage in the UK mightjust have a future.bestmagazine // Autumn 2014
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estprofile 75It’s all gone now.Hasn’t it?The UK's Warwickshire was once aworld‐class centre of automotive engineeringbut its former glory is a distant memory.Laura Varriale visits the High ValueManufacturing Catapult at the University ofWarwick to learn of attempts to capitalize onthe opportunity offered by electric vehicles.The British motor industrywas born in Coventry in thecounty of Warwickshire. In1897 a clever man named HarryLawson saw the potential of the carand converted a cotton spinningand weaving factory to producethe Coventry Daimler, Britain’s firstmotor car.Many of Britain’s famouscarmakers originate from this city inthe English West Midlands. Jaguar,Rover, Land Rover, Austin, Triumph,Healey and more had roots inCoventry.In its pre‐war golden era,Coventry was UK’s version ofMotown, but much of it has longgone. Jaguar Land Rover (JLR),now owned by India’sTata Motors,Above: (left)Paul Blackmore,project manager atWMG and (right)Mark Amor‐Segan,principal engineer atWMG.continues to be a major globalforce, but in general the area’sgolden era is a fast fading memory.Like Detroit, it is not like it usedto be. But efforts are underway torefresh the area’s automotivemarket, and these efforts includebattery technology for electric andhybrid vehicles.Perhaps the most eye‐catchingof the UK government’sinitiatives is the£1 billion ($1.6 billion) AdvancedPropulsion Centre (APC), a 50:50public‐private project to “research,develop and commercialisetechnologies for the vehicles of thefuture”. The APC, which has thebacking of Bentley, BMW,JLR, Nissan, Fordand 22bestmagazine // Autumn 2014
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estprofile 79project manager at WMG. “Thereare other businesses in the UK thatcan do these individual tests, butnot in a one‐stop‐shop fashion.”Testing, testingWMG also has extensiveperformance testing capabilities forevaluating lithium batteries andother energy storage technologiesthat companies might want to use.WMG can evaluate all aspectsof performance encompassingelectrical, thermal and mechanicalbehaviour.large. For example, universitiescome in, work out all processeswith us, all small scale materialsand move over to large scale, so wecan produce four reels of material,which are representative of whatyou would find in the industry.”The most important testsare related to battery thermalbehaviour, says Amor‐Segan.“Temperature management isa key factor,” he says. “Poorthermal management can have adramatic impact on reliability andlife‐span. We are able to evaluatethe effectiveness of batterythermal management and coolingstrategies.”WMG is currently working withits close partner Tata to studythermal effects on battery cellsand systems. “We’re working on athe effects of temperature, lowstate‐of‐charge charge, highstate‐of‐charge, compression thataffects the AC ripple and so on.“When you look at the research,there are probably 15 or 20 differentmechanisms from which only fouror five are well understood anddocumented. What we need to do,is to understand the remainingmechanisms,” says Amor‐Segan.“We have a lot of equipment thatallows us parallel testing of up to18 months so we can achieve in 18months or two years what wouldotherwise take many years. We arestarting different ageingtests soon, whichwill occupy a“We can test specialrequirements and underreal conditions,” says MarkAmor‐Segan, principal engineer atWMG.“Some universities areapplication‐oriented, some dofundamental research,” he says.“We are sort of sitting in themiddle. We are specialised inthe integration side. We bringboth sides together and do theperformance evaluation andsystem optimisation.“The key message is small toA chemistry laboratoryis located at themezzanine floor.battery project for cell chemistriesin hot environments, such asIndia,” says Blackmore. “Tata’sinterest is in batteries for hotplaces and all the challenges thatthat brings with it: higher energydensities and safer batteries in hotclimates.”WMG’s Vehicle Energy Facility,funded by the European RegionalDevelopment Fund, comprises twolinked dynamometers for hybridpowertrain testing, battery cyclersand thermal chambers that enableto test in a controlled environment.The dynamic lithium batteryindustry brings new technologiesand creates the need for testingprocedures. Lithium‐ion cells’different ageing mechanismsdemand more equipment tomonitor precise evaluation oflot of our testing devices.That’s also why we have so muchequipment, which is unusual foran academic facility. We are at ourcapacity now. I’m looking to doubleour capacity, the equipment andput another mezzanine in,” headds.Most of the temperature testequipment was purchased throughCatapult funding.Coventry: The new EV Motown?Blackmore is all too aware Britainhas to catch up in the electricvehicle (EV) battery market. “TheJapanese, Koreans and Chinese arein the lead for lithium‐cell materialsfor 20 years now,” he says.bestmagazine // Autumn 2014
estprofile 81management and, last but notleast, transport (except aviation).Of course, it is not the carmanufacturers’ fault that Britain isbehind of a lot of Asian countries inthe EV industry. It is a problem thatyou can see all over Europe.Money and legislation are thePaul Blackmore andproject engineerMarcus Jahn at thepouch cell stackingmachine.key factors for the success of newtechnologies in mass production.Something that the Britishgovernment is now trying to achieveand has to, if it wants to stick to therules of the European Union.With a battery scale‐up line,including a battery characterisationlaboratory and an electric/hybrid test facility to enableindustrial‐scale testing at its EnergyInnovation Centre, the WMG facilityseems ideal. The connections arethere and almost more important:the location has its great historythat the government now wants toreenact.Bringing R&D and industrytogether is nothing new but it isessential for success. But can thegovernment catch up 20 yearswith funding? There is a chance,because the APC and Catapultcentres are thinking in the longterm.But will it be enough; willbillions of funding paid bytaxpayers be justified?, Asiangovernments, especially China,are also funding their R&D centres,in order to bring its technologycentres further and extend the lead,if you want to see it as a race.It is good when new inventionsconquer the valley of death. But itis still uncertain how the marketresponse, which is so crucial, willbe. This is something that thegovernment cannot influence. But itis worth a try.Continuous Pasting Linefor all types of Grid-Meshsuch as Expanded or PunchedUncoilerTraction UnitDouble sidedPasting MachineNo belts+/- 1 to 2 grams / plateDividerAvailable as Turn-Key ProjectIncluding Leading Technologies in:Lead Oxide Production - Paste Mixing - Curing ChambersDrying OvenPlate StackerSince 1950 supplier of BATTERY MANUFACTURING EQUIPMENTHvidsvaermervej 135, DK-2610 Roedovre, Denmark - E-mail: mhc@accurate.dk - Phone:+45 44534546 fax:+45 44534505www.accurate.dkbestmagazine // Autumn 2014
estknowhow 83Finishing, storage and dispatch –The final frontier?So, you’ve finishing making your perfect lead-acid battery. What’s next?Quite a lot, actually, as lead-acid battery expert Dr. Mike McDonaghexplains in the 11th part of his step-by-step guide.We have now reached thestage when productionof carefully crafted,well‐designed lead‐acid batteriesis finished. They have just rolledoff the assembly line; they havepassed all the quality tests forevery component and are beingprepared for storage or dispatch.The hard work is finished and youcan now confidently relax in theknowledge that there is very littlethat can now go wrong. Ha!But the problems just don’t endthere. In many ways they are justbeginning. There is still the smallmatter of finishing and cleaning,which should be simple andstraightforward, but if not donecorrectly can give rise to massiveproblems. The finishing processshould ensure that all traces of thechemical processes are removed,from the external surface that is.There are still checks and tests tobe completed and organization ofstock to ensure that the batteriesare fit for purpose and will remainso, even if stored for long periodsbefore dispatch.The main areas for attentionare cleaning; wrapping for storageand dispatch; storage conditions;identification of the batteries, stockrotation; refresh charging policyand methods; cosmetic damagefrom handling; acid leaks resultingfrom incorrect filling practicesor lid designs incompatible withFigure 1:Effect of temperatureon self‐dischargerate of VRLAlead‐acid batteries.formation and filling methods.All this before it is even out of thedoor.To all producers and distributersof batteries, I say this. Take a tripto a customer’s premises to bepresent when a delivery from yourfacility is made. It could completelychange the perception of yourself‐image and certainly that of yourcustomers.There are a lot of considerationsfor battery storage that rely onthe properties and design ofthe battery. Some properties forconsideration are: self‐dischargerate; state of charge (SOC)required for delivery; impedancevalues for parallel connections;final destination requirements,particularly for public sale orfurther storage; refresh chargefrequency, the method of transportand stability of the batteries or cells% Self Discharge Per Monthon the pallet being transported andso on.The conditions in whichthe battery is being stored canalso determine whether or notrefresh charging is required orspecial packaging and/or layoutof the stored batteries is to beconsidered. Self‐discharge ratesand the effect of temperaturefor different lead acid batterytechnologies is an importantfactor in deciding how to equipa warehouse. Figure 1 showsthe effect of temperature on theself‐discharge of different batterytechnologies. It is also importantto understand the requirementsand conditions placed on batteriesin service. The margin between awarranty complaint and a personalinjury lawsuit can be the result ofsmall differences in the batteries’condition on dispatch.24Self Discharge Rate vs Temperature222018161412108642030 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 110 120 130Storage Temperature in Degrees Fbestmagazine // Autumn 2014
84 bestknowhowBattery finishingOne of the most important aspectsof finishing the battery is to ensurethat it is fit for purpose so thatit meets market requirements.That market can be the public forautomotive or leisure batteries,or the engineers and tradingcompanies who have to storeor fit the batteries into vehiclesor installations. In all of thesesituations, not only the batteryoutput and performance have to beconsidered but also the ergonomicand safety aspects of the finishedproduct. From the member of thepublic fitting a 12V monobloc intohis caravan for lighting, TV etc.,to the traction battery engineerwho has to manhandle 70Kg 2Vcells into the corroded tank of a 20year‐old fork lift truck, there has tobe a consideration for safety. Mostof the problems relate to dealingwith acid, both inside and outsideof the battery or cell.Looking at the acid insidethe cell, this is a deliberateaddition which plays a key role indetermining the performance andlife of the battery. In most cases thespecific gravity (SG) and quantityare carefully controlled, deliberateadditions. Acid on the outsidehowever, is a mistake and theresult of poor equipment and/orworking practices. For the purposesof understanding the causesof external acid and proposingsolutions, we can separate outthe monobloc style batteries fromthe 2V cells as groups with similarcharacteristics.For both groups the level orheight of the internal acid inthe battery or cell is achievedthrough a controlled process asboth a technical and a practicalrequirement. The external acidshould be entirely removed.However, aspects of the design, thefinishing equipment or proceduresused, along with the formation andacid filling processes can result inacid being retained either directlyon the outside, or contained inpockets inside the lid to come outlater during use or handling.Monobloc finishing, floodedcellsModern, flooded, monoblocbatteries have a variety of uses ‐mostly SLI and leisure applications.Many manufacturers are nowadopting a two‐part lid with anexplosion‐proof vent. One of theconsequences of this design isthe introduction of a labyrinth intothe upper part of the lid to preventacid from reaching the vent hole.However, this, and some singlepiece lid designs have to allow acidthat reaches this area to return tothe bulk electrolyte of the cell andto be evacuated from the lid.Superficially, this seems tobe a simple matter that can beachieved by good design, however,in practice, this simple requirementhas proved difficult to achieve. Thecause of the problem is basicallythat acid trapped in the labyrinthcan reach the vent area at theside of the battery. It can thenbe ejected out of the battery oncharge.Figure 2 shows the results ofthis, which resulted in a warrantyclaim from a customer. In thisparticular case, there was a lawsuitresulting from damage to thevehicle but thankfully not to thecustomer’s person. The causewas the result of several factors incombination: the level of acid in thebattery, the design of the vent plugand lid along with the two‐shot acidfilling process.Looking at each of these factorsin turn a picture emerges, whichis not obvious when they are allconsidered separately. Overfillinga battery is clearly an incorrectprocedure, but it can happen andthe manufacturer should be awareof this in the final stages beforewashing. A levelling device toFigure 2:Acid which isleaking from thevent hole of anautomative battery.This was returnedunder warranty witha claim for damageto the vehicle.remove acid after the final fillingpoint should be mandatory. Thiscan be incorporated into thefilling device but it is best if it isachieved by removal of electrolyterather than by inputting thecorrect amount. For the purposeof preventing acid ingress into thelid, the level of acid, rather thanthe quantity, is a critical factor inequipment choice.It is also important to considerthe level of acid when the battery ison charge. Both the production ofgas and the increase in temperaturewill increase the volume of thecontained electrolyte. This volumeincrease will inevitably cause arise in the acid level. It is possiblethat this increase will be sufficientto allow ingress into the lid space.This is more likely if the battery isinstalled into a moving vehicle.Acid trapped in the lid fromthe production processes, orfrom excessive movement in use,should fall back into the batterycompartment. Examination ofseveral lid designs where thisproblem has shown the acid shouldfall back into the cell compartmentand not reach the exit port of thelid. Additionally, electrolyte levelswere not high enough to pushAcid clearly visiblebeing pushed outof the vent holeunder internalgas pressureresulting fromnormal alternatorcharging voltage.Acid spillageafter less than 15minutes chargeat 14.4 volts.bestmagazine // Autumn 2014
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estknowhow 87electrolyte into the lid even withnormal vehicle movement. Theremust be a reason why the acid inthis case was able to be retained inthe lid and reach the exit port of theexplosion proof vent.A mechanism for this, wherebyacid could reach the lid exit port,was investigated by checkingvarious conditions of operation.This included examination ofvarious electrolyte levels, chargingconditions and the temperatureof the battery. It was found thatif acid was deposited in the lid,for a variety of reasons, whichinclude the manufacturing process,pressure from gas evolution atcharging voltages of 14.4V forseveral hours could cause dropletsof acid to be pushed along thelabyrinth towards the exit port.These droplets can accumulate atthis point, and dependent uponthe lid design and temperature,can ingress into the explosionproof vent plug and then, underthe pressure of gas evolved duringcharging, be ejected out of thebattery.The way to prevent this isfor the battery manufacturersto understand the limits of thelabyrinth design and for the lidmanufacturers to appreciate theprocesses whereby the acid canreach and be ejected from thebattery lid. Careful control over thefilling processes, elimination of theentrapment during formation andInternal labyrinthwith curved edges toreduce the possibiltyof acid being trappedin sharp corners.New design of cellplugs allows easyreturn of acid from allparts of the labyrinth.Flame arrestorhousing, designed toallow acid to returnwithout forming a trap.Figure 3:Example of a lidwith an improveddesign to preventacid traps andeliminate acidspillage from thevent holes. (Pictureprovided by Biasin).ensuring that, during charging, thelevels of electrolyte do not reacha critical height. Specification ofthe charger parameters is alsorequired to guarantee acid will notbe ejected from the battery. All thisis the responsibility of the batteryproducer.Equally, the lid manufacturershould invest the time andresources to fully appreciate theconditions under which this acidentrapment can occur and designlids that minimize the possibilityof acid reaching the exit ports.One example of this commitmentto improve lid design is thenewly patented lid design of theItalian company, Biasin. Figure 3shows the design and operatingprinciple.Dealing with the residualexternal acid is a differentmatter. This is almost entirely aprocess‐related phenomenon,although design improvementsto the monobloc box and lidcannot be ruled out. In nine outof ten cases of external acidbeing found on the battery afterfinishing, the causes are theformation and filling processes.While it is difficult to prevent acidcontamination from a two‐shotformation schedule, it should bepossible to minimize acid spillagefrom the filling processes bothbefore and after the batteries areformed.This is important, particularlyas modern batteries have so manyfeatures to improve the ease ofuse. There are many areas thatcan hold acid and make it difficultfor automatic battery washingmachines to reach these parts. Thecritical points are the undersidesof the battery parts that formprojections, such as the handles,or lid projections with holes forrope handles. This is furthercomplicated by batteries beingdifferent heights, widths, lengthsand configurations.The other important aspectfor battery finishing is the dryingmethod. It is not good to store ortransport wet batteries, particularlyif they are to be shrink or stretchwrapped individually or on a pallet.There can be cosmetic effects suchas watermarks, or hydrated leadlayers on the terminals, as well aspossible tracking across terminals,particularly with batteries onpallets covered with plastic shrinkwrap or stretch wrap. This is morelikely where there are significanttemperature variations betweennight and day. Water evaporatingin the day will be held in the palletpack by the plastic wrap sheet thencondense at night and drip onto thesurface of the batteries.Wet batteries can causein‐service problems with trackingparticularly in the case where thereis some acid contamination andhigh voltages and currents arerequired. Likely candidate areas forproblems are high voltage seriesparallel installations, such as UPSand standby power. Further downthe commercial chain, batteriessold to the public as leisure or SLIdemand that no surface acid isfound on the outside of the battery,for obvious reasons.Batteries delivered in boxes withdamp edges have been known tobe rejected. I have even been calledto a UK port where a container ofbatteries was impounded becausea worker saw acid leaking fromunder the door of the container.Thankfully, I had pH paper anddemonstrated it was neutral andtherefore water. Where did thewater come from? The containerwas loaded in India during the rainyseason.A list of post finishing qualitychecks is presented in Table 1.Normal test equipment wouldinclude: multimeter, hydrometer,pH indicator or paper, impedancemeter and high rate dischargetester.bestmagazine // Autumn 2014
88 bestknowhowGap between lead pillarand the grommet top.Finishing for monoblocs withimmobilsed electrolyteThe main difference betweenflooded batteries and those withimmobilized electrolyte is theinability to measure the electrolytestrength and make adjustmentsafter final filling of batteries withimmobilized electrolyte. However,the surface cleanliness andwashing methods are identical.Additionally, it is very unlikely tofind acid leaking from the lid asthe system is completely sealed.Problems can occur in‐service if theelectrolyte strength is incorrect andthe filling process not consistent.For VRLA batteries the chargingmethod is always voltage limited toprevent excessive gassing. It is notpossible under these conditions toequalize cells that are out of stepdue to differences in SG or quantityof acid. Great care has to be takento ensure that both AGM and gelbatteries have the same amountand strength of acid in each cell ofa monobloc.Of course it goes without sayingthat the amount of active materialin each cell should be equallyconsistent. Cells that go out ofstep, particularly in cyclic dutyThreaded brass insert.Acid ingress and reservoir.batteries, are common causes ofbattery failure. The more consistentthe capacities and SOC of eachcell, the longer the battery will last.This highly important parameterwill be discussed in more detail inthe next article looking at batteryapplications and design.2V cellsThere is a distinct differencebetween the cleaning problems formonobloc batteries and those of 2Vcells. The lid and box constructionfor 2V cells is a lot simpler thanthose of monobloc designs. 2Vcells are made to fit into containersor limited spaces, usually bylowering into a tight gap; they needto have smooth sides and no lidprojections. The lid does not haveto contain a handle, as they are notcarried or moved individually oncein place. They almost always formpart of a battery and are fixed into avehicle or installation.Although the plastic lidand container are a simpleconstruction, the majority of cellshave a grommet seal for the pillarsand in some cases there is a boltedconnection system. The bolt onsystem generally has a brass insertRubber Gasket.Lead pillar.Figure 4:Schematic ofcross section of athreaded tractionpillar with rubbergrommet, showinglocation of acid.Figure 5:Inadequatepre‐dispatchcondition for boltedtwo volt cells.into a lead pillar, which may or maynot be coated with another metalsuch as tin, lead or a lead tin alloy.This, of course, in the presence ofacid, is a recipe similar to that ofthe Japanese puffer fish meal. It issafe if you know what you are doingand are aware of where the dangerareas are. However, one small errorcan be fatal.Figure 4 shows a schematicof a typical bolted cell pillar andgrommet arrangement. As you cansee there are areas where the acidcan be trapped. Acid can and willenter these areas if conventionalcharging methods and inadequateconnectors are used. Figure 5shows a typical poor arrangementfor the formation of 2V tractioncells. The connections are notsealed and the vents are openallowing acid spray to reach theterminals.It does not take any realknowledge of electrochemistryto see the dangers of havingdissimilar metals in contact withacid. However, it is interesting tonote the additional factors inherentin this design, which make theproblem more insidious than is firstperceived. Again, taking Figure 4, itis obvious that an electrochemicalcell will be set up between leadand ANY other metal when acidis present. An acid proof coatingsuch as tin or solder will stillform an electrochemical cell withlead in the presence of acid. TheCorrosion already visible underthe connector before dispatch.bestmagazine // Autumn 2014
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estknowhow 91straightforward galvanic corrosionfor any metal (M) is as follows:Galvanic corrosionM + 2H + + SO 4‐+ Pb + =MSO 4 + Pb + 2H +Equation 1This reaction should go tocompletion once the sulphuricacid runs out and there shouldbe a limit to how much corrosionoccurs. This is not the case,however, and pillar corrosioncan be extensive. In this case thecorrosion product is not simplymetal sulphate. It is a complexhydrate and sulphate with a muchgreater volume than the originalmetal. The reactions behindthis are driven by two additionalfactors: the oxygen concentrationgradient and the cell voltage. Italmost invariably occurs on thepositive pole and, as it is a processthat removes electrons, it is clearlycorrosive and driven by the cellelectrochemistry.Differential aeration corrosionoccurs when a metal surfaceis exposed to differential airconcentrations or oxygenconcentrations. The part of themetal exposed to higher oxygenconcentration acts as cathodicregion. The part of the metal notexposed with a lower oxygenconcentration, acts as an anodicregion. Consequently, poorlyoxygenated region undergoescorrosion.Differential oxygen concentrationcorrosionAt the anode(low O 2 concentration),M = Mn + + neEquation 2At the cathode(high O 2 concentration),H 2 O + ½ O2 + 2e‐ = 2OH ‐ Equation 3Figure 6:Self‐dischargemechanism onthe negative plateaccording to Pavlov.Source:Lead‐Acid Batteries:Science andTechnology, Scienceand Technology.Because we also have sulphuricacid present, producing H+ ionsfrom the galvanic corrosion, wehave a source to replenish thewater when equations 1 and 3 arecombined as follows:2OH ‐ + 2H + = 2H 2 OPbV2e - c2H +H 2 SO 4 solutionV aPb Pb 2+ + SO 2- 4 H 2 SO 4PbSO 4V c = V aEquation 4There is some confusion withinthe industry as to why tractionpillars with bolted inserts sufferfrom corrosion. In some quartersand certainly going back to thelate 1980s and early 1990s, it wasbelieved that the acid would creepup the pole, through the grommetseal and end up in the top of thepillar in contact with the brassinsert. Many weird and wonderfuldesigns involving screw fit insertsand compressed grommets foundtheir way into the market, all ofwhich were designed to preventacid coming up from underneaththe lid. The use of the push fitgrommet shown in Figure 4 still hasthe problem of external acid ingressand subsequent corrosion.The best washing method iswater, preferably a water jet toget underneath the top of thegrommet seal and ensure that acidis removed from the brass/leadinterface. However, it is also usefulto remove the water, commonlywith a compressed air jet. Thisis an expedient and not goodPbSO 4 crystalspractice due to the potential hazardof the spray and the inability tocompletely remove an aqueousmedium, which can promotecorrosion reactions throughdifferential aeration.The best, and in my view, theonly solution is to ensure thatthe acid does not get access tothe inside of the grommet orany part of the brass insert. Thisrequires proper connectors withrubber seals, which are thoroughlywashed with water after everyformation cycle. Not only willthe cell be safe in storage, butthe connector life will be greatlyextended. This is a proceduraland control issue rather thana technical matter. However,if you can afford to invest in arecirculating acid system asdescribed in a previous article,this is a very good technicalsolution.Storage: Self‐discharge ratesfor different technologiesFigure 1 shows the reliance ofself‐discharge rates on storagetemperature. The discharge rate isa function of the plate chemistry,electrolyte density and physicalstate (immobilized or free acid),separator material and design andthe concentration of impurities inthe electrolyte. All these factorsresult in a rate of self‐discharge orcoefficient of self‐discharge, whichis characteristic of a particularbattery design.This can be ascertained bymeasurement of capacity lossover a period of time. Since it isan electrochemical process it islikely to be temperature dependentand non‐linear. However,considering an isothermal case, theself‐discharge coefficient can bedefined as SD where:1 ∆CSD = ×c0 ∆tC0 is the starting capacity, ∆C is thebestmagazine // Autumn 2014
92 bestknowhowchange in capacity over time ∆tThe result of this afterdifferentiation and assumingisothermal conditions is:Ct = C0 exp (1‐SD * ∆t)This gives an asymptotic curveapproaching 0 as ∆t approacheslarge values of years or more. Theeffect of temperature, as shownin Figure 1, is based on an AGMbattery and is supplied by C&DTechnologies. It is real data and apractical guideline.So what are the causes ofself‐discharge and how is itaffected by battery design andstorage conditions? As the nameimplies it is the conversion of theactive masses PbO2 and Pb to leadsulphate PbSO4 with no appliedload. Taking the positive andnegative plates in turn:Positive:PbO 2 + 4H + + SO 42 ‐ +2e= PbSO 4 + 2H 2 OH 2 O = 1/2O 2 + 2H + + 2eNegative:Pb +SO 42‐2H + + 2e = H 2= PbSO4 + 2edesign and plate chemistry affectthe rate of self‐discharge.Plate chemistryThe grid alloy and additives to theplates can affect the rate at whichthe sulfation reaction occurs.There is also the added effect ofM+ ions migrating to the negativeand plating out by reduction. Thisconsumes electrons and effectivelytransfers the charge from thepositive plate to the negative plate.Shelf‐life of lead‐acid batterieshas increased substantially overthe last 20 years principally as aresult of reducing or eliminatingantimony from the grid alloy. It isthought that antimony has the dualeffect of creating a porous interfacestructure between the active massand the grid as well as migratingfrom the positive to the negativeplate and causing self‐discharge asdescribed above.There are long standingcandidates that are often accusedof increasing stand losses forlead‐acid batteries. However, as6050Figure 7:Effect of acidconcentration andconducting gridmaterial on theself‐discharge rateof lead‐acid batteryplates.pointed out in a previous articleon grid alloys, new evidence fromALABC suggests that we mayhave been wrong in some of ourassumptions. However, takingas an example iron, this elementcan discharge both positive andnegative plate when in the divalentand trivalent states respectively.PbO 2 + 3H + + HSO 4‐+ 2Fe 2+= PbSO 4 + 2H 2 O + 2Fe 3+Pb + HSO 4 ‐ + 2Fe 3+= PbSO 4 + + 2Fe 2+ + H +As is evident, there is a type ofshuttle process with the same ionsbeing transported back and forthbetween the plates, probably drivenby diffusion, or perhaps they hitcha ride to the positive plate on largeroppositely charged particles. Theobvious conclusion is that a smallconcentration can have a big effect.Apart from metallic ionsthere are also present organicand non‐metallic additives,predominantly in the negativeActive material in plate with 4% Sb gridFigure 6 shows a schematicrepresentation of the negativeself‐discharge phenomenon.Evidently, these reactions willdilute the acid and also creategas. So for flooded batteries it ispossible to measure acid densityand also the amount of gas evolvedas a measure of self‐discharge.Additionally, the cell or batteryvoltage will also be dependentupon the SG of the electrolyte andis also used as a measure of stateof charge. This is the most commonmethod for flooded, sealed floodedand VRLA cells and batteries.So looking at these dischargemechanisms how does batteryPbSO 4 content, %4030Active material in plate with Pb-Ca grid2010Active material alone1.00 1.05 1.10 1.15 1.20 1.25 1.30 1.35H 2 SO 4 specific gravity, g.cm 4bestmagazine // Autumn 2014
estknowhow 93plate. The effect of theseadditives is to raise the hydrogenover‐potential above the singleelectrode potential of ‐0.12V.Generally they are beneficial.The separator can also affect theself‐discharge process by providingorganics, which can be oxidizedon the positive electrode. This isnot significant and the contactarea is usually small due to the ribconstruction, or even non‐existentdue to the use of glass mat. Thedistance between the plates andthe concentration of the electrolyteare also factors. The greater theplate spacing, the lower theself‐discharge rate.The effect of acid concentration,however, is less obvious. Figure 7TABLE 1:Recommendedquality checks tobe performed afterfinal cleaning andtesting and beforewrapping andstorage or dispatch.shows the results of a study carriedout by Pavlov showing the effectof acid SG on the self‐dischargerate of lead acid batteries. Threesituations were examined: platesmade with grids fabricated with anantimony alloy, plates made froma lead alloy grid and just activematerial without a grid support.While the active material alonebehaves predictably, that is,increasing acid concentration leadsto increased plate sulfation, theplates containing the lead alloysshow very different behaviour.There is insufficient space withinthis article to discuss the possiblemechanisms behind these results.However, it can be said that in bothcases it is best to keep the SG ashigh as possible and as close to thefully charged state as possible.Manufacturing batteries issimilar to having children: theymay have grown up and left home,but that does not mean you canforget about them or expect yourresponsibilities to be over. Even ifyou make ‘perfect’ batteries, thereare so many ways and so manyreasons why non‐performance ordamage can be laid at themanufacturers doorstep that it isimperative that you remove asmany reasons as possible from thelong list of standard complaintswhich are used to claimwarranties. Just remember:nothing is idiot proof, they will justinvent better idiots.Check Limits Reason Potential problem Cause RemedyTerminalacidPH 6‐8 Terminal Corrosion Complete loss ofconnection before deliveryAcid ingress intogrommet seal fromproduction processesWash thoroughly with waterand dry with compressed air.Acid SG(flooded)0.005 aboveor belowspecificationStand losses andfinal applicationrequirementsLow capacity, excessivestand loss, low CCA, inservice corrosion, possiblecharging problems.Incorrect formation,incorrect fillingacid before or afterformation.Initially charge until noSG changes occur thenadjust cell SG by partiallyremoving electrolyte andrefilling with 1.4 SG acid ordemineralised water. Keepcharging to thoroughly mixthe components.Acid level(flooded)Max height1 cm fromunderside ofthe lidTo prevent easyingress into the lidcavities andAcid leaks from the batterycausing property andequipment damage withpublic health riskAcid reaching the exitport of the lid labyrinthand venting systemthrough internal gaspressure during chargeThere is very little to remedythis situation if it has alreadyoccurred, if possible, removeany flame arrestors and tryto clear the acid out usinglow pressure compressedair. Ensuring that any acidspray from the opposite sideis safely contained is anessential requirement. Caremust be taken!Cell orbatteryvoltage0.05 Voltsabove or belowthe nominalfully chargedrest voltage.To ensure that thebattery is in a goodstate of charge andhas the correctSG/voltage beforestorage/shipping.May not perform ondelivery. May be underformedand self-dischargerapidly. It is an indicationof SOC and acid SG. LowSG will give low capacities,High SG will give chargingproblems and chargeacceptance.Low SG from secondfilling. Under-formeddue to rectifiermalfunction, low SGand high plate sulphatelevel.Make a high rate dischargetest to check the SOC. Ifunder-formed, continueformation. If wrong SG acid,then adjust SG.Pressure testNo leaks at0.2mbTo ensure that lidseal is undamagedfrom handlingprocessesAcid leaks and danger ofdamage or personal injuryInadequate heat sealingor handling damageReject the battery.bestmagazine // Autumn 2014
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indiantakeaway 95Panasonic's Indian ambitionsSouth Asian correspondent Dipak Sen Choudhury explores the potentially significant decisionby Panasonic to set up a lead-acid battery hub in India.In July, Panasonic formallyannounced the setting up a plantin India for the manufacture oflead-acid batteries to be mainlyused for automobiles and also indata centres. This is a part of theiroverall plan to use India as one oftheir strategic hubs and aggressivelyexpand the range of products it offers,both on the consumer side as well ason the business-to-business side.Though present in India for fourdecades, with a clutch of sevencompanies manufacturing an entirerange of electric equipment, thebattery interest has been rathersporadic.Manish Sharma, managing directorof Panasonic India & South Asia,said a feasibility study is underwayas to where the battery makingfactory should be located. Accordingto Sharma, it will be a standalonegreenfield project and the target isto have it up and running by 2016.At a planned investment of 2 billionrupees ($33 million) the operation,as envisaged now, does not seem tobe in a very large scale but shouldnevertheless be enough to take careof current Indian automobile OEmakers.Japanese car makers havetraditionally asked their ancillarysuppliers to move along with themwhenever they have moved out theirmanufacturing facilities to othercountries. With Suzuki, Toyota,Honda and Nissan all having majorproduction units in India, with eachhaving ambitious plans to ramp upexport of their cars to different partsof the world, it is imperative for criticalJapanese OE suppliers like batterymakers to set shop in the country.Until now Panasonic had beenbringing in some limited suppliesto India from their Thailand andChina units, mainly for automotiveapplications. For the Indian carbattery manufacturers this willbe a major wake-up call becausePanasonic as a brand name isenormously strong in the mind ofthe Indian populace. the advent ofthis brand in the aftermarket couldwell cause a major shift in userpreference.There is also a huge and growingmarket for UPS batteries particularly inthe large data centres that have comeabout all over the country. Thesecentres are to necessarily operatewith ‘zero down time’ mode and ina country like India that has hugelyunreliable mains power supply, majorcompanies have preferred to procuretheir battery supplies from Europeanand American manufacturers.Indian manufacturers of UPSbatteries have failed to generate,in the mind of the procurementteams of the critical users, thelevel of confidence that say, aDeka or a Panasonic battery aretypically associated with. This isan opportunity that Panasonic hassensed where its top-of-the-rangetechnology products can come inand fill the niche. The fact that thissegment is not particularly pricesensitive also helps.Overall, the entry of Panasonic inthe Indian market is welcome as it isbound to trigger a flurry of activityamongst existing players in thecountry. Advanced technology,consistent quality and better price iswhat eventually the country is goingto benefit from.bestmagazine // Autumn 2014
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estsupercaps 97Is graphene the magicsauce for supercapacitorsand batteries?IDTechEx’s Peter Harrop takes a detailed look at recent advancesin functional materials for supercapacitors, including graphene.As we all know, graphene isan allotrope of carbon in theform of a very thin, nearlytransparent sheet, one atom thick. Itis remarkably strong and electricallyconductive for its very low weightand its surface area is unrivalled.It has been shown to improvelithium‐ion batteries but it is not yetattracting major attention here.Lithium metal rechargeablebatteries involve metallic lithiumand therefore potentially safetyhazards and short operatinglife. Chinese researchershave commented on theirfundamentally new strategy forreviving rechargeable lithium (Li)metal batteries and enabling theemergence of next‐generation‘safe’ batteries featuring agraphene‐supported Li‐metalanode, including the highlypromising Li‐sulfur, Li‐air, andLi‐graphene cells with exceptionallyhigh energy or power densities.All the Li metal anode‐basedbatteries suffer from a highpropensity to form Li dendritesat the anode upon repeateddischarges/charges. A dendritecould eventually penetrate throughthe separator to reach the cathode,causing internal short‐circuitingand even explosion, the mainreason the battery industryabandoned rechargeable lithiummetal batteries in the early 1990s.By implementing graphenesheets to increase the anode surfaceareas, one can significantly reducethe anode current density, therebydramatically prolonging the dendriteinitiation time and decreasing thegrowth rate of a dendrite, if everinitiated, possibly by a factor of upto 10 10 and 10 5 , respectively.Improving supercapacitorsOn the other hand, grapheneelectrodes are one of thebest prospects for enablingsupercapacitors and theintermediate devices‘supercabatteries’ (notablylithium‐ion capacitors) to possiblytake as much as half of thelithium‐ion battery market in15 years – amounting to tens ofbillions of dollars a year.Yes, that is an outrageousstatement. However, considerhow they have already replacedlithium‐ion batteries in mosthybrid buses, the Toyota andRenault Formula One cars andthe Toyota Auris concept hybridcar. Something like that happensevery month now, even withone‐twentieth of the energy densityor worse, something graphenelooks set to greatly improve.In addition, their use acrosslithium‐ion batteries is nowcommonplace because it means youcan manage with a smaller, simpler,cheaper battery while improvinglife, performance and overall cost.Only a few years ago, most expertspreached that supercapacitors arepower components and nothing todo with batteries and their marketsbut now these components arecolluding and colliding. How wrongcan you get?Graphene may also be key to ACsupercapacitors, taking much ofthe multibillion dollar aluminiumelectrolytic capacitor business.That will make supercapacitors andmaybe supercabatteries one of thelargest applications for graphene, soit is now appropriate to look in somedepth at the research and technicalconsiderations in this respect.The basic options are shownin Figure 1 but, in reality, it isa continuum of options andcompromises that get designedin as the research gets moresophisticated.Actually, AEDLC is misleadingbecause some of the options fromcompanies such as Yunasko arefaradaic but symmetrical, andtherefore are sometimes calledhybrid supercapacitors, althoughwe prefer the term supercabatteryto avoid confusion with hybrid cars.Traditionally, supercapacitorsare improved in the manner shownin Figure 2.Source: IDTechEx report,Functional Materials forbestmagazine // Autumn 2014
98 bestsupercapsSupercapacitorSymmetricalELDC• Purely electrostaticin action• Entirely dependenton electrochemicaldouble layer at bothelectrodes creatingtwo capacitors inseriesPseudo-capacitor• Mainly dependenton pseudocapacitance e.g.;caused by reversibleredox reactionsnotably in aqueouselectrolytes butelectrode materialcan contributeSupercabatteryAEDLC• Usually onebattery‐likeelectrode and onesupercapacitorelectrodeUsually higher energy density and longer retention of chargeLower cost per unit of energy storedSupercapacitors/ UltracapacitorsEDLC 2015‐2025However, even the methodologytop‐centre in Figure 2 is beingusurped. In research, today’s‘hierarchical’ electrode structureswith an ever smaller hierarchyof pore structure – letting ionsfurther into monolithic masses ofcarbon – is giving way to often,but not always, better results from‘exohedral’ structures meaningones where the large functional areais created by allotropes of carbonoften only one atom thick suchUsually higher power density, longer cycle, calendar anduse life, shorter time constant, safer e.g.; full discharge fortransit and increasingly less toxic/not toxicMore easily formed into load‐bearing structures, skin,weavable fibre etc.as graphene, carbon nanotubesand nano‐onions (spheres withinspheres). Added to these are neweraerogels with uniform particles afew nanometers across.It is not simply an area game.The structure must be optimallymatched to the electrolyte, thenthe pair assessed not just forspecific capacitance (capacitancedensity) but voltage increase,because that also increases thecommercially important energydensity. Then again, at leastinitially, exohedral structuresLi‐ionBatteryFigure 1: Threebasic options forsupercapacitortechnology.EDLC=ElectrochemicalDouble LayerCapacitor;AEDLC=AsymmetricElectrochemicalDouble LayerCapacitor. Source:IDTechEx report,Functional Materialsfor Supercapacitors/Ultracapacitors EDLC2015-2025like graphene tend to improvegravimetric but not volumetricenergy density. That will cut offmany applications if it is notsolved or there is no work‐round.The best example of thelatter is planned structuralsupercapacitors where the devicereplaces dumb structures likecar bodies and laptop casing,taking effectively no volume,regardless of measured volumetricenergy density. Of course cost,stability, temperature performanceand many other parametersmust also be appropriate inall potential applications ofgraphene in supercapacitors andsupercabatteries.Indeed, for replacing electrolyticcapacitors, working at 120Hz is keyand in other applications, increasedpower density may be valuable butenergy density improvement is thebig one for sharply increasing theaddressable market – probablyaround 2025 or later.Graphene: A strong focusRecent developments by industrialcompanies demonstrate thatgraphene supercabattery asopposed to supercapacitor systemscan operate up to 3.7V with avery high cycle life and excellentpower performance. They tend tobe biased towards supercapacitorperformance because there areno longer two capacitors (doublelayers) in series. Chemicalbalancing is needed.There are far fewer companiesmaking these AEDLCs than EDLCsor lithium‐ion batteries, and themarket that lithium‐ion capacitorshas established so far is only at the$10m level. As they improve thatmay change, but a power engineerdesigning, say, a car may say thecompromise is locked in with asupercabattery, so they may prefera discrete supercapacitor acrossthe traction battery. Nonetheless,supercabatteries are improvingbestmagazine // Autumn 2014
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estsupercaps 101Influences power density by series resistancePrimary influence on cost due to processing:single stage creation of mesoporous materialneeded.Strongly influences energy density by accessibleactive area. Pore size, micropore volume andaverage pore size distribution can be key.Macropores larger than 50nmMesopores: 2 to 50nmMicropores: under 2nmAqueous optimal is 0.7nmPseudocapacitance can beadded via electrodesActiveElectrodeCarbon with bindersPore size must be matched to electrolyteion size. Most of the adsorption processtakes place in the range of micropores,with ions at least partly desolvated,whereas meso – and macropores playvery important roles in transporting theadsorbate to the microporesElectrolyteOne or moresolutes in one ormore solvents orionic liquid: just ionsStrongly influences power density by seriesresistance.Strongly influences energy density by voltageand psuedocapacitance can be added toboost it more. Aqueous electrolyte solutionscontaining redox active species (halides,vanadium, quinones) are best for this.Flammability, if any, comesfrom electrolyte.Toxicity comesfrom electrolyte.Influences power density by seriesresistance e.g. reduce aluminiumoxide on aluminium and improve geometry.Current Carriere.g. aluminiumfoil may have apre‐coatingAssemblyincludingseparator, ventand containmentInfluences power density.Strongly affects energy density.Intelligent engineering of electrodesand whole device is more effective thandesigning complicated nano structuredelectrode materials.and this combined product shouldbe the low‐cost approach wheresupercapacitor energy density isinadequate.Graphene gives some of thehighest energy densities in thelaboratory and it is particularlyeffective in exhibiting highspecific capacitance with thenew electrolytes – aqueous,with desirable low cost andnon‐flammability and ionicwith desirable simplifiedmanufacturing, high voltage,non‐flammability and exceptionaltemperature range.With aqueous electrolytes,graphene’s large accessiblearea offsets the low voltageFigure 2: Optionsfor improvingtraditionalsupercapacitors.Figure 3: Some ofthe better advancesin experimentalcapacitance densityprimarily achievedby improvedelectrode materials.to give good energy density.With ionic electrolytes such asN‐butyl‐N‐methylpyrrolidiniumbis (trifluoromethanesulfonyl)imide (PYR14TFSI), grapheneworks despite the high viscositythat makes them ineffective inhierarchical electrodes. In contrast,graphene does not exhibit goodspecific capacitance with theold acetonitrile and propylenecarbonate organic solventelectrolytes as shown below.Replacing electrolyticcapacitorsPotentially, inverters in suchthings as electric vehicles couldbe made smaller, lighter andlower cost by supercapacitorsreplacing the large aluminiumelectrolytic capacitors. So far,it is only with vertically stackedgraphene that a time constantof 200 microseconds has beendemonstrated suitable for 120Hzfiltering, potentially replacingelectrolytic capacitors ion the biginverter market. Vertically alignedgraphene was used in KOH.The energy density merits ofgraphene are more theoreticalthan real as yetA disproportionate amount ofwork on increasing the energydensity and reducing the costper Wh of supercapacitors isbestmagazine // Autumn 2014
102 bestsupercapsTypeExample of the bestcapacitance densityvalues achieved F/gFormulationChallengesHIERARCHICALSolid carbon with large holes leading to small onesActivated carbonAC i.e. that hasbeen heatedor otherwisetreated(e.g. HOH)to increase it'sadsorptive power.Carbide derivedcarbon.100140Templated carbon. 190Activated carbonfibres ACF.175Examples arethose fromcoconut shells orcharcoal.TiC‐CDC in 1mTEA‐BF4 in AN.Zeolites or silicaas a sacrificialscaffold.Phenotic resinbased fibres etc.Difficult to tailor to purpose. Confusedmorphology.Difficult to tailor to purpose.Low yield, high cost.Limited ability to tailor to purpose.THIN FILMCDC printed thinfilm.250Graphene 276Synthesised oncarbon paper.Chemicallymodified orderived fromreducinggraphene oxide.Confined to micro devicesHigh cost, limited ability to tailor topurpose. Confined to micro devices.EXOHEDRALWide carbon structures usually one atom thick.The positive curvature of tubes or spheres of the exohedral carbon family (carbon onions and CNT's) facilitates doublelayer formation, and the reduced electrical field near spherical or cylindrical surfaces decreases the driving force forcounter‐ion adsorption and co‐ion desorption. The effect is more pronounced for spheres compared to tubes, andincreases as the curvature increases.Carbon nanotubeCNT100End sealed(capped)High cost, limited ability to tailor topurpose, cost.Carbon aerogel 90 High cost. Poor volumetric energy density.Onion like carbon(OLC)Graphene100276 but some muchhigher figuresquoted e.g. 550Nano‐onionsfrom detonationdiamondthen thermalannealing.Chemicallymodified orderived fromreducinggraphene oxide.Source: IDTechEx report, Functional Materials for Supercapacitors/ Ultracapacitors EDLC 2015‐2025High cost, limited ability to tailor topurpose.High cost, limited ability to tailor topurpose.bestmagazine // Autumn 2014
estsupercaps 105dedicated to graphene becauseof its exceptionally large area andexcellent conductivity. However,there is no guarantee that that areacan be fully or even largely utilisedin production of supercapacitorspeople will buy in volume. The juryis out.For example, vanadium‐basedelectrolytes have unusuallyhigh redox activity to boostsupercapacitance at the negativeelectrode. The pseudocapacitiveeffects of iodide in electrolyteshave been combined with those ofvanadium using activated carbonelectrodes sometimes with 10%wtof carbon nanotubes.A huge 300‐1000 F/g resultsand useful but not remarkableenergy density of 20 Wh/kg.For comparison, Figure 5 showsgraphene results that mainlyapply to useful 1‐100 kW/kg powerdensity, but again only in thelaboratory with no guarantee thatthey can form the basis of a usefulvolume product with all parametersappealing.Graphene has much furtherto go and supercapacitors usingit optimally, combined with thenewer electrolytes and intelligentlyexploiting pseudocapacitancewithout resorting to expensive andtoxic materials, could get to 50‐100Wh/kg in ten years and more in 15years. If that happens, lithium‐ionbatteries will be under serious threaton grounds of safety, power density,life, reliability and more, even ifthey have improved the predictedFigure 4: Specificcapacitance vsidentified electrodearea per unitof weight (e.g.measured bynitrogen adsorption)for graphene‐basedsupercapacitorsand lithium‐ioncapacitors in thelaboratory, showinghow grapheneparticularlyleverages the newerelectrolytes.Figure 5: Graphenesupercapacitor andsupercabatteryresearch results. Redequivalent to presentor future lithium‐ionbatteries. Yellowequivalent tolead‐acid andnickel‐cadmiumbatteries.twofold in energy density in tenyears.Take one example of scope forimprovement using graphene. Thenewcomer may think of ‘curvedgraphene’ as a nano forest ofnear‐identical corrugated sheets,gripped vertically by some superpre‐coating on the current‐carriermetal foil. Nothing could be furtherfrom the truth. Today, curvedgraphene looks like crushed paperunder the microscope: nothingoptimal about that.Toyota’s head of R&D, MitsuhisaKato recently said that the technologyto make pure electric cars a viablereplacement for internal combustionhas not been invented yet. “Thecruising distance is so short for EVs,and the charging time is so long.At the current level of technology,Source: IDTechEx report, Functional Materials forSupercapacitors/ Ultracapacitors EDLC 2015‐2025somebody needs to invent a NobelPrize‐winning type battery,” he says.Well, supercapacitors can chargein minutes, and improvedsupercapacitors replacingbodywork in a car can store a largeamount of energy yet take nonoticeable space. Volvo, workingwith Imperial College London, hasalready demonstrated anexperimental car trunk lid that is asupercapacitor. Supercapacitorshave even been made intostretchable woven fibres and smartskin so they can literally ‘disappearinto the fabric of society’. The newenergy harvesting of heat, light andmovement – regenerative brakingand shock absorbers – can onlyhelp more. Supercapacitors grabmore harvested energy than is thecase with batteries.Structure Energy density Wh/kg Specific capacitance F/gLaser scribed graphene >600 276Curved graphene with 5% wt Super P acetylene black and 10% wt PTFE binder 1603D porous, curved activated to create macro/meso pores, capillarycompression, etc60-98 206-550Graphene composite 500Theoretical limit of EDLC without pseudocapacitance 200* 550*Not certain but suitable electrolytes and structure may give 200Source IDTechEx report, Functional Materials for Supercapacitors/ Ultracapacitors EDLC 2015‐2025bestmagazine // Autumn 2014
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estinsight 107Silicon anodes:The future of lithium-ion?Rick Howards presents the case for silicon anodes, and describes some of themany ways this material might be utilized in tomorrow’s lithium-ion cells.For over two decades, graphitehas been the anode materialfor Li‐ion manufacturers.In the ever‐improving world ofrechargeable batteries, however,graphite is looking more and morelike Stone Age technology. Dueto escalating consumer demandfor extended run time betweenrecharges, major research effortsinto improved electrode materialsare ubiquitous, but only in recentyears has significant attention beenpaid to the anode.Why silicon? The short answeris its extraordinary ability toalloy with lithium, providing (intheory) gravimetric and volumetriccapacities of 4200mAh/g and9786mAh/cc respectively, 10‐30times the capabilities of graphite.Unfortunately, this silver cloud hasa very dark lining: as Li diffuses intoSi during cell charging, the anodematerial expands dramatically, upto 400% at the end point wherecrystalline Si is transformed intoamorphous Li 15 Si 4 .Besides warping the metal cellcasing and potentially allowingelectrolyte leakage, the repeatedexpansion and contractionof this anode material duringcharging and discharging causesfragmentation (see Figure 1 (a)).The result is small, electronicallyisolated particles of Si and partiallylithiated Si, and ionic conductivitythroughout the electrode is rapidlydiminished. This is the major causeof unacceptable capacity fadeobserved with anodes of Si film andmicron‐sized particles.A side note: germanium, inthe same chemical family as Si,exhibits healthy gravimetric andvolumetric capacities of 1384mAh/gand 7366 mAh/cc respectivelyfor Li storage, but, in addition toidentical physical shortcomings,it is much more expensive thanSi. Tin, another Group IV elementthat forms Li alloys, is the leastexpensive but has even lowercapacity and greater fade.A comment for academicand government researchers:gravimetric energy densities havelittle value for cell manufacturers.Far more important is thevolumetric energy density, mAh/cc,which provides an estimation ofhow much anode material mustbe fitted into each cell, and is avariable used extensively in cellmodeling.There is no benefit in a1000mAh/g Si composite if thedensity is 0.4 g/cc, because theresultant anode capacity (and cost)does not improve on a conventionalgraphite electrode.The highest‐capacity cathodematerial – non‐stoichiometric NCM,in early pilot stage – producesroughly 250mAh/g, just a fractionof silicon’s Li storage capability. Isit possible to have too much of agood thing? Yoshio et al realized amathematical relationship betweenanode and cathode capacities inelectrochemically balanced cells,Figure 1.Silicon anode degradation processes: a) particle fragmentation from repeated expansionand contraction; b) agglomerate separation from binder during cell cycling; c)continuous buildup of SEI layer. From Wu and Cui, Nano Today 7, 414 (2012).bestmagazine // Autumn 2014
108 bestinsightand presented their calculations ingraphical form (Figure 2).What this plot tells us is that eachcathode material has a asymptoticrelationship with total cell capacity,and at some point, there is littlebenefit in increasing the efficacy ofthe anode. If an 80% cutoff for totalspecific capacity relative to cathodecapacity is used, then optimumanode capacity will be roughly asfollows: 450mAh/g for spinel (LMO),600mAh/g for LCO, 750mAh/g forNCA, and 1000mAh/g for NS‐NCM.Unless a strikingly novel, ultra‐highperformance cathode material isdiscovered, anode materials withcapacity exceeding 1500mAh/g areprobably overkill, from a practicalviewpoint.Figure 2. Graph ofanode Li storagecapacity vs totalcell capacity, as afunction of cathodematerials,substantiating thelaw of diminishingreturns. Derivedfrom M. Yoshioet al, J. PowerSources 146(2005), 10.The challenge for scientists wasobvious: control Si volume changesduring Li alloying and de‐alloying.Secondary goals included lowfirst‐cycle irreversible capacity loss(
estinsight 109than done, and lurking in thebackground was the bane of allprocess technologies: cost-benefitanalyses. Even with a reasonablebut substantial advance to 3X thecapacity of graphite, there is noway Si technology will command x3graphite’s market price – a 10‐20%increase is more likely. That meansscientific success will shift a heavyburden to engineers: design acost‐efficient process deliveringstructurally‐stable silicon anodes.Pacific Northwest National Lab(PNNL) is developing a compromiseSi anode using so‐called ‘spongy’material riddled with mesoporesthat absorb lithium without grossexpansion. By limiting the Listorage to roughly 750mAh/g,still greater than twice that ofgraphite, volume growth is only30%, not great but likely to beacceptable for Li‐ion cells withoutrigid expansion constraints. Aprototype cell retained >80% ofits original capacity after 1000cycles – definitely a worthwhileachievement.Despite PNNL’s advancement,the most probable pathway toSi‐based anodes is constructedof nanoparticles, whichresist breakage and exhibitelectrochemistry approachingFigure 3.Hyperbranchedß-cyclodextrinpolymer binder forSi nanoparticles.From Jeong et al,Nano Lett., 2014,14, pp 864–870.Figure 4:Electrochemicalcyclingperformanceof a conductivepolymer-Si(SCP) elec-trode.Inset shows theadvantage of SCPover a conventionalSi electrode duringthe first 15 cycles.From Gu et al,Scientific Reports4, Article #3684,2014.theoretical limits of capacity withexceptional rate capability. Further,nanoparticles will not endureSEI fracturing from mechanicaldeformation and subsequent‘repair’ to untenable thicknesses,as found with larger particles, asdepicted in Figure 1 (c).Researchers determined thatabove 150nm, Si grains willpulverize with Li alloying andextraction (Figure 1(a)), whichlimited early Si anode efforts.Attention turned to vapourdeposition, a well-known techniquecontrollable down to coatings justa few atoms thick. Alas, lithiumuptake caused these films tobuckle and lose contact withthe current collector (substrate);cell impedance skyrocketed andcapacity plunged.Another approach, good intheory but a failure in practice,was the mechanical preparation,e.g. high energy ball milling, ofSi nanoparticles. The extremesurface area of these speciesmakes controlling anode slurryviscosities very difficult, andparticles agglomerate easily inthe slurry, negating the nanoadvantage (Figure 1(b)). However,nanoparticle surface energy issufficient to stall the propagationof surface cracks leading tofragmentation, and the benefits ofnanotechnology are compelling.Clearly, more sophisticatedmethods and morphologies wereneeded to achieve commercialsuccess.With nanosizing a given, thequest focused on ways to preventnano‐Si from migrating andreassembling into microparticles(or larger), a weakness observedafter only modest cycling.Aggregation results in a poorconduction network and lossof particle connectivity, thusincreasing the resistance betweenthe anode and current collectorafter long‐time cycling. Therewere numerous creative fixesproposed, although only a few withmarketable potential.A complete review of all themethods is beyond the scope ofthis article, but three approachesdeserve greater description:matrix‐isolated nanoparticles,alloys, and substrate‐grown orfree‐standing nanofibers. Thesetechnology segments havebestmagazine // Autumn 2014
110 bestinsightsufficient promise to encouragegovernment and private investorfunding for start‐up companiespursuing the dream.Silicon particles can besequestered in a polymer or asone component of an alloy, withthe underlying assumption thatlithium will readily diffuse throughthe composite. Figure 3 providesan example; Si nanoparticlestrapped in highly branchedpoly(ß‐cyclo‐dextrin), held in placeby H‐Si bonds. The multitude ofbonding sites in each polymer unitprovides a ‘self‐healing’ effectafter particles’ volume changesduring Li insertion and extraction,ensuring anode conductivity is notdiminished, thereby extendingcycle life.A similar rationale holds forconductive polymers and saltsof carboxymethylcellulose andpoly(acrylic acid), but more linearspecies less able to form bondsto Li+, such as polyacrylates,poly(alcohols), and polyesters,are not as adept at holding theirguests in place. Lithium storagecapacities as high as 3200mAh/ghave been reported, or roughly4200mAh/g relative to Si content,by this method; Si particle sizes areusually 90%capacity retention at 6000mA/g current density, and hada calculated volumetric capacityexceeding 1000mAh/cc.A less‐costly cousin ofFigure 5.Si bound in acarbon scaffoldbefore (a) andafter (b) Li storage.The structure,derived frompyrolyzed CMC-Si,accommodates Siexpansion withoutbreakage. FromWang et al, Chem.Commun., 2010,46, pp 1428–1430.these materials is pyrolyzedpolyacrylonitrile‐macroporoussilicon, which retained >1000mAh/gcapacity after 600 cycles. Theprocess, which involves sprayinga PAN‐silicon slurry onto a heatedCu current collector, yields a stablescaffold structure and is applicableto other polymers (Figure 5).The cited examples are, at best,in early development stages, andappear three to five years removedfrom commercialization. Highlycomplex polymers and nano‐sizedsilicon are not inexpensive, andefficient production processes mustbe developed to insure marketablepricing. Still, there is greatpotential with such composites,with many eminent scientistsand well‐endowed companiesjoining in the stampede towardcommercialization.Silicon alloy anodes seemcloser to fruition than polymercomposites. For example, 3M hasinvested considerable effort intothe development of this genre, withan extensive intellectual portfolioto its credit. A recent patent –USP8,071,238 – serves to illustrate thecomplexities and requirementsof such materials, prepared bysequential melting and high energyball‐milling steps.The alloy comprises threecritical phases: amorphousSi (limited expansion with Liup‐take), electrochemically inactivenanoparticles of metal silicide(generally 3rd or 4th row elements,for strength and homogeneity),and carbon, in the form of siliconcarbide. Some combinationsincluded amorphous Sn (flux aideand Li alloying). The rigidity of thealloy prevents damaging volumeexpansion during Li uptake, therebymaintaining anode integrity.Twenty examples were providedin 3M’s patent, with capacitiesat the 40th cycle ranging from479mAh/g (Si 66 Co 22 C 12 ) to1184mAh/g (Si 224 Fe 35 Ti 35 C 12 ),bestmagazine // Autumn 2014
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estinsight 113although all but two of thematerials tested yielded more than700mAh/g. Coulombic efficiencieswere marginally acceptable, most at99.7 or 99.8% (some improvementneeded, to >99.9%). The highestcapacity material was comprised ofSi, FeSi 2 , and TiSi 2 phases, all with10‐20nm grain sizes, plus someamorphous FeSi 2 .Key properties of these alloys aretheir densities (>4g/cc versus ≤1.5g/cc for graphite) and volumetriccapacities (>1500mAh/cc, >x3graphite’s ~500mAh/cc). Not all ofthese combinations are winners,however: a NiTiSi alloy (describedelsewhere), capable of >1100mAh/gLi storage with first‐cycle efficiency>90%, lost capacity faster than 2%/cycle – a fatal flaw. A rule of thumbin these systems is that higherpercentages of the host element(s)lengthen cycle life at the expenseof reversible capacity and (usually)rate capability.The theory behind 3M’s (andsimilar) materials depends on thecombination of active and inactivephases, relative to Li alloying.Transition metal components,which are not miscible with Li,form a rigid network that holdsthe alloying portion in place andminimizes volume changes.Since lithium is less than auniversal alloy, such matricesmust contain a lithium acceptor:the common (inexpensiveand environmentally friendly)partners are Si, Sn, Sb, Al, andMg, while other (workable butless accommodating) elementsfrom Groups IB, IIB, IIIA, andIVA are rarely used except tosubstantiate theory. Note that Sihas the highest energy densitiesof the preferred elements: whileMg is close (3350mAh/g), its lowdensity and high reactivity makeit a second‐string candidate, Snwas previously down‐played,and Al and Sb exhibit even lesserperformances.Figure 6.Vapour-depositedSi on verticallyaligned carbonnanofibers, withsufficient separationto allow Liinsertion withoutimpinging onneighbouringstructures. TheSi coating isequivalent to 1.5μm films. FromKlankowski et al,J. Mater. Chem. A,2013, 1, pp 1055-1064.If all the elements in the storagematerial combine with lithium,expansion‐contraction cycles arerelatively unfettered, reversibleLi cycling is rapidly diminished,and the anode quickly crumblesaway into non‐conducting pieces.This matrix concept is also foundin various non‐silicon alloys,such as Cu 2 Sb, TiNbSnSb, andGeFeC, among many others:capacity and fade are typicallyof lesser performance relative toSi‐containing species.Beneficial mechanical propertiesfor Li storage alloys include lowductility and elastic modulus,to relieve high tensile stressduring delithiation that can leadto fragmentation, as proposedby Tarascon and co‐workers. Ingeneral, alloy matrices exhibit highconductivity, restrict Si expansion,and have reduced reactivitywith electrolyte solvents, butproduction costs likely will pushcommercialization out three to fouryears.The third group of emergingSi‐based anodes featuresnanoparticles isolated on aconductive surface, whichfacilitates electron transfer andtherefore boosts rate (power)capability. Examples includenanopillars or nanowhiskers grownon a metal substrate, which alsoserves as the current collector, andnanodots decorating a thin plateor film, especially graphene and itsanalogs.This method is not exclusiveto Si: it includes the alloysmentioned above, as well as aplethora of metal oxides, cermets,and other species capable ofhosting lithium via a conversionor redox mechanism. An exampleis depicted in Figure 6. Vapourdeposition techniques createdcarbon nanopillars on Cu foil, whichwere then coated with Si.Expansion with Li uptake wasalmost exclusively axial (typical ofthese nanostructures), and with theproper spacing of the nanopillars,there was ample room for volumeexpansion without degradationfrom overcrowding. Initial capacityexceeded 3000mAh/gSi, with 89%retention after 100 cycles at 1C,and there was little diminutionof capacity between 0.1C and 2C,boding well for power applications.Nickel and titanium are usefulsubstrates, more electrochemicallyrobust than their transition metalbrethren. A Korean team (Lee etal., J. Electrochem. Soc. 2014, 161,A1480) demonstrated modestsuccess via a combination ofnanolithography, chemical vapourdeposition, and electroformingonto Ni. Although first cycledischarge capacity was anencouraging 2550mAh/g at 1C rate,charge capacity after 100 cycleswas a mere 732mAh/g (412mAh/gat 10C), meaning a lot of lithiumhad been lost in the anode.The high rate capability is typicalof such species, but the capacityfade in this instance is less thandesirable. A related system, alsomounted on Ni, incorporatedNi 3 Si 2 /Si nanorod arrays with>2000mAh/g Li storage, andirreversible first cycle capacitybestmagazine // Autumn 2014
114 bestinsightloss was a competitive 12‐13%.Unfortunately, the requirement ofthree demanding process stepswill make it difficult to reachmanufacturing cost objectives.A precursor to this approachfeatures Si either electro – orchemical vapour deposited ontoNi or Ti foam, which also serveas current collectors. The openstructures had more than adequatespace for LiSi alloy expansion,but volumetric energy densitiessuffered from low Si content.Earliest attempts at Sicomposites utilized graphite orcarbon black, low‐cost choices,and that has not been overlooked.Yushin’s Georgia Tech squadproduced the spherical Si‐Cnanocomposite shown in Figure 7from Si‐coated carbon black viaa “bottom‐up” self‐assemblytechnique.Fabrication was described aslow‐cost and readily scalable withexisting manufacturing hardware;anode preparation is nearlyidentical to current practices. Themicron‐sized nano‐compositesgenerated 1950mAh/g, whilelongevity was attributed to internalinterconnected pores able toaccommodate Si expansion.More recently, EnerG2 and BatteryInnovation Center (BIC) announceda collaboration to produce prototypeportable devices powered by cellsbased on high‐voltage lithium metaloxide cathodes and silicon‐carboncomposite anodes. The companiesproject cell capacities greaterthan 200mAh/g and 350Wh/kg,improving outputs 20% over presentstate‐of‐the‐art, with claims ofenhanced stability, safety and cyclelife.In a previous BEST article(Next‐Gen Materials Make EVDream a Distinct Possibility, Winter2014 page 119), I wrote about thepotential of decorated grapheneanodes, especially their abilityto boost both energy and powerratings of Li‐ion cells. Mountinghigh capacity Si on grapheneflakes seems an obvious path toenhanced performance, an opinionshared by many in the industry.There is a caveat: too much Sinegates the graphene advantage,as a single‐layer composite withc.65% Si started with 1100mAh/gstorage capacity, which faded to512mAh/g after only 40 cycles.Without flogging a dead horse, afew examples should suffice todescribe efforts in this arena.XG Sciences was among the firstmarket entrants, hydrothermallyproducing Si‐graphenenanoplatelet composites.These are short stacks withup to 10 graphene layers heldapart by Si nanodots, providing600‐2000mAh/g gravimetricand 500‐1700mAh/cc volumetriccapacities, up to 200%improvement over graphite,depending on Si content, whichis controllable to customerspecifications. Irreversible capacityloss during the formation cycle isa workable 10‐15%, and capacityfade is described as “minor.”A separate study on a similarcomposite claimed that capacityloss due to SEI formation can bemitigated by judicious choice ofelectrolyte solvents.Figure 7.Si-C granule (ca20 μm sphere ofbranched carbonwith 1100mAh/g at 7C.While too early to releasefull‐cell data – tests by anindependent lab are underway –indications are that performancewill be competitive with graphiteanode cells. The most compellingaspect of SiNode’s material istheir claim that processing isaccomplished with off‐the‐shelfproduction equipment and is highlybestmagazine // Autumn 2014
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estinsight 117scalable. Almost as important,their Si‐graphene sheets require nobinder or slurry preparation. Thesefactors translate into a major costadvantage in manufacturing: will itbe enough to bring SiNode’s cellsinto the mainstream? DoE thinksso, to the tune of a $1m Phase IISBIR grant, and other seed moneysare substantially greater.California Lithium Battery(CalBattery) is another startupseeking to make a big splash inthe Li‐ion pool. Their Si‐graphenecomposite (Figure 9), based ontechnology developed at ArgonneNational Lab, is prepared usingsilane via a gas depositionprocess. The product is structurallystable, with no degradation fromSi volume changes, exhibits1250mAh/g capacity, nearly fourtimes that of graphite, and hasan energy density of 525mWh/g.CalBattery, partnering with CALEBTechnology, is working hard onprocess development, currentlywith a third‐generation reactorcapable of continuous flowoperation. They project commercialFigure 8.Schematic ofSiNode Systems’anode material,a multilayerSi-graphenecompo-siteprepared by lowcostmanufacturingmethods.volumes, in the thousands oftonnes, in less than four years.Angstron Materials, amanufacturer of graphenenanoplatelets, recently announceda graphene‐silicon productspecifically for Li‐ion, whichshould be available by the endof 2014. Initial claims include1200mAh/g (720mAh/cc) capacity,87% first‐cycle efficiency, 0.60g/cc tap density, and “hundredsof charge‐discharge cycles.”Materials are available in gramquantities, hardly enough tosupport the industry; Angstronis currently seeking up to $10mfunding for production scale‐up, tofacilitate market entry.A Korean team from KAIST hasutilized the enhanced qualitiesof N‐doped graphene and carbonnanotubes to spontaneouslyencapsulate Si, yielding an anodematerial with high rate capability(914mAh/g at 10C) and goodcapacity retention (>79% after200 cycles). From a theoreticalviewpoint, carbon‐coatings fostersingle‐cycle SEI formation ratherthan continuous build‐up of saltstrata on Si surfaces, and thecoating also lends compressivestrength to the composite,preventing breakage. Usually theprotective layer results in bettercapacity retention, but tends tocreate higher irreversible capacityloss during the formation cyclewhile lowering the Li storagecapability. This approach is highlydependent on the type of carbon(or other coverings, such as SiO)and the coating method, and itis difficult to project competitiveprocess costs.While Si nanostructures aremore commonly placed on metalor graphene, several groups haveprepared stand‐alone nanowires,where the major obstacle toscale‐up is process cost. Anacademic team from the Universityof Southern California utilizedlow‐cost ball milling and stainetching to produce nanoporousSi with >1100 mAh/g after 600cycles, claiming its method is bothlow‐cost and eminently scalable.Another group varied this theme,preparing a “soft” Si coating on Ni/PVDF nanofibers in 3‐D networks,with claims of high capacity andlong cycle life. The nanofibrouscomposite served as the currentcollector and exhibited goodflexibility. Note that nanowhiskertechnology is not limited tosilicon: a number of companies aredeveloping similar anodes basedon Li‐alloying materials, such asGe, CuSb, and other combinations.Amprius, a Silicon Valleystartup, presently makes siliconnanowires in a small‐scale batchprocess using chemical vapourdeposition (CVD), a processborrowed from the semiconductorindustry. Laboratory tests oncell prototypes showed energydensities approaching 800mWh/cc, a step up from conventionalLi‐ion output of 400‐530mWh/cc; Amprius claims 6000 cyclesbestmagazine // Autumn 2014
118 bestinsightwithout anode structural damage.Funding has been ample: a recentlycompleted C‐round added $30m tothe coffers, although full productionis estimated at 5 years and >$100min the future.Mass consumer applicationswould require a far more efficient andlow‐cost manufacturing techniquethan CVD. The company developmentplans target a thousandfold scale upin manufacturing capability, buildingon their Chinese pilot operation withinitial production in 2015. Ampriuswill enter the fray with batteries forconsumer electronics, includingmobile phones, laptops, and tablets.The high‐reward target forSi‐based anodes is electric vehiclebatteries, to counter the dreadedrange anxiety over the possibilityof running out of electrons in themiddle of rush hour. Navitas, thecompany that won the auctionfor A123’s government researchcontracts, was awarded a $1mPhase II grant from DoE for thedevelopment of an economicalSi‐based anode material for EV/HEV use. During Phase I, Navitasestablished key innovationsutilizing low‐cost raw materials(μ‐sized Si and commercialgraphite), scalable processes(water‐based slurries and slot‐diecoating), and electrode fabricationmethods already used for highvolume output.A company datasheet claims>600mAh/g of reversible capacity,>80% capacity retention after 300cycles at C/2 rate, and
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estenergystorage 121Transformers:The US leads the wayAnthony Price, director of the UK Electricity Storage Network, attends the annual US DoE’sEnergy Storage Systems Program review and is impressed.The US Department of Energy(DOE) is steaming aheadwith a comprehensiveprogramme of storagedevelopment, both within its ownEnergy Storage Systems Programand under the aegis of the ARPA‐Eand the ARRA programs.Each year, the US DOE invitesdelegates to attend their peerreview of publicly‐funded projects.Some years ago, the projectswere limited very much by a tinybudget, and so the review was buta few short presentations. Thisyear, the review extended overthree days, and included not onlypresentations for the major topics,but some intensive poster sessions,each with 30 presenters talkingenthusiastically about their work.The scale of research,development and demonstration isimpressive, and is one that shouldbe noted by policymakers in othercountries. If you want to transformyour power industry, you needinnovation, you need funding andyou need the will to make changehappen.Enervault are high on thelist of top transformers. Theirdemonstration flow battery projectis a showcase example of gooddesign and product development,beautifully executed. SustainX,developers of the isothermalcompressed air system shouldalso be included as a companythat has produced storage in aJonathan Radcliff,Senior ResearchFellow, EnergyStorage at theUniversity ofBirmingham.game‐changing manner.On the other end of thespectrum, it was fascinating tosee just how much effort is beingdirected towards solving someof the fundamental issues withelectricity storage, typically relatedto bringing down costs. This hasgiven birth to more innovation, withnew types of electrolytes, rangingfrom organics, including quinones,ionic liquids, and more abundantresources such as low‐cost salts.Membranes and separators arethe focus of some very clever peoplein academia who are conscious thatif energy storage solutions are tobe manufactured on a mass scale,we need to find cheap alternativematerials.Is there a difference between thetransformation of energy storagebetween my own country, the UK,and the USA? There are some strongsimilarities: both countries havenow organised a strong researchbase. In the UK, this is mostvisible in the funding for academicresearch through the Engineeringand Physical Sciences ResearchCouncil (EPRSC) initiatives and theDepartment for Business Innovationand Skills (BIS) declaring energystorage to be one of 'Eight GreatTechnologies' that will propel theUK to future growth.Industry is playing its part,with a number of smaller andlarger companies both quietlyand publically developingtheir own ideas. InnovateUK, thenewly‐renamed Technology StrategyBoard, is directing effort towardsnew energy technologies, includingstorage.The UK Department of Energyand Climate Change (DECC) hassupported a number of energystorage demonstrations, but UKgovernment expenditure on thesestorage demonstrations is nearlytwo orders of magnitude lower thanin the USA, and we could say thatit is several years behind. DECCand regulator OFGEM have a majorprogramme in place to discuss theintroduction of the smart grid, butwe still find that there are moreproblems to be solved than thereare solutions. We all believe thatstorage is essential, but there is noplan as to how it will be introducedand paid for.To support change, it isimportant that we look at how otherindustries have progressed andmoved forward in the past and theanswer could be transformers –not the lumps of metal and coilsof wires that change voltage, butpeople with the ability to see theneed for change and to makechange happen.In September, I attended theInstitution of Engineering andTechnology’s (IET) ‘Power in Unity’conference, where Professor RogerKemp from Lancaster Universitypresented his findings on researchhe had conducted on a number ofbestmagazine // Autumn 2014
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124 bestenergystorageother well‐known industries andsectors. These included, London’sDocklands Light Railway, the GPSsystem, the Internet, air trafficcontrol and the water system.In each case, the infrastructurehad been set up using amethodology based on systemarchitecture. In former times, anarchitect designed buildings, butnow, almost every industry has a rolefor a system architect. This appliesacross sectors, where for examplein the design of light rail systems,joint venture companies were set upusing design build transfer models.The model works well for greenfieldprojects, but not so useful whenredesigning legacy systems.The ‘System of SystemsApproach’, used by the UK’s Ministryof Defence, requires a systemsarchitect to review assets that areconnected to its data networks.Similar proceduresare used in airtraffic controlto allow saferinteroperation between all the datasystems that control aircraft within agiven airspace.The IET maintains the spotlightneeds to be on the Britishelectricity sector. The nature ofthe changes that are expectedin the industry are so vast,complicated and inter‐related,that it is only by adopting a systemarchitect function, that change toa modern, efficient, decentralisedand sustainable network willbe achieved. The only oversightcurrently provided comes throughDECC and its role is adoption bydefault and not design.The IET is very careful not topromote the resurrection of theCentral Electricity GeneratingBoard, but it does point out thatthe grid code and distribution codepanels have a narrow technicalremit and do not consider acomprehensive view ofthe industry, taking intoaccount operational andcommercial interestsAli Nourai of DNVKEMA talking aboutflywheels at theUSDOE review.as well. Smart loads, such as EVcharging, Internet‐connected whitegoods, and heat pumps are notrepresented on the panels.During his presentation,Professor Kemp also listed manyof the new participants in theelectricity system. If we were to alsoinclude community energy groupsand electricity storage operators,we can begin to see the scale of theproblem – and like an iceberg, mostof the problem is not yet visible.The transformation is underway in the USA. National and Stateinitiatives have put storage onthe grid. Roadmaps have beenpublished. Plans are in place. TheUK now needs to read ‘Transformingthe Electricity System’, the IET’srecent report, and realise that itsown electrical infrastructure needstransformation.And if the IET is right, and we doneed a systems architect, let’s haveone, but they must understand thefundamental need for electricitystorage.bestmagazine // Autumn 2014
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128 trulyeventful18-20 NovemberAutomative 48vPower SupplySystemsDüsseldorf, GermanyThis international conferencewill give an insight into latestdevelopments of automotive48V onboard power supplyin mild hybrids. This includesinnovations on 48V batteries,advanced 48V topologies, EMC,LV 148 Specification and E/Ecomponents. The automotive48V power supply systemenables the improvement ofthe electrification to reach thestrict emission targets by 2020.Experts of international OEMsand Tier1s will give an insight intheir latest 48V solutions.Info: www.48v-vehicles.com12-15 DecemberEnergia 2014Greater Noida, IndiaEnergia 2014 focuses on theresearch & developmentand latest emergingtechnologies in lead-acidbattery and lithium batteries.The technical conference,seminar, workshops willprovide the technicalknowledge to put up batterymanufacturing units inmicro, small and mediumenterprises.Info: www.ssepcon.com13-15 January5th Electric EnergyStorage ConferenceSan Diego, USThe 5th Electric Energy StorageConference will focus onthe technology successeswhen implementing newchanges into existing storagesystems, how companies areovercoming financial barriersand what it is they need inorder to succeed and advanceeven more with energy storage.The conference will discusshow to meet storage levels for2020 and beyond.Info:www.marcusevansconferences.com16-19 FebruaryNAATBattPhoenix, USThe title of the NationalAlliance for AdvancedTechnology Batteries meetingis Energy Storage: Electrifyingthe Future. The programmewill focus on innovation inthe technology, manufactureand applications ofelectrochemical energystorage.Info:www.naatbatt.org2-5 DecemberEuropean ElectricVehicle Congress2014Brussels, BelgiumThe European Electric VehicleCongress addresses thechallenges, opportunities andthe outlook for battery, hybridand fuel cell vehicles. A seriesof presentations coveringpolitics, industry, R&D, userexperiences and NGOs aims tofind synergies to get the carson the roads. Feedback frompast and current experienceswill also be discussed andanalyzed so that best practices& best ways for a dailyintroduction of eMobility couldbe identified.Info: www.eevc.eu9-11 JanuaryPower-on IndiaPune, IndiaThe international conferenceand exhibition focuseson batteries and the solarmarket. The event is India'slargest and pioneer batteryexhibition and conference. Itwill display manufacturers,policy makers and industryleaders of the lead-acidbattery industry and PV aswell as EV industry.Info:www.batteryfair.co.in26 - 29 JanuaryAABC Europe 2015Mainz, GermanyAt the 2015 EuropeanAdvanced Automotive &Stationary Battery ConferenceEuropean automakers andenergy-storage systemdevelopers will discuss theemerging programs and theprospects of the upcomingdesigns to meet the needs ofthe European market. AABCEurope 2015 will offer twotechnology-focused symposiaand two application-focusedsymposiaInfo:www.advancedautobat.com25-27 FebruaryBattery JapanTokyo, JapanThe Battery Japan in Tokyois one of the largest tradefairs for the production anddevelopment of rechargeablebatteries worldwide. Visitorswill find all kinds of materials,production technologies,test and analysis equipmentand batteries. This exhibitionis a communication andinformation platform inthe industry and offers theexhibiting companies theopportunity to present to anaudience of experts.Info:www.batteryjapan.jp/enbestmagazine // Autumn 2014
nov14-may15 1293-5 March3-6 May3-6 May12-14 May7th InternationalBattery Expo &Recycling 2015Goa, IndiaThe event will bring togetherworld leading batterymanufacturers interestedin technology and businesscooperation, batteryequipment and componentmanufacturers, experts inwaste management andin environmentally soundtechnologies for recyclingof batteries, recyclingequipment manufacturersand recyclers.Info:www.bfi.org.inBCI 2015Savannah, USBattery Council Internationalpresents its 127th Conventionand Power Mart Trade Fair - aconvention to learn aboutthe latest technologies,environmental issues and theimpact of global economy onthe battery. Topics includecritical regulatory activitiesaffecting the lead acid batteryindustry throughout the world;other issues facing the industrysuch as emission levels,blood lead levels, and healthcare reform. From sourcingto transport to recycling,the Convention will give youthe most up-to-date andcomprehensive perspectiveon the various authorities thatgovern our industry.Info:www.batterycouncil.orgEVS28Goyang, South KoreaUnder the theme of"e-Motional Technology forHumans," EVS28 will serve asa venue to share and discussthe next steps of electromobility as a key to making theautomobile industry "Green"and "Sustainable." The eventfeatures lectures as well as aposter exhibition for delegatesto present and discuss theirown work related to electricvehicles. Within the topicsdiscussed are batteries, fuelcells, propulsion systems(motors and power electronics)and BMS.Info:www.evs28.orgBattcon 2015Orlando, USThe Battcon InternationalStationary Battery Conferencefeatures a non-commercialconference for users,manufacturers and developersof all types of stationarybatteries. All chemistries andapplications feature on thecomprehensive schedule.Alongside the conference is atwo-day trade fair. Featuringleading stationary batteryexperts, the conferencepresents papers by users andmanufacturers that relate toeveryday battery applications,technical advances, and thediverse concerns of the batteryindustry.Info:www.battcon.com9-12 MarchInternationalBattery SeminarFort Lauderdale, USAIn its 32nd year, this seminarprovides industry speakersto discuss worldwideenergy storage technologydevelopments for portable,automotive and stationarypower applications. Thismeeting provides informedinsights into significantadvances in materials, productdevelopment and applicationfor all battery systems andenabling technologies.Info: www.internationalbatteryseminar.comTokyo Citybestmagazine // Autumn 2014
130 advertisersindexCompany E-mail Website PageAbertax Technologies info@abertax.com abertax.com 86Accumalux sales@accumalux.com accumalux.com 16Accurate Products mhc@accurate.dk accurate.dk 81Alfa Kutu ve Plastik San Tic Ltdq fulya@alfakutu.com alfakutu.com 71Arbin sales@arbin.com arbin.com 98Ateliers Roche meshmaker@roche-meshmaker.com roche-meshmaker.com 24Atomized Products Group atomizedproductsgroup.com 32Batek Makina info@batekeng.com batekeng.com 21Batterie Fullungs Systeme info@bfsgmbh.de batteryfillingsystems.com 96Battery Technology Source sales@btscl.com btscl.com 82Bernard Dumas bdumas@bernard-dumas.fr bernard-dumas.fr 19Biasin SRL biasinplast.com 77Bio-Logic SAS bio-logic.info 85Bitrode Corporation info@bitrode.com bitrode.com 106BM Rosendahl r.jonach@bm-rosendahl.com bm-rosendahl.com 37Breton Spa info@bretonlift.com bretonlift.com 15Buhler grinding.dispersion@buhlergroup.com buhlergroup.com 33CAM cam@cam-srl.com cam-srl.com 94CellCare Technologies Ltd info@cellcare.com cellcare.com 31Cellusuede Products sales@cellusuede.com cellusuede.com 90Cemt International Group sales@cemt.cn cemt.cn 104Chloride Technical Ltd chloride@wynneavenue.com chloride-technical.com 74Chongqing Yuanfeng Machinery Co. salesjiangling@163.com cqjiangling.com 78CMWTEC technologie info@cmwtec.de cmwtec.de 73Continuus Properzi sales@properzi.it properzi.com 89Dalton Electric Heating Co sales@daltonelectric.com daltonelectric.com 31Daramic daramic.com IFC/3Dexmet expanded-materials.net 27Digatron info@digatron.com digatron.com 111Dross Engineering SA info@dross-engineering.com dross-engineering.com 100Eagle Oxide maceng@mac-eng.com mac-eng.com 55/122Eco-Bat Technologies ecobatgroup.com 70Eirich eirich@eirich.de eirich.de 115Ferrazza info@ferrazzanet.com ferrazzanet.com 72bestmagazine // Autumn 2014
Where’s your listing? Contact Les Hawkins on advertising@bestmag.co.uk 131Company E-mail Website PageFroetek info@froetek.de froetek.com 60GEA Process Engineering gea-niro.chemical@gea.com gea.com 22Glatfelter dynagrid@glatfelter.com glatfelter.com 59Hadi Offermann Maschinenbau hadi-germany@hadi.com hadi.com 66Hammond Group CustomerService@hmndgroup.com hmndgroup.com 34/112Imerys Graphite & Carbon imerys-graphite-and-carbon.com 45Inbatec info@inbatec.de inbatec.de 42/43International Thermal Systems sales@itsllcusa.com internationalthermalsystems.com 69JBI Corporation joe@jbicorp.com jbicorp.com 100Jinfan Power Technology public@jsjf.com.cn jsjf.com.cn 123Kustan geku@kustan.de kustan.de 56La Pneumatica info@lapneumatica.com lapneumatica.com 108Lap GmbH Laser Applikationen lap-laser.com 20Mac Engineering maceng@mac-eng.com mac-eng.com IBC/BCMaccor sales@maccor.com maccor.com 103Microporous microporous.net 46Oak Press Solutions sales@oakpresses.com oak-battery.com 51OM Impianti info@omi-nbe.com omi-nbe.com 64/65Oxis Energy Ltd info@oxisenergy.com oxisenergy.com 30PC di Pompeo Catelli info@pompeocatelli.com pompeocatelli.com 116Penox Engineering engineering@penox.de penoxgroup.com 126/127Polyworld Sendirian info@polyworld.com.my polyworld.com.my 119SE.R.I. S.p.A info@serihg.com serihg.com 23Shandong Jinkeli Power jkl@jinkeli.com jinkeli.com 52Shandong Sacred Sun weizengliang@sacredsun.cn sacredsun.com 38Sorfin Yoshimura sorfin@sorfin.com sorfin.com 11Sovema stella.fermo@sovema.it sovema.it 28/29STS Instruments info@stsinstruments.com stsinstruments.com 25Superior Graphite customerserviceUSA@superiorgraphite.com superiorgraphite.com 18Unikor Industry Company Ltd ukb@ukbkorea.com ukbkorea.com 90Water Gremlin steve.mende@watergrem.com watergrem.com 4Wirtz sales@wirtzusa.com wirtzusa.com 8/9Wuhan Hilans Automation M Co sales.hilans@163.com hilans.cn 125Yucry Traffic Appliances Co. Ltd yucry@yucry.com yucry.com 120bestmagazine // Autumn 2014
132 bestgroundpathWhere lethal voltages and rhetoric pass harmlessly to earthHydrogen:In or out?Visitors to Edinburgh and the14th European Lead AcidBattery Conference couldhardly have failed to notice that thepeople of Scotland were energisedby the Yes/No question as towhether Scotland would remain ina union with England and remainpart of the United Kingdom.Well, the Scribe assumesmost of you know the result bynow: the Union held and quite anachievement it was for democracy,with an estimated 85% voter turnoutof those who were eligible to vote.But the United Kingdom is notthe only alignment under stress:as borders shift periodically incontinental Europe, the Scribe‐ under the influence of verystrong painkillers ‐ began to hearrumblings from other quarters.The constituents of the PeriodicTable of the Elements are alsoshowing signs of discontent. Forcedinto an organisation since 1869 bya self‐appointed Russian, DmitriMendeleev, who allegedly saw theorder of elements in a dream, theScribe has heard rumblings from anumber of elements.There has always been troublewith some of the elements in periods7 and 8 of the transuranic elements.They just don’t want to hang aroundlong enough to be part of anything.And there’s always been aproblem with hydrogen and helium.Hydrogen and helium are oftenplaced in different places thantheir electron configurations wouldindicate. In the world of physics,your status is really about youratomic weight and the number ofelectron shells you have— a bit likewealth in the everyday world?Hydrogen is usually placedabove lithium, in accordancewith its electron configuration,but is sometimes placed abovefluorine (or even carbon) as it alsobehaves somewhat similarly tothem. Hydrogen is also sometimesplaced in its own group, as it doesnot behave similarly enough to anyelement to be placed in a groupwith another.Its relationship with the othergroups is like the UK’s relationshipwith the European Union. It wantsto be both in and out at thesame time. So maybe we shouldbe holding a referendum overhydrogen? Should hydrogen remainin or out of the periodic table?What would the Better Togetherlobby have said about this? Vocalproponents of hydrogen staying inwould have been oxygen and carbonsurely, for the sake of organicchemistry?And, of course, once you let thegenie out the bottle, well all kindof arguments start to surface. Restassured lead is happy where it is:eight and two, 82.The ultra‐conservatives mightask for a return to the simple daysof Lavoisier with gases, metals,non‐metals and earths. And thatwould keep out any new elementswe haven’t discovered yet. Indeedthis might be the approach ofthe British UKIP party… no moreimmigration! Or would we spendanother 100 years trying toreorganize what we already have?Further digging by the Scribereveals that there are many,many representations of how theelements relate to one another butone way or another, they are jollyhard to put in a book, especiallywhen three‐dimensional and evenfour‐dimensional (where onedimension is colour, and damnhard to explain).So perhaps we should givethanks to Horace Groves Deming,the American chemist who gaveus the short form periodic tablethat adorns the walls of many ahigh school chemistry lab, in thesame way that we remember thefounding fathers, the Duke ofQueensberry* and French foreignminister Robert Schuman**.The political and chemicalunions we have are not perfect,but, at least, they are better thanthe chaos we might have withoutthem.* James Douglas, 2nd Duke ofQueensberry was largely responsiblefor the successful passage of theUnion Act by the Scottish Parliament.**Robert Schuman, France’sForeign Minister 1948‐53, wasinstrumental in building post‐warEuropean and trans‐Atlanticinstitutions and is regarded as one ofthe founders ofthe EuropeanUnion.Dmitri Mendeleevbestmagazine // Autumn 2014
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