By Mike Halls
Chris Pruitt, chief executive of East Penn and freshly appointed chairman of BCI gave the opening address with a well received and positive message extolling the strengths of the industry and the recent successes of the council.
Pruitt kicked off his address with a short review of the strengths of the lead battery from the recent
n BCI Chairman Pruitt Details Strengths and Challenges, pages 1-3
economic impact report. “In 2021, our industry contributed to a staggering $32.9 billion our country’s economic wellbeing, including contributing $13.7 billion in GDP,” he said.
He then went on to point out the industry directly supports over 38,000 jobs and indirectly more than 121,000 jobs across 38 US states, that the industry pays wages that exceed those of many other industries. In terms of R&D some $113 million was spent in 2021.
“Our industry is helping the country reach its decarbonization goals through energy storage, electrifying transportation, and renewable energy,” he said. “We have a US manufacturing output
The opening keynote by well-known broadcaster and analyst, Robert Bryce, proved a perfect foil to those that believe the lead acid battery is doomed to failure as alternative energy demand makes the technology obsolete.
The presentation challenged all the underlying assumptions behind what policymakers would like to have us believe will be
a smooth and easy transition to sunlit uplands of an abundance of ‘new energy’.
Put simply if there were a choice between economic advancement, and climate change, the general public would vote with its feet and opt first to keep the lights on and industry running with whatever juice is needed.
For Bryce, the energy transition draws parallels with Hans
Christian Andersen’s tale of the The Emperor’s New Clothes. The energy transition is nothing more than a marketing phrase — a myth.
A quick glance around the room found plenty of heads nodding in quiet agreement with his analysis, including when he forecast that hydrocarbons are
n The Myth of the Energy Transition, International Expert Robert Bryce and If Oil Didn’t Exist, We’d Have to Invent it! pages 1-3
n New BCI Board Members Ratified, page 6
n The Great and the Good Descend on Louisville: Tales of Bourbon, BC! and Enthusiasm from the Opening Reception Signal a Great Start to the Convention, pages 6, 7
n Scenes from the Power Mart, or How to Fill an Exhibition Hall in 20 minutes, page 8
n Regulatory Clouds Darken Horizon but BCI Still Chalking Up Successes, Roger Miksad Outlines the Changing Battery Landscape, page 9
n BCI Players Tee Off with a Bang, Mystery CBI golfers Take Course by Surprise, Ringers Revealed, pages, 10, 11
n Gopher Resource Receives 2023 BCI Innovation Award, Much Coveted Honor Goes to New Technique for Processing Lead Slag, page 14
n C&D Technologies Scoops up Latest Amplify Award with Power of the Plus, page 16
n Poster Exhibition Winner Named, New Logo Revealed, page 16
n Women in the Global Battery Industry, Participants Soar — 200 Members and Counting, page 16
n Tales of Darkness from Deepest Kentucky, All Hail, the Axemen Cometh: Battery Force 1 Lands as New BCI Leadership Revealed; Confessions of a NewsDonkey, page 19
“In2021,ourindustrycontributedtoastaggering $32.9billionourcountry’seconomicwellbeing, includingcontributing$13.7billioninGDP”Chris Pruitt: Opening Address
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greater than 165 gigawatt hours per year, (206 GWh across North America) still the largest battery manufacturing industry in the USA.
“We have shown resilience in how we handled supply chain disruptions and our strong domestic supply chain has helped us weather these challenges.”
Changing his focus to that of the challenges and achievements of BCI he said BCI had been incredibly busy this past year, “working hard to represent the industry with multiple governmental efforts.
“BCI is taking the lead on significant regulatory proposals that have been on the horizon for the past few years and are now having their moment.”
Three of the most significant regulatory regimes at EPA and OSHA for the lead battery are under active review, and BCI is playing a highly active role in representing BCI’s members’ interests. “Any one of these programs could have a significant impact on our industry and BCI is working hard to ensure that any new rules are based on sound science and are updated in a rational way to ensure industry can meet them while ensuring our workers and communities are properly protected from harmful exposures,” he said.
Pruitt welcomed the advocacy efforts on Capitol Hill saying that a strong lobbying team was in place to ensure, “ the nation invest properly in supporting and growing strong domestic manufacturing industries – like the lead battery industry. While
the nation is rightly focused on catching up with our foreign adversaries in manufacturing capacity for lithium batteries, it cannot leave the incumbent manufacturers high and dry.”
BCI successfully worked to support the introduction of the USA Batteries Act to eliminate the Superfund excise taxes on lead
oxide, antimony and sulfuric acid — a tax that places an American industry at a competitive disadvantage to foreign imports.
Pruitt praised the way that the Women in the Global Battery Industry initiative had developed and was pleased to see it had already grown into 200 members.
“WGBI has made a remarkable
impact with its popular mentor program, active participation at international events, and the availability of various professional development opportunities. We are excited to see WGBI grow and look forward to continuing our support of women in the battery industry,” he said.
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not going to be banished from the face of the planet any time soon.
According to Bryce, energy realism is energy humanism and part of that realism is the fact that ICE vehicles, complete with their tried and trusted cargoes of lead batteries, are here for a long, long time to come.
Even a cursory look at the headlines from Norway to Nebraska shows that the general public are not as enamoured with the push for renewables as government’s and others pushing clean energy agendas would have us believe.
Bryce cited data from BP to show that US hydrocarbon use grew 55% faster than wind and solar in 2022.
And despite in excess of $500 billion being spent on wind and solar, the hydrocarbons share of US primary energy supply was still 81% in 2021, compared to 90% in 1985.
Even with the prospect of increasing numbers of shiny EVs crowding on to the roads, where is the increase in electricity demand to charge them going to come from and who will pay
for grid upgrades to cater for the inevitable surge in demand?
According to the Boston Consulting Group, a model utility will need to invest between $1,700 and $5,800 in grid upgrades per EV through 2030 alone, Bryce said.
He also took Tesla wunderkind Elon Musk to task over his master plan for converting the global economy to renewables, which would require 240 TWh of batteries.
But as Bryce points out, manufacturing that much storage would require the output of all of Tesla’s gigafactories including the one in Nevada for the next 960 years.
Even if Tesla could expand its output 10-fold, to 50 gigafactories, achieving the desired result would still be nearly 100 years down the road.
Then there is the question of who will handle all the billions
of waste lithium ion batteries. Bryce estimates overall current recycling rates to be around 5%, compared to more than 30% for glass bottles and near 99% for lead batteries.
“We need more coherent thinking,” Bryce said. The enthusiastic clapping from the audience echoed their appreciation of the coherence of his presentation.
Robert Bryce: ‘if Oil Didn’t Exist, We’d Have to Invent it!’
EvenifTeslacouldexpanditsoutput10-fold, to50gigafactories,achievingthedesiredresult wouldstillbenearly100yearsdowntheroad
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“This is the annual prom night for the battery industry across North America,” said one Michigan delegate determinedly clinging on to his couple of drinks and Kentucky-styled fried chicken. “And I’m looking forward to a lively and fun program.”
For the second time many of the presentations will spill over on to the third morning — traditionally held by a less than solemn gathering of the Quarter Century Club celebrating breakfast in true midWest style (always start at dawn before milking the dairy.)
Certainly, the range of presentations looks a formidable one.
Behind the scenes BCI head Roger Miksad and industry veterans Tim Ellis and John Howes as well as others helped compile a very original range of industry and technical presentations.
“I like it,” one conference delegate told Battery Street Journal when reviewing the diary for the following days. “This is very different from what you get from regular lead conferences — some of the presentations we’ll see over the next three days are very lateral in the approach taken.”
There was also a feeling that the choice of keynote speakers was an interesting one. Robert Bryce, for example, could have been controversial given his belief that the much-hailed energy transition was mostly hype and impossible to achieve. (In the event the following morning his talk was recognised as being one of the best in BCI history.)
What would a drinks reception in Kentucky be without an investigation of the healing properties of the state’s speciality drink — Bourbon whiskey.
Cannily BCI provided a separate tasting room at the back of the reception hall where Bourbon amateurs could taste its subtleties and distinct flavours.
“I was blown away by the complexities on offer,” one British delegate said. “There’s a huge array of nuances and taste that belong in the same leagues as single Scottish malts.”
BCI announced new executive leadership appointments effective April 21, including the promotion of Roger Miksad from executive vice president and general counsel to president and executive director of the association.
Chris Pruitt, president of the BCI board from 2021-2023, was elected by the association’s
membership to the newly-created role of chairman of the board of directors.
Miksad is an ex-officio member of the board and continues to also work as general counsel.
Pruitt said: “Through his longstanding dedication to the industry and commitment to upholding the highest standards of
President and executive director: Roger Miksad
Directors and officers
excellence for the association, Roger has earned the trust and respect of his colleagues and peers.
“I have no doubt that his strategic vision and leadership will guide us in the right direction, and that BCI will continue to be a driving force for innovation within the battery industry for many years to come.”
Chris Pruitt (chairman), East Penn Manufacturing; Bill Moll (vice chairman), GS Yuasa Energy Solutions; Rick Heller (BCI treasurer), C&D Technologies and Trojan Battery Company; Terry Murphy (BCI secretary), Hammond Group.
Directors
Terry Agrelius, US Battery Manufacturing; Marc Andraca, Clarios; Thomas Bawart, Banner; Silvano Gelleni, Acumuladores Duncan; Hal Hawk, Crown Battery; Larry Keith, ENTEK International; Julie McClure, MAC Engineering and Equipment; Sergio Moura, Acumuladores Moura; Marcus Randolph, Ecobat; Chad Schuchmann, Daramic; David Shaffer, EnerSys; Nick Starita, Hollingsworth & Vose; Jamie Surrette, Surrette Battery; Tim Vargo, Stryten Energy.
Brace! Brace! Brace! That was the audience sensation as Roger Miksad took to the stage on the first morning of the conference. The audience were aware that doom and gloom presentations were often a traditional feature of past conventions but Miksad quickly promised that his address to delegates would also have its bright moments too.
Although the full title of his address — The BCI Regulatory and Advocacy Update — sounds a bit of a gloomy mouthful, it should really be recognized as something more akin to a Battery State of the Union speech. The picture Miksad painted was part positive, BCI has clearly been successful in many initiatives this year, but was also set in the context of a background of darkening regulatory landscape.
However, he said ongoing engagement with those who shape the laws impacting the lead battery industry was bearing fruit and policymakers were increasingly aware of the importance of ensuring long-standing lead battery manufacturers are supported alongside newer chemistries on the market.
Miksad hailed BCI’s involvement in shaping the USA Batteries Act as being one of the association’s big successes.
The legislation, passed in 2023, would remove what he described as pernicious taxes on
substances used in lead battery manufacturing and which gave foreign manufacturers an unfair advantage on the cost of raw materials. BCI successfully organized a coalition of representatives, including Pennsylvania’s Dan Meuser, in
support of the legislation.
BCI was stepping up its engagement with the big government guns. “We’re also engaging with the Department of Energy whose staff have been candid in public and private about the fact that there is so much money coming into the industry they are finding it difficult to spend it. Hardly an issue to worry about but more as to where the funding is going.
‘We’re engaged — from the research staff all the way up to the energy secretary’s office — that lead batteries are included in those program,” he said.
“Lead deserves a bigger share of DoE’s pie and we need to remain in there demanding a fair and equitable investment for our industry, because if we don’t show up and ask for that money we simply won’t be given it.” Certainly, a soundbite with punch.
Miksad said environmental, health and safety issues are probably the biggest threat to the lead battery industry at the moment. The three biggest EPA regulations for lead are currently under review. There are others out there that would have an impact but the most immediate that need to be dealt with include the Nartional Emissions Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants (NESHAP), which regulates the amount of lead that is allowed to come out of a chimney stack.
“BCI had a great victory on this one. We were able to get the EPA to pull back from almost every proposed rule that was objectionable and unnecessary. They really did respond to the industry’s concerns. We didn’t get everything we asked for, but it was good.”
“For example the proposed rule would have included in its scope any facility that made a lead battery component that went into a finished battery, such as small parts. We got them to roll that back so now it only applies to component part facilities ort input material facilities that use specific lead processes such as oxide mills, pasting and plate casting operations, not for small parts and other components that really don’t have an emissions profile.”
Another issue to be faced is the national ambient air quality standard. He described the almost impossible task of reacting to a 2000 page report in a couple of months that might be put into force as early as 2025 saying that BCI had enjoyed close support from scientists at the International Lead Association. “We’ve still got a way to go but we’re going to get there,” said Miksad.
One interesting note — and what some people had been fearing for many years — is that the immediate pace of change
“Lead deserves a biggershareofDoE’s pieandweneed to remain in there demandingafairand equitableinvestment forourindustry, because if we don’t showupandaskfor thatmoneywesimply won’tbegivenit”
A chill wind blowing across from the Ohio River greeted players arriving at the Shawnee Golf Course for Sunday’s annual BCI Golf Tournament. But there were plenty of powerful demonstrations of play to light up the day as the competition heated up at Shawnee — a mature, fairly level bermuda grass course.
All eyes were on the prizes in this ENTEK International-sponsored tournament as the teams took their places on the tees of the 18 holes and the sound of a shotgun blast rang out for the traditional shotgun start.
All groups had to start and finish playing all the holes at about the same time.
And in the ever-popular scramble format, teams of four players each had to drive from the tee and select the best shot as the position from which to carry on play.
Stand-out performances from this year’s play included those of the CBI’s newly-appointed communications manager, Lara Wilson, who won the longest drive and longest putt contests for the women.
Stand-out performances from this year’s play included those of the CBI’s newlyappointed communications manager, Lara Wilson, who won the longest drive and longest putt contests for the women.
Scramble Sponsored by ENTEK
1st Place: Richard Glassburn, Trevor Plote, Clint Pugh
2nd Place: Ted Trymbiski, Brian Trymbiski, Fred Wehmeyer, Dane Wirtz
3rd Place: Dave Brown, Kevin Campbell, Charles Cooper, Alistair Davidson
Contests Sponsored by Crown Battery
Women’s Results
Closest to the Pin: Jennifer Ruetz
Longest Drive: Lara Wilson
Longest Putt: Lara Wilson
Men’s Results
Closest to the Pin: Mike Parker
Longest Drive: Rick Glassburn
Longest Putt: Joe McKinley
As in previous years the power mart was strategically placed next to the lunch snaring a very happy-to-be-snared bunch of delegates who were more than willing to discuss their supplier needs and also learn about the latest range of products on offer.
There were 34 exhibitors this year, some being the regular staples of the industry but more than a few were dipping their feet into BCI’s Power Mart for the first time.
The full list of exhibitors is here: Accuma Corporation; Ahlstrom; Amer-Sil; Argonne National Laboratory; Associated Electrochemicals Private; Bernard Dumas; BM-Rosendahl; Centrifugal Castings; CG Thermal; CMWTEC Technologies; Cobra Wire and Cable; Daramic; DHC Specialty Corp; Digatron Power Electronics; Eagle Oxide Services; Elantas Pdg; Entek International; Flow-Rite Controls; Haijiu Battery Co; Hammond Group; Hollingsworth & Vose; Internationa l Thermal Systems; JBI Corporation; MAC Engineering; Mate Gauge; Microporous; Orion; Pinco; Polymer Solutions International; Sovema Group; TBS Engineering; Wegmann Automotive; WGBI; Wirtz Manufacturing
11.30am
Since the introduction of BCI’s Innovation Award in 2016, the winners of the new standard for creative battery excellence have come from a wide selection of industry participants. If one includes honourable mentions, most of the acclaim has gone to those increasing the performance side of batteries — think additives, separators, bipolar batteries and new manufacturing techniques.
This year’s award was won by Gopher Resources at a different end of the battery life-cycle — dealing with slag. Lead batteries may be the most recycled item on the planet, but the residue after being put through the furnace is toxic with a high lead content and traces, among other things, of antimony, arsenic, bismuth and cadmium. This slag perforce has to go into landfill.
Gopher Resource has developed a Slag Cleaning and Recovery of Useful Metals (SCRUM) Process that it says can reduce its solid waste footprint by 99%.
The patent-pending process takes end slags that are typically landfilled as waste and economically recovers the tin and lead
for reuse in the lead battery supply chain.
Each year the lead battery industry globally disposes of end slags that have approximately 100,000 tonnes of lead, and 30,000 tonnes of tin are lost every year. This tin loss is equivalent to three quarters of US domestic tin consumption.
This SCRUM Process Slag is a valueadded product that avoids landfill for reuse in building construction and roadway aggregate industry sectors.
“What Gopher has done is taken established fuming technology and adapted it for secondary slag,” says Mark Stevenson, a veteran battery metallurgist. “It’s great to see more advances in secondary lead processing. It’s a very worthy winner.”
The SCRUM process uses furnace fuming technology to separate the tin and lead into a concentrated fume form with very high selectivity and efficiency, leaving behind a “cleaned” bulk iron sodium-silicate “SCRUM Slag”.
Previous fuming efforts have not been feasible due to poor selectivity and high partitioning of bulk slag components, in
particular sodium, into the fume. “Our process leaves greater than 70% of the sodium in the slag, and recovers 99.9% of both tin and lead in the fume,” said Joe Grogan, chief technology officer for Gopher Resource after receiving the award.
“This tin and lead concentrated fume can be combined with other by-products for refining into lead, and LME tin. The ability to recover these metals from lead battery recycling slag in a safe, economically feasible way is an industry first.
“Waste minimization is a key goal of ours in developing this process. To reach that goal our SCRUM Slag has trace ppm levels of RCRA elements enabling its use in a variety of value-added applications.”
Gopher Resource has supported Slag Cleaning and Recovery of Useful Metals (SCRUM) process development efforts for over five years with a large financial commitment as well as that of research time.
In addition to Gopher Resource, this year there were four other firms that applied for BCI’s Innovation Award. They were: Ace Green, Daramic, STC and Water Gremlin.
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This year’s nominations for the Amplify Award for successful marketing and promotion campaigns attracted a varied and strong set of candidates. That said C&D Technologies emerged as the final winner in a strong, and very varied field amid what had first seemed to be a close race.
Runners up were Clarios with an interesting campaign focusing on the US’ Hispanic citizens; Club Assist in a collaborative venture with the Canadian Automobile Association; East Penn and its Navitas Systems subsidiary
with a campaign highlighting the versatility of using lead and lithium in different fashions; Envovix re-imagining traditional battery architecture; Stryten unveiling its clean energy credentials; and, Trojan emphasising the strength of its brand.
But the voting by the independent set of pannellists was clearly on C&D Technologies with its “Power of the Plus” campaign. “Basically, it matched and exceeded most of the criteria we used in assessing the candidates,” said one of the judges who preferred
was no longer coming from Washington State and he said BCI is focusing on California — an area where BCI has had a long involvement. Miksad noted that despite being involved in protracted conversations there was little interest in policymakers in seeing how rules could be implemented. “It’s a problem,” he said.
As part of this the thorny issue of blood lead levels continues to pre-occupy the regulatory
landscape — even though as his charts showed the lead battery business has proven itself adept at being ahead of the curve. He discussed the almost impossibility of removing lead from blood at the levels being sought and the huge cost that would mean for the industry. A startling figure. Compliance with proposed legislation could, in some instances, cost around 45% of profits every year for 10 years. It would be unfair to say there was a concerted groan from the audience but it was hard not to be shocked by presentation of such a stark figure.
Miksad’s State of the Battery Union Speech closed on a positive rallying call. BCI has been around for the past 100 years, “we look forward to seeing how we fare in the next century.”
not to be named. “It was a clear favourite by a long chalk, in that it named and achieved very clear objectives and goals.”
Certainly, C&D Technologies’ theme — the ‘Power of the Plus”
— hit one of the sweet spots in current advances in lead battery performance. The campaign was created to increase awareness and generate leads for its PLP — Pure Lead Plus — battery.
The president of Women in the Global Battery Industry
Julie McClure opened what was the group’s second meeting at a BCI convention.
As the group’s membership drive continues apace — now some 200 members and counting — McClure said the group was
looking forward to welcoming new members onto its subcommittees to expand its program of activities.
Ahead of WGBI’s own convention networking reception yesterday, it was also revealed that the group has already raised $75,000 in sponsorships.
There were nine entries for the first BCI Poster Research Showcase, launched at this year’s convention, to turn the spotlight on undergraduate, graduate and postdoctoral level researchers and assistants involved in scientific work on lead and other battery types.
As Battery Street Journal went to press, the winner of all nine entries chosen by BCI’s judging panel was yet to be revealed.
However, BSJ learned that Women in the Global Battery Industry, which judged posters submitted by the women entrants only, had selected Camila Alves Escanio for the entry she presented: Carbon fiber/polyaniline/lead composite with low hydrogen evolution activity with potential application in lead acid battery.
I love the gentle thud of hatchets in the morning. It sounds like victory.” Yes, perhaps not a Kentucky version of Apocalypse Now, but axe throwing is big in Louisville. (Just 50 yards to the right of the conference hotel there’s a local axe-throwing gallery.) The concept is now being adapted to the BCI presentation schedule.
“If speakers over-run their allocated times, we know how we’ll be doing them,” says one BCI director darkly. Another quaint custom of the American heartland moves mainstream. Not to be outdone the BCI golfing tournament said that this was about to give a new meaning to “sudden death play-offs”.
Newshounds may be two a penny in battery reporting circles but we’d now like to introduce you to our very own NewsDonkey™ . NewsDonkey™ has been out and about in the great state of Kentucky.
It’s not April 1 but NewsDonkey™ can happily report that Rabbit Hash, a remote Kentucky town has since 1998 appointed dogs to serve as its mayor. (It serves as a fund-raiser for the local historical society.)
NewsDonkey™ — his slogan “All the News that’s Fit to Print” — is now canvassing BCI members for a possible future fundraising role for the association. A bale of hay, a bucket full of corn mash* and a BCI Golf Pass will keep this animal happy for many a conference to come.
*left in unsmoked oak barrels for seven years please
A deafening roar of welcome rang out across the skies over Louisville at the weekend as the great and good of the lead battery industry began to descend on the town ahead of the convention.
Heads turned skywards in awe to witness what many thought might be the arrival of the ‘Battery Force One’ jet carrying BCI’s new president and leadership team.
In the event, it was something far less impressive — only one of the most high-tech stealth fighter jets in the world being put through its paces ahead of the Thunder Over Louisville Air Show.
