PEOPLE NEWS

Jacques David wins ICBR award in Geneva ceremony

This year’s winner of the annual ICBR award, presented at the 26th International Congress on Battery Recycling in Geneva, went to Jacques David, a popular industry figure known for his lifelong commitment to the battery recycling industry.

Mr David is recognized internationally for his extensive knowledge — he has more than four decades of experience — and, most particularly, as a true battery pioneer of the industry. He started to collect and recycle batteries in 1977. This was many years before any legislative support would encourage the return of spent batteries or enable him to collect batteries with a recycling fee included.

As a pioneer in the recovery of nickel, cobalt and cadmium from batteries, he became renowned internationally after he developed a successful global network for the French recycling company SNAM, where he became a director. He spent 28 years with SNAM.

After his retirement from SNAM, he ran Screlec for eight years, collecting and recycling primary and rechargeable batteries in France.

After his industrial career, he became a consultant in 2013, advising and supporting the battery recycling community in its efforts to accompany the growing development of the primary and rechargeable battery collection and recycling business.

He is still active as a consultant on lithium-ion battery recycling with an operation known as ‘Just Different’.

Jacques David has been instrumental in setting up the modern landscape of structures that support the battery recycling business.

In 1998 he was a founding member and chairman of the European Battery Recyclers Association. This has proved an important body in advising the European Commission on the collection and recycling of portable and industrial batteries. It has also been an important body in setting the agenda for regulation. EBRA was involved in the landmark 2006 Directive on Waste Batteries and Accumulators, better known as the Battery Directive.

He was also instrumental in opening up the field of recycling for lithium batteries with the creation of RECHARGE, the advanced rechargeable and lithium batteries industry association in 2004.

Early on David recognized the need for the recycling business to share not just a common voice through its industry associations but its need to communicate internally on the latest trends and technologies. He has supported such conference meetings from the first Florida Battery Recycling Seminar in 1990 to the 26th ICBR held this week in Geneva. He has attended every ICBR since its inception.

The award, says the ICBR steering committee, is granted to a person for remarkable commitment and outstanding achievements to the battery recycling industry and its related fields such as: the development of new battery recycling technologies and chemistries; improving battery collection and recycling; the protection of the environment; and advancing sustainable development and the circular economy.

Jean-Pol Wiaux, chair of the ICBR steering committee, said: “His lifelong commitment put the worldwide battery recycling industry on the path to a profitable and environmentally sound business model.”

The annual ICBR award, presented at the 26th International Congress on Battery Recycling in Geneva, went to Jacques David

Begüm Bozkaya joins CBI as technical manager

The Consortium for Battery Innovation announced in early November that Begüm Bozkaya has been appointed as its technical manager.

Bozkaya is already known among the advanced lead battery community, having been involved with recent CBI workshops and ELBC presentations.

In the past six years she has investigated the effects of carbon additives on negative plates for lead batteries as part of her PhD, studying with Fraunhofer R&D Center for Electromobility at Fraunhofer ISC.

Separately Power Technology, an energy publication, has nominated CBI for its 2021 Excellence Award. It is included in the Batteries & Storage shortlist as part of its Sector Excellence category.

Begüm Bozkaya

BCI presents distinguished service awards to Weinberg and Meyers

Lawyer David Weinberg and Quexco chairman Howard Meyers received Distinguished Service annual awards at this September’s BCI annual convention. Weinberg’s was for 2020 and Meyers for 2021.

The presentation of Weinberg’s award was delayed a year due to the Covid pandemic, which caused the BCI annual convention to be held virtually.

Meyers, who started building his lead recycling business in the 1970s, has been a mainstay in the industry, building what eventually became the largest battery recycling business in the world, BCI said.

EnerSys president and CEO Dave Shaffer said: “Howard is an amazing businessman. He has shown dogged determination throughout his entire career back to a very young age to succeed in the difficult recycling business.

“He is always thinking about the complexities of the business on multiple levels. Howard’s contributions to the industry and the world go well beyond the businesses he created. His service to the industry has been demonstrated by his commitment and engagement with BCI and other trade associations throughout his tenure.”

BCI said that he had been a mainstay of the industry for five decades, building what eventually became the largest battery recycling business in the world.

“His business acumen has been widely recognized by his colleagues and competitors alike, and his efforts have gone on to shape the industry,” BCI said.

BCI also acknowledged Meyers’s philanthropic activities, including his donations to NYU Paths to Peace programme, which brings together students of different faiths and backgrounds from Israel, the West Bank and Gaza, to study and live together at NYU.

David Weinberg, a partner of the law firm Wiley Rein, began working for BCI in 1989 and since then has worked with the Environmental Protection Agency in an effort to limit the unnecessary regulations placed on the lead battery industry based on scientific advice and best practices.

Just over a year ago, he received acclaim from the American Society of Association Executives for a ‘groundbreaking model for lead battery recycling’ that he helped to develop on behalf of BCI.

The model was called ‘one of the most important regulatory accomplishments of the past 100 years’.

In his acceptance speech, Weinberg quoted the poet Edward R. Murrow, who said: “We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty. We must remember always that accusation is not proof and that conviction depends upon evidence and due process of law. We will not walk in fear, one of another. We will not be driven by fear into an age of unreason.”

“Howard’s contributions to the industry and the world go well beyond the businesses he created. His service to the industry has been demonstrated by his commitment and engagement with BCI” - David Shaffer Weinberg receiving the award from BCI’s Miksad, who spoke about his three decades’ service

Advanced Battery Concepts appoints Michael Everett as president as well as COO

Bipolar battery firm Advanced Battery Concepts has promoted Michael Everett to president alongside his current job as chief operating officer, with the main objective of commercializing the firm’s new Home Emergency Energy product line, the firm said on November 8.

The HEES, which uses the firm’s GreenSeal bipolar batteries to provide back-up power storage when grid power is out, was launched in September 2021.

Everett joined ABC in June 2019 from Trojan Battery, which had been bought by C&D Technologies in November 2018.

At Trojan he was senior vice president for engineering for three years, following 13 years at Maxwell Technologies as CTO and vice president.

One of Everett’s key tasks has been to industrialize ABC’s GreenSeal processes and manufacturing equipment, which enables continuous production of electrode assembly so that OEMs can build the batteries in-house at manufacturing scale volumes.

“Michael Everett has been a great addition and contributor to the Advanced Battery Concepts team and its growth over the past two years,” said ABC founder Ed Shaffer.

“His ability to lead our industrialization programme and focus on process improvements has been a key to his promotion as president.”

“GreenSeal batteries unlock much higher value for the lead battery industry than historically achievable, as measured by the higher performance, longer lifetime and more efficient use of raw materials and resources in manufacturing, and there is more to come,” said Everett.

Michael Everett

Women in Batteries group launched at BCI

A new women’s group aiming to promote and support the professional development of women in the battery industry was officially launched at September’s BCI convention in San Diego.

In a sector where women are traditionally few and far between, the Women in the Global Battery Industry group aims to ‘help women further their own careers as well as help to further their companies’ goals by relationship building within the industry’.

MAC Engineering chairwoman Julie McClure will chair the group. Membership is open to all in the industry.

Spearheading the formation of the group was a steering committee of women well known in the industry, including Virginia Archibald, Surrette Battery; Melissa Floyd, Stryten Energy; Claudia Lorenzini, Microporous; Ellen Maxey, Clarios; Maria Roma, Advanced Battery Concepts; Sheila Ryles, Teck Metals; Donna Snyder, East Penn Manufacturing; Tammy Stankey, The Doe Run Company; Emma Thacker, EnerSys; and Pam O’Brien, BCI.

Julie McClure said: “As a second generation professional in the battery industry, I know how valuable relationships are in building leadership skills to serve in executive positions within the industry, especially in one that is a traditionally male enterprise.

“Through the networking, professional growth, education and mentorship opportunities we will offer, I am excited to increase the number of C-suite executives in our growing industry.”

The vice-chair is Virginia Archibald, CFO at Surrette Battery in Canada.

Chris Pruitt, BCI president and president of East Penn Manufacturing, said the launch signalled a great opportunity for women to advance in the sector. “I’ve seen within my own company the power of diverse points of view from an inclusive workforce,” he said.

East Penn has been named one of America’s best employers for women by Forbes and Statista.

In the 2019 BCI convention in Tuscon, Arizona, women in the battery industry (pictured) met to discuss the possibility of the formation of this professional group

BCI launches educational webinars to focus on roles of batteries for energy storage

Battery Council International announced early November that it had launched a series of short webinars on subjects integral to US federal policy discussions on batteries’ role in the future of the country.

The content is designed to highlight ways to meet US energy storage needs through domestic resources, and why supply chains, manufacturing infrastructure, minerals and battery innovation are essential to meet these goals.

The information is being offered on demand to make it accessible to viewers at a time and place of their choosing.

“We know that policymakers and our stakeholders have busy schedules,” said Roger Miksad, BCI executive vice president.

“Our goal is to provide them with the information they are looking for on their schedule, not ours. Just as streaming has become a preferred method for viewing television shows and movies, we believe it’s also an effective way to connect with policymakers.”

In the first briefing, Critical Minerals & Supply Chains for US Energy Storage, Miksad and John Uhrie, vice president, exploration, research and technical development for The Doe Run Company, will discuss the role of metals and minerals for a low carbon future in the US and internationally.

“The low carbon future is coming, and there’s a variety of minerals that are central to this low carbon and renewable energy future,” said Uhrie. He says these minerals are essential to the global battery market, which today is about $90 billion in value, but by 2030 will be $150 billion.

Miksad and Uhrie say they “will also examine the closed-loop manufacturing system that keeps 130 million lead batteries out of landfills each year and provides a continuous supply of recycled lead to manufacture new batteries”.

Future webinar topics will address the role of lead batteries in supporting the transition to electric vehicles.

Cilia appointed as chairman of Abertax Technologies, ‘K-D’ Merz joins council

Joseph Cilia took over the chairmanship of the Abertax Foundation in early October, replacing Martin Florin, who becomes deputy chairman ahead of his retirement.

Cilia started at the Abertax Group in 2003 as the group’s chief executive and R&D director. Since then the group has expanded extensively in terms of staff and turnover.

Cilia says the firm is still poised for more growth.

“The Abertax group has a comprehensive R&D team with engineers and specialist in different areas. We’re very active in the development of new products and we hold 18 patents,” he says.

“All these and other related products are produced in-house. These range from plastic injected components to highly sophisticated electronic products, coupled with IATF 16949 Quality Control.”

Cilia is also a professor at the University of Malta. He has published more than 100 papers in international conferences. His research interests include high speed drive systems, electrical transport, energy storage systems and the efficient use of energy and renewables.

Separately, Klaus-Dieter Merz — known affectionately to the battery world as KD — has become a member of Abertax Technologies’ Council. KD joined Abertax in 2008, initially as a technical consultant and adviser. Later he became VP for technology and a member of the executive board at Abertax.

KD has worked closely with the R&D team at Abertax to design and develop products that are needed in energy storage technology. Several patents on products and manufacturing processes have resulted from this work.

“My main expertise is in lead-acid batteries, and most of the products developed and manufactured by Abertax are to for the leadacid battery business,” says KD.

Besides his new role in the council, KD is still a member of the Abertax Executive Board as an adviser. He also supports many companies in battery development and manufacturing processes, particularly for VRLA batteries.

Abertax’s main product lines are battery accessories such as precision safety valves for VRLA batteries, and electronic components such as sensors and battery management systems.

Joseph Cilia

Sunlight Batteries USA announces Sechrist as new CEO

Todd Sechrist has been appointed the CEO and president of Sunlight Batteries USA, the American arm of Olympia Group battery subsidiary Systems Sunlight, the firm announced on October 11.

Sechrist has been a board member of the company since 2020. He joins Sunlight after a long career in the energy storage sector, including 25 years at lead-acid battery maker EnerSys, where his positions have included president – Americas; and president – Europe, Middle East and Africa.

He will head up the company as it builds its new 103,000 ft2 (9,600m2) lead and lithium battery facility in North Carolina, which has an annual capacity of more than 2GWh of lead and lithium batteries.

The facility will take about two years to complete at a cost of $150 million, Sunlight says, and includes expanding its Greensboro plant, which will triple the unit’s capacity for the assembly of lead and lithium batteries by 2022.

“Todd brings a wealth of knowledge and experience from both the battery industry and the forklift-focused side of the business,” said Lampros Bisalas, Sunlight CEO.

“Energy storage, and more specifically the battery and charging system industry, is becoming increasingly important to contemporary society,” said Sechrist. “Sunlight has an important role to play on a worldwide scale, and I am keen to assist the company at this seminal moment of its evolution to global reach.”

Sechrist’s appointment comes as the company records a 68% year-on-year growth, turning over €126 million ($146 million) in the first half of 2021.

In September, the company said it would spend €50 million ($59.2 million) on expanding its lead and lithium battery manufacturing unit in Xanthi, Greece.

Todd Sechrist Klaus-Dieter Merz

ALL YOU NEED

Long Duration Energy Storage Council formed by 24 tech companies

The Long Duration Energy Storage Council announced its formation on November 4. It is the creation of 24 technology companies, users and investors with a stated aim of achieving grid net-zero by 2040.

Electrochemical founding members of the council are Ambri, CellCube, Enlighten, Eos Energy Storage, ESS, eZinc, Form Energy, Redflow and Ceres Power, representing the chemical side.

Mechanical energy storage founders — firms that use the manipulation of physical objects to capture energy for later release — are Energy Dome, Highview Power and Quidnet Energy.

Thermal energy storage founder members, where energy is stored through heating a solid or liquid for later release, include: Azelio, Echogen Power Systems, Malta and Stiesdal.

Additional members include equipment manufacturers (Alfa Laval, Baker Hughes, Siemens Energy), low carbon energy system integrators & developers (BP, Greenko, NEOM), industrial customers (Rio Tinto) and capital providers (Breakthrough Energy Ventures).

In its opening announcement the council said it had “united to provide guidance to governments and grid operators, and will publish a strategic report on technologies, with the aim of enabling global deployment of long duration energy storage by 2040.

“This would see dispatchable renewable energy used to eliminate the 1.5 to 2.3 gigatonnes of CO2 produced annually from fossil fuels to meet grid energy imbalances, equivalent to 10%-15% of total emissions in today’s power sector.”

The council said on November 23 it would publish its first annual report on the need for long duration energy storage to reach NetZero carbon emissions.

“The report, based on research and collaboration of council members, concludes that 1.5TW-2.5 TW and 85TWh-140 TWh long duration energy storage could be deployed globally by 2040.

“This will cover around 10% of global electricity consumed, require between $1.5 trillion to $3 trillion in investment, and would represent between four and seven times the total TWh global lithium-ion deployment today and between five and 11 times the total investment in renewable power in 2020.”

“The world is not on track to limit the rise in global temperature to 1.5°C,” said Ramya Swaminathan, CEO, Malta. “To achieve the necessary decarbonization, significant efforts must begin immediately to reduce emissions across all sectors. The power sector, which accounts for roughly one-third of global emissions, will be central to global decarbonization and will need to achieve net-zero emissions by 2040.

“Long duration energy storage is the lynchpin to decarbonization.”

Two ex-GM executives join Nanoramic advisory board

Nanoramic, an energy storage and advanced materials company, announced early November it had added two senior industry leaders to its advisory board. These are Rick Wagoner, former chairman and CEO and Larry Burns, former corporate VP of research and development.

“Wagoner and Burns will assist Nanoramic in revolutionizing the lithium-ion battery market with its Neocarbonix electrode technology,” said the firm. “Using Neocarbonix, battery manufacturers can reduce costs by 20% and improve energy density by 30% compared to current battery designs, substantially increasing the range and affordability of electric vehicles.

Wagoner had a 32-year career at GM and is best known for his pivotal leadership as the company’s chairman and CEO. Since retiring from GM in 2009, he has been active as a board member and adviser to various public and early-stage companies. He is chairman of Invesco and a board member of ChargePoint, Excelitas Technologies, and Graham Holdings.

Burns worked in R&D for GM from 1998-2009, during which he was responsible for advanced technology development, product portfolio, and strategic planning.

In 2011, Burns was elected as a member of the National Academy of Engineering for his leadership and contributions to automotive technologies. He currently advises organizations such as Kitson & Partners, Goodyear, and Niron Magnetics on the future of mobility, manufacturing, energy, and innovation.

Previously, he was a consultant to Waymo (Google self-driving cars), a professor of engineering practice at the University of Michigan, and director of the Program for Sustainable Mobility at Columbia University.

Rick Wagoner Larry Burns

Kore Power appoints Panasonic’s Cowder to lead operations in Arizona

Former Panasonic manufacturing general manager Randy Cowder will lead KORE Power’s new facility in Buckeye, Arizona, the battery cell technology developer announced on September 30.

Cowder, who becomes vice president of manufacturing and heads up the company’s KOREPlex facility, previously worked in Panasonic’s gigafactory in nearby Nevada.

He has more than 25 years’ experience in manufacturing, the company says, and will help to build an American supply chain of energy storage solutions.

KORE Power’s new facility will add a whopping 16GWh capacity to its existing 2GWh by the end of 2023.

Its battery cells are made for the energy storage, e-mobility, utility, industrial and mission-critical markets, KORE says.

Randy Cowder

Argonne National Laboratory hires new chief scientist for energy storage

Material science expert Shirley Meng has been appointed chief scientist of the Argonne Collaborative Center for Energy Storage Science — ACCESS — the department announced on October 25.

The appointment, a newly created position, comes at the same time as Meng takes a post as professor at the Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering (PME) at the University of Chicago. She leaves the University of California in San Diego as a materials scientist and professor to take up the post.

Meng will help drive the energy storage research strategy at the ANL, ‘enhancing Argonne’s wide portfolio of battery research, which ranges from the fundamentals of battery science, to high-energy lithium-ion and beyond lithium-ion systems, to long duration stationary storage systems’, the ANL says.

Matthew Tirrell, dean of

Shirley Meng

the PME, said: “Shirley’s work regarding material design for energy storage aligns perfectly with, and will greatly expand, PME’s existing theme of materials systems for sustainability and health. She and her lab bring exceptional talent and expertise in next generation battery development to the university, Argonne and the Chicagoland area.”

Meng graduated from the Nanyang Technological University in Singapore in 2000. After her PhD in materials science, from the National University in Singapore, she went to MIT as a postdoctoral fellow and then to the University of Florida, as assistant professor of materials science, in 2008.

She then worked in the Nanoengineering Department in San Diego, where she became the founding director of the Sustainable Power and Energy Center.

Meng has produced more than 200 publications and several patents that have led to start-up companies and higher energy batteries, the ANL says.

One start-up it mentions is South 8 Technologies, which is commercializing a liquefied gas electrolyte that Meng worked to develop. This is a battery that can operate at -80oC. (Lithium batteries cannot operate below -20oC.)

Meng has also used the ANL’s Advanced Photon Source to image the nanoparticles of batteries in a research effort to improve rechargeable batteries for EVs.

Hyundai becomes newest member of CBI

South Korean car firm Hyundai has become the latest member of the Consortium for Battery Innovation, the organization announced on November 15.

It has joined the association through its North American design, technology and engineering arm, Hyundai America Technical Center, Inc (HATCI), which is headquartered in Michigan with operations in California, Alabama and Georgia.

CBI has more than 100 members and although few of them are auto OEMs, the association works closely with the automotive industry.

It says it expects microhybrid vehicles to take up 60% of new car sales globally by 2030, and has expanded its technical roadmap to include targets for start-stop applications.

FREYR Battery becomes newest member of EUROBAT

EUROBAT today welcomed Norwegian lithium battery maker FREYR Battery into its membership.

FREYR makes lithium batteries using electricity generated by hydro and wind energy, and targets the electric mobility, stationary energy storage, marine and aviation sectors. FREYR is building a gigafactory in Norway.

“FREYR Battery’s ambitions will place us as one of Europe’s largest battery suppliers,” said CEO Tom Einar Jensen.

“We do compete globally in the battery cell industry, but in FREYR Battery we believe it is right to collaborate where we can, to drive important areas that we all benefit from such as regulations, access to the market, research, education and sustainable materials.”

EUROBAT executive director Rene Schroeder said the company would be a welcome contributor to drafting future EU policy frameworks for batteries.