ELBC Pre-conference Supplement

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Ba eries International

14 ELBC: Time for lead acid to strut its stuff

Edinburgh and the charms of the 'auld reekie'

Allan Cooper: the man behind he LC SuperHybrid the

! NT CO2: the big mover behind fuel U CO S I economy, better batteries SD B SU C ELB L IA C E Bringing the industry stry together P RS www.batteriesinternational.com rnational.com O SF U K AS

Global outlook for lead shows signs of great opportunities


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CONTENTS

Storing renewable energy into the grid — just part of a larger climate control plan 12

LEAD ACID FIGHTS BACK: THE 14 ELBC GUIDE The 14th European Lead Battery Conference in Edinburgh this September, could well be the most popular lead event this side of the new millennium, even surpassing the spectacular meetings in Paris two years ago. In this the first electronically published show guide — a second is already being prepared for delivery at the end of August and a printed version will be going into every delegate’s conference bags —we look at the editorial agenda and interview the luminaries that will be presenting or chairing the sessions. We’ve also included a mass of detail around the event.

WELCOME! Warmest greetings from Auld Reekie — aka as Edinburgh.

Cutting CO2 from car emissions means fuel consumption will also have to fall 30

6

EDITORIAL 8 The legacy of Thomas Midgeley — one of the brightest scientists of his day — persists. Unfortunately. The genius who invented CFCs and tetra-ethyl lead inadvertently caused a deep misconception of the dangers of lead that last till this day GLOBAL OUTLOOK: CLIMATE CHANGE WITHOUT THE IRRATIONALITY 12 Some broad perspectives on the global outlook will kick-start 14ELBC at the opening session. Look for controversy as the discussion moves towards facing the realities — or not — of how climate change will affect the battery business. LEAD FOR LOW EMISSION VEHICLES 30 One major conference theme will be the use of lead batteries in low emission vehicles. As the world comes to grips with reducing CO2 levels, smaller more efficient cars part-powered by renewable energy will become the new norm.

Cooper: a popular industry figure now powering the LC SuperHybrid’s development

40

PROFILE: ALLAN COOPER 40 In 2008 Allan Cooper was awarded the International Lead Medal for his exceptional contributions to the lead industry in the fields of metallurgy, production, and battery development, particularly in electric and hybrid electric vehicles. The story isn’t over yet. His work will run and run. CARBON AND ADVANCED BATTERIES 47 For almost two decades there has been a growing awareness that the inclusion of carbon could be the most important factor in the development of a new generation of better lead acid batteries.

EXHIBITION GUIDE, 24-29

Carbon: the mystery ingredient that could power the next generation of cars 47

Our comprehensive listing of exhibitors in the main hall includes a full run down of sponsors in this preconference guide and an alphabetical and numerical list of which firm can be found — and where

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WELCOME TO EDINBURGH

So, welcome to Edinburgh — “it’s what Paris ought to be” said the poet Robert Louis Stevenson (though being born there he may have been a shade biased). Edinburgh is the ancient capital of Scotland and a city that boasts a history that predates London. Or Rome for that matter.

Where to go in Auld Reekie Traces of bronze and iron age remains can be found under Edinburgh Castle, atop the ancient volcanic mound, that dominates the city. Nowadays Edinburgh is as much known for its lively culture as its historic buildings. Each year, for example, its international arts festival doubles the population to a million for the month of August. Perhaps the best known part of this is the 25 day Fringe festival where comedians and actors from across the UK, with a good representation from around the world, perform across the City in search of laughter, fame and, of course, money.

And in December the town hosts the biggest New Year street party in the world. Better known as Hogmanay some 100,000 revellers gather to watch the new year in with fireworks, dancing and music. Since Hogmanay traditionally lasts the full New Year’s Day (and January 2 is a national holiday), it is also the scene of determined — some in the city would even say heroic — drinking. But Edinburgh — or Auld Reekie as it used to be called, meaning Old Smokey for the haze of coal fires that lingered over the city — has a tremendous wealth of cultural and fascinating things.

GETTING AROUND: NOT A CITY FOR HIGH HEELS The best way to get around Edinburgh is on foot. Driving can be a nightmare in the city centre due to the one-way system and bus only routes. Tour guides recommend wearing comfortable shoes as the city still has a lot of cobbled streets. Alternatively, one day cards costing £3.50 will allow you to

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travel on the bus and tram network. Since May 2014 a new tram line has operated between the city centre and the airport. There are also hop on, hop off tour buses, that can be picked up outside of Edinburgh Waverley, the central train station. For this you also get a guided tour of the city.

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WELCOME TO EDINBURGH

Here are some of the must-sees: Edinburgh Castle This dominates the city skyline and sits on an extinct volcanic plug. There has been a royal castle on the spot since the reign of David I in the 12th century. And possibly much earlier. A map by Ptolemy in the second century AD talks about an inhabited ‘rocky place’ around this spot. It is the most popular tourist attraction in Scotland, with well over one million visitors each year. Last admission to the castle is 5pm. It shuts at 6pm.

century — although it was an effort by the then royal family to spread Catholicism after the reformation it became (and remains) the heart of Scottish Presbyterianism. The Royal Mile Not a real mile this one! — the UK forced the Scots to adopt English miles in 1845 — but this is a Scots one (that’s 1.12 English miles). This lively street in the heart of the city is well worth a stroll and it’s one of the most famous in the world.

The Palace of Holyroodhouse This has been the principal residence of the kings and queens of Scotland since the 16th century. It is Queen Elizabeth II’s official residence in Scotland. On view are the apartments where Mary, Queen of Scots lived. She was executed by the first Queen Elizabeth in 1587. St Giles Cathedral A church on this spot may have been built in the 1120s but was destroyed in a fire and rebuilt in the 14th

THE OLD AND THE NEW The Royal Mile is the spine of Old Town with Edinburgh Castle at the top and The Palace of Holyroodhouse and the new Scottish Parliament building at the bottom. St Giles Cathedral, John Knox House, the Scotch Whiskey Heritage Centre and the Mercat Cross are located on the Royal Mile.

AND SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT

Princes Street runs parallel to the Royal Mile, a short walk away. It is the main street in Edinburgh and separates The Old Town (the mediæval city) and The New Town which was built between 1765 and 1850. The Old and New Towns are UNESCO World Heritage Sites.

• A night to remember — or to forget Perhaps predictable for the battery industry’s love of electrolyte testing is the city’s Scotch Whisky Experience. This is situated just below Edinburgh Castle and is dedicated to the 300-year history of Scotch whisky. Cultured whisky drinkers may also enjoy The Macallan Edinburgh Literary Pub Tour, which takes in the famous and infamous pubs of Edinburgh’s Old and New Towns. Curiously this omits the fact that JK Rowling wrote her first Harry Potter novel from an Edinburgh coffee shop. • A tribute to the fallen (in the US civil war) In the Old Calton Burial Ground, in the centre of Edinburgh, there is a memorial to the Scottish soldiers who died in the American Civil War and a statue of Abraham Lincoln, the first one erected outside the US. • Ahoy there me hearties! The Royal Yacht Britannia served Queen Elizabeth II from 1954-1997 and is the last in a long line of royal yachts. Its new permanent home is at Ocean Terminal in the ancient port of nearby Leith. Almost anyone of any importance from presidents to kings will have dined on the Britannia at some point. • And for the green fingered Princes Street Gardens, situated in the city centre, boasts the world’s oldest floral clock and the Royal Botanic Garden contains the UK’s tallest Palm House.

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EDITORIAL Mike Halls • editor@batteriesinternational.com

Time to change the image of lead Thomas Midgley Junior isn’t so well known now. But, until his death in 1944, he was reckoned one of the most brilliant men of his day.

manufacturing experiences knew early on from numerous cases of madness and hallucinations, that it was dangerous).

Midgley’s fame rests on his two great contributions to mankind — dichlorodifluoromethane (better known to us as a CFC, the chemical that destroys the ozone layer) and tetra-ethyl-lead, the anti-knocking additive to petrol that was universally accepted as poisonous some 50 years after its discovery.

Rather like the anti-smoking campaign, public awareness of TEL took a long time to build up.

To be fair, Midgley’s immediate contribution to the planet was, at first, a beneficent one. The first CFCs were a boon to air cooling systems and saved many lives. The alternatives, such as propane or chloromethane were toxic, explosive or highly flammable. Oddly enough in the 1920s and 30s every year people died at the hands of their fridges. And tetra-ethyllead provided the automotive industry the push that made the internal combustion engine the workhorse of the planet and the troubled dream of an entire nation. But — 70 years after his death — with CFCs phased out and TEL only found in the poorest nations of the world, Midgley’s legacy lingers on. And in a totally unexpected way. By putting TEL into our cars, he put lead into the air. Or rather General Motors did (which from its initial

Publisher: Karen Hampton, karen@batteriesinternational.com, +44 (0) 7792 852 337 Editor: Michael Halls, mhalls@batteriesinternational.com, +44 (0) 1 243 782 275 Supplements editor: Wyn Jenkins, wyn.jenkins@serenglobalmedia.com, +44 1792 293 222 Business development manager June Moultrie june@batteriesinternational.com +44 (0) 7775 710 290

The trigger for it becoming an issue came from an unexpected direction. Cheap paint and timber frame houses in the US. For the very poor in America, their cheap wood built houses could be spruced up nicely with the judicious use of paint — whose principal pigment within it was lead oxide. And the mix of cheap wood, cheap paint? The result: flakes of peeling lead which entered people’s lungs. The resulting US (and then later worldwide) legislation turned attention to finding lead anywhere and everywhere else. So in the 1960s and early 1970s a seemingly powerful case for getting rid of the lead in petrol emerged. News that the high levels of lead in US and European inner city children caused by petrol fumes created a ripple effect — from the world of the tabloid to seats of government. In the event, legislation to enforce a ban of lead in petrol was inevitable. At this point, Robert Merton’s Law of Unforeseen Consequences kicked in.

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8 • Batteries International • 14 ELBC Show Guide • Summer 2014

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EDITORIAL

In the public mind by the end of the 1970s lead had now become as dangerous as, say, arsenic or strychnine. Probably even looking at the metal would make you blind or send you into fits. The fact that it was not just fit for purpose — and maybe the only thing that would easily and cheaply work within a car, or a UPS system — was left by the door neatly sitting next to the open-toed sandals. Even congressmen and MPs are human and jump with the lemmings. The result? We now have a generation of misinformed politicians who, with admirable thoroughness, are trying to legislate lead out of existence. The lead community have been fighting back for a generation and more. But with little impact on a media that doesn’t want to hear a good news story. So, for example, arguments about the recyclability of lead continue to have little impact on a general public that believes recycling of say tins or wine bottles is worthwhile but not inherently interesting. But the recycling story — which we’ll hear in detail again this conference — is an important story. It shows a responsible and mature industry that can point with ample justification to a defence that it’s core product is safe. And can be proven to be safe. The trouble is that changing public perceptions only seems to work best when sensationalism occurs. In Europe, for example, a thoroughly worthwhile book ‘E’ is for Additives, written in 1987, persuaded an entire continent of people who didn’t read the book that an E number (the European food code for food additives) was not just a bad thing but a terrible one. (Forgetting of course that E948, for example, is the code for oxygen or that herbs such as oregano would nowadays be coded as too dangerous to be assigned an E number.) Organizations such as the International Lead Association, EUROBAT, BCI and various others continue to try

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and fight back. But they have an enormous challenge on their hands. And, being respectable bodies rightly enough would not stoop to underhand media trickery. Events such as this year’s ELBC are important meetings of the great and the good of the lead acid battery community to meet and discuss their future. High on the agenda, once again, will be looking at way to promote a sensible conversation — outside the industry — of the merits and safety of lead. “It’s hard to get political people, let alone ordinary ones, to understand what an inconsistent view they have on lead. They want to ban it from the European Union but still drive cars,” one battery veteran told Batteries International recently. “They worry about infinitesimal levels of lead in the blood while the battery itself powers the most remorseless killing machine on the planet.” But there are sensational stories afoot which while they are not positive about lead, are distinctly dismissive about lithium. The raising of recent fears of cabin fires in passenger aircraft — caused by short-circuiting laptops and mobile phones — is a story that is about to run and run. The Dreamliner scare of a year and a half ago might soon become a sideline given that some people are suggesting that there could be as many as one laptop fire in a plane each month. If that’s the case it’ll be another unexpected consequence of the kind poor Tom Midgley suffered. In his instance, he was unlucky to the end — “the man who had more impact on the atmosphere than any other single organism in earth’s history” according to one historian — met a sorry fate. Crippled by polio in his 50s he invested an elaborate system of pulleys to make himself mobile. He died from strangulation in his own network of strings.

Batteries International • 14 ELBC Show Guide • Summer 2014 • 9


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THE GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE

CLIMATE CHANGE without the irrationality

Some broad perspectives on the global outlook will kick-start 14ELBC at the opening session. Look for controversy as the discussion moves towards facing the realities — or not — of how climate change will affect the battery business. One of the common themes touched upon by speakers several times in this the opening session of the conference will be climate change and, specifically, the role batteries can play in helping governments achieve targets that have been set around greenhouse gas emissions and other challenges relating to energy production and storage. Julian Allwood, who from this Oc-

tober will be professor of engineering and the environment at the University of Cambridge, will deliver a presentation called Climate Change Mitigation, Lead and Energy Storage, which will give an overview of the most recent findings of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) about mitigation and explore the significance of the production and use of

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lead in mitigation strategies. Allwood worked for 10 years for Alcoa, before developing an academic career, initially at Imperial College, and from 2000 in Cambridge. In parallel with developing new manufacturing technologies for metals, he has built up a research group looking at environmental systems and production. From 2009-2013 he held an www.batteriesinternational.com


THE GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE

“In understanding the possible role of lead in a future carbon constrained world, we have to consider two features: the energy implications of lead production and recycling; and the value of lead in products” — Allwood, Cambridge University EPSRC Leadership Fellowship, to explore material efficiency as a climate mitigation strategy – delivering the equivalent or better product but using new material. In 2013, he became director of the UK INDEMAND Centre, one of six national centres looking at energy demand reduction in the UK, with a focus on industry. Allwood also leads the inter-disciplinary BP-funded Foreseer programme looking at future resource stress, the NERC funded Hosana project looking at mitigating mineral criticality, the EPSRC-funded Precision Guided Flexible Forming project on new metal forming technologies, and is a co-leader of the EPSRC-funded WholeSEM project creating a national whole-systems energy model for the UK. In total these projects have attracted funding of £18 million ($35 million) and employ around 60 people at nine universities, 25 of whom work with him in Cambridge. Allwood was also a lead author of the 5th Assessment Report of the IPCC with a focus on mitigating industrial emissions. He is chairman of the metal forming section of the International Academy of Production Engineering CIRP.

By contrast, the third volume on mitigation was written by an interdisciplinary panel spanning economics, engineering, business, policy and development studies among many other areas, to create a survey of understanding of options for change. “The challenge of this work is that the availability of technical options for change, the political or economic imperative to implement them, and the behavioural choices of users conflict in many cases — there is considerable debate about the best pathways to a lower emissions future,” says Allwood. “In particular, there is a strong debate about whether action should depend primarily on as yet unready supply technologies, or on available but counter-cultural demand side options.” He will begin with an overview of

this debate, concentrating particularly on the physical options for change within the industry sector. “In understanding the possible role of lead in a future carbon constrained world, we have to consider two features: the energy implications of lead production and recycling; and the value of lead in products,” he says. “Although there hasn’t yet been a major study on the global impacts of lead production, the talk will introduce an approach that has been applied to steel and aluminium, with wide industrial and policy acceptance: a global mass flow analysis shows where the two metals are produced and used; energy analysis shows the

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THE GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE

LEAD SUPPLY: SEPARATING FACT FROM FICTION Neil Hawkes lead analyst at CRU, a London-based commodity research consultancy, has been a regular speaker at ELBC in the past. Hawkes has been responsible for CRU’s lead market analysis for the last 25 years and is the main author of the company’s quarterly Lead Market Outlook and monthly Lead Monitor. Hawkes will deliver a presentation entitled Lead Supply Squeeze Fears – Fact or Fiction? which has been scheduled under the global outlook umbrella session on the first day of the conference. Hawkes says the dynamics around the supply of lead is a big issue at the moment. One big factor is how the market has coped with the closure of Doe Run’s Herculaneum primary lead smelter at the end of last year. Although this had implications globally, the US market was expected to bear the brunt of the fall-out in terms of supply and demand. Moreover, the situation in the US was also made worse by a hard winter, a scenario that would have also hit battery stocks. “Last year, the talk was all about what might happen post-closure. But that has now happened and it is more a case of the reality of how the markets have adjusted and are coping in terms of supply and demand,” he says. The immediate response came from traders who started importing higher levels of lead from all over the world. “However, despite the very cold winter, which provided the perfect condition for killing lead acid batteries, and the closure of Herculaneum, there seems to be enough stock as things stand,” Hawkes says. “But although they have been finding enough lead so far, as stocks further run down, that could mean more tightness down the line.” This also means the supply chain is more global and stretched than it has ever been posing risks for battery makers because it is more vulnerable to problems and dislocations that can potentially have far reaching affects. The summer idling of the La Oroya smelter in Peru adds to consumer concerns over future supplies. One of the knock on effects of this dynamic is that the price of scrap — spent lead-acid batteries — has soared in recent years as recycling and collection firms have cottoned

There has also been a move by disgruntled secondary smelters in North America to pricing lead based on scrap prices as opposed to using the LME as a reference, though this has yet to gain any traction in Europe on to the higher value of lead contained within spent batteries. They have increased their selling prices, putting pressure on smelters’ profit margins, in turn. There has also been a move by disgruntled secondary smelters in North America to pricing lead based on scrap prices as opposed to using the LME as a reference, though this has yet to gain any traction in Europe. “Higher feed costs, combined with higher environmental compliance costs and new smelter capacity additions, have finally prompted smelters to close,” Hawkes says. There is no easy solution to this problem for the smelters, unless they

14 • Batteries International • ELBC Show Guide • Summer 2014

start buying scrap metal companies. It is possible, smelters could start doing this, he says. “It is a misconception that scrap supplies are tight — the costs simply continue to rise because scrap demand is even greater and that means scrap is spread more thinly around the smelters. The topic is raised every year but basically why would the scrap companies take any less? “So do the smelters buy them? That is something we could start to see. Otherwise, scrap prices will remain high for the foreseeable future.” He will also highlight other issues to watch globally that could influence global supply and demand. Australian lead smelter Nyrstar recently announced a A$514 million ($480 million) investment that will upgrade its lead smelter at Port Pirie in the state of South of Australia turning it into a cleaner operation. The 120-year-old smelter, which employs about 800 people, will be transformed into an advanced metals recovery and refining operation, reducing its toxic emissions. The Australian government will underwrite the transformation project itself to a total of A$291 million. Hawkes believes the upgrade is

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THE GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE

still not guaranteed and that other producers could up their own production levels. Another story to watch will be the future of Exide’s operations in the US, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in June 2013. Its plan to emerge has been muddied by the idling of its Vernon secondary lead smelter in California since March due to environmental issues. The real question, Hawkes says, is whether the supply side can keep pace with the steady growth seen in terms of demand. Despite the fight for scrap, global secondary lead supplies will continue to rise, leaving the industry increasingly reliant on a more fragile global primary supply chain. Yet demand continues to grow and he sees few factors that could hold this back. Demand for lead globally has been relatively immune to the more sluggish upward path in the broader global economy. Hawkes expects growth to remain robust for some time to come. However, environmental regulation in China could have an impact. As the country attempts to tackle pollution and congestion, various regulations could impact the batteries used in vehicles including electric bikes. There is also the question over whether stop-start technology will grow at the same rate in other regions as it has in Europe. This too should help lead demand, with leadacid the preferred battery chemistry for these vehicles. Against this backdrop of uncertainty in the supply chain, the price of lead on the LME, however, has been flat for some time at around $2,100 a tonne. “It occasionally moves up or down a little but basically it is a sideways trend,” he says. “Investors think there is enough supply out there for the moment. There is probably some frustration that it has not moved, but investors are cautious.” More interesting than the price of lead is the price of zinc — the two are mined together — at the moment. A lot of big zinc mines are closing and long-term this could have a knock on effect on the price of lead, he says. “But not yet.” And a further slip in silver prices could provide yet another twist to the lead tale ahead.

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“By 2050, the number of cars in the world will have tripled from current levels … if the totality of the vehicles in 2050 is to be accountable for no more than 50% of the 2000 emissions of CO2 then the average emission, per car, must be reduced, not by 50%, but by 80%” — Moseley, international researcher intensity of the key processes now and in future, with various levels of further technology deployment; material efficiency analysis explores how less metal could in many cases deliver the same service. “This story will be illustrated with practical examples across the supply chain,” he says. “The lead industry is promoting the value of lead as a key component of expanding energy storage, and the talk will conclude by examining how, within the scenarios developed by the IPCC, the requirements for energy storage are expected to develop, how lead might play a role in this requirement, and what challenges this creates for the lead industry and its supply chain.”

Global warming and transport Patrick Moseley, a long-time and highly regarded researcher in his field, will also consider the challenges of global warming in his paper, Global Warming and Lead-Carbon Batteries, which will draw on material from his new book called Towards Sustainable Road Transport, written with Ronald Dell, and David Rand. The book charts the century-long development of road transport based on the internal combustion engine, surveys the progress in technology that offers the potential to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide and, in a foretaste of the future, assesses the prospects for the targets in emissions reduction by 2050 to be met. Moseley was awarded a PhD for crystal structure analysis in 1968 by the University of Durham. He also worked for 23 years at the Harwell Laboratory of the UK Atomic Energy

Authority, where he brought a background of crystal structure and materials chemistry to the study of leadacid batteries, thus supplementing the traditional electrochemical emphasis of the subject. From 1995 he was manager of electrochemistry at the International Lead Zinc Research Organization in North Carolina and manager of the Advanced Lead–Acid Battery Consortium. In 2005 he also became president of the consortium. In 2008 he was awarded the Gaston Planté medal by the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. He says that as the world takes the issue of climate change increasingly seriously, batteries will have an increasingly important role to play. “Decision-making bodies around the world take the threat of global warming sufficiently seriously to set targets for reducing the mass of the major greenhouse gas, carbon diox-

The real question is whether the supply side can keep pace with the steady growth seen in terms of demand. Despite the fight for scrap, global secondary lead supplies will continue to rise, leaving the industry increasingly reliant on a more fragile global primary supply chain. Batteries International • ELBC Show Guide • Summer 2014 • 15


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THE GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE “But against the context of the economic downturn, there are many questions that remain unanswered in terms of how this sector will continue to develop. With the financial and economic crisis, what will be car suppliers’ next strategy? Will stop/start applications thanks to advanced lead acid batteries succeed?” — Pillot, Avicenne Energy

ide, that can be legally released to the atmosphere in future decades,” Moseley says. “A target proposed by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Control (IPCC), for example, suggests that, by 2050, CO2 emissions should be halved from the levels that were current at the turn of the century. The two principal anthropogenic [human generated] sources of CO2 are electricity generation and transport. If the 50% reduction in emissions is to be achieved then major technological developments will have to take place in both of these sectors and a marked increase in the need for electrochemical energy-storage (batteries) is foreseen.” Although there are strong moves to increase the use of renewable sources of energy such as wind and solar power in generating electricity, the availability of energy seldom matches the pattern of demand. This means that some form of storage must be used as the proportion of wind and solar energies in the overall energy-mix increases, Moseley says. In some such applications the necessary storage may be provided by compressed-air energy torage or by pumped-hydro schemes, but in other cases, such as in smart grids, large rechargeable batteries are likely to be used. In the transport sector, novel automobile systems that deploy stop-start and hybrid-electric technologies are becoming familiar but the fuel economies (and therefore reduction of carbon dioxide emissions) that they offer top-out at around 20%. To achieve an overall transport sector reduction at this level, all of the cars on the road would need to be of this type — an unrealistic prospect. And he has a stark warning. “The situation is worse yet because, by 2050, it is anticipated that the number of cars in the world will have triwww.batteriesinternational.com

pled from current levels as a result of the increasing standard of living of the two most populous nations on the planet (China and India),” he says. “In reality, if the totality of the vehicles on the roads of the world in 2050 is to be accountable for no more than 50% of the 2000 emissions of CO2 then the average emission, per car, must be reduced, not by 50%, but by 80%.” He says there are further problems with seeing electric vehicles as the solution to reducing CO2 emissions. “At first sight, battery electric vehicles appear to offer the ultimate solution in the pursuit of freedom from fossil fuels and the elimination of environmental pollution. This ideal solution would only be valid, however, if all of the electricity used to propel the vehicles were to be derived from sources that do not involve the combustion of hydrocarbon fuels.” There are very few areas of the world where this utopian situation exists. In Europe, where the primary energy mix includes many power stations fuelled by coal or natural gas, a compact class BEV will be responsible for 87g CO2 per km driven as a result of the greenhouse gas emissions at the power stations where the electricity is generated. Fuel cell electric vehicles might offer an alternative approach to avoiding the emission of CO2, provided that the hydrogen with which they are fuelled is generated electrically rather than from hydrocarbons. However, the fuel cell option is

likely to be expensive to implement for cars (although there are already some bus fleets that use the system) as it would involve the construction of hydrogen re-fuelling stations nationwide and an entirely new distribution system. “It is thus difficult to avoid the conclusion that, if the greenhouse gas emissions reduction target suggested by the IPCC is to be met by 2050 — and it is not yet clear if this will be enough to avoid dangerous changes in climate patterns — road transport will have to shift to a largely allelectric motive power system and the electricity that is used must be drawn substantially from non-carbon generation technologies; renewable sources or nuclear,” says Moseley.

The future of EVs Other speakers will focus on purely on the performance of certain sectors of the batteries markets and the potential growth prospects around these. Christophe Pillot, partner and director of Avicenne Energy, France, a market research and consulting firm which publishes an annual report called The worldwide rechargeable battery market, will cover the hybrid electric vehicle (HEV), plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (P-HEV) and electric vehicle (EV) markets in his presentation, specifically examining their development and impact on the battery business. Pillot joined Avicenne Energy some 18 years ago and spent three years in Japan conducting analysis on the

“At first sight, battery electric vehicles appear to offer the ultimate solution in the pursuit of freedom from fossil fuels and the elimination of environmental pollution. This ideal solution would only be valid, however, if all of the electricity used to propel the vehicles were to be derived from sources that do not involve the combustion of hydrocarbon fuels.” Batteries International • ELBC Show Guide • Summer 2014 • 17




THE GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE

“Will it be lead acid, supercapacitors, ultrabatteries, advanced flooded batteries or AGM? What will be the market for micro-hybrid or HEV batteries be in 2015 & 2025? Will the Li-ion battery with a lower price cathode succeed? What is the price level to compete with NiMH technology or lead acid technology?”

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electronic, mobile and Japanese battery market. He developed the battery market analysis for Avicenne Energy and is the founder of a series of annual battery congresses in France, which has been running since 1999. He will start by describing the HEV, PHEV and EV battery market in 2013 before making forecasts for micro hybrid and xEV and the impact on the battery business. “I will gave what is renowned as the most detailed and accurate forecast on the battery industry for lead acid, NiCd, NiMH and Li-ion and for all kind of applications from smart cards, electronic devices, to automotive or energy storage systems,” Pillot says. In the five years, from 2008 to 2013, the hybrid vehicle market increased from 300,000 to more than 1.8 million vehicles sold and stop/start car sales achieved 13 million in 2013. “But against the context of the economic downturn, there are many questions that remain unanswered in terms of how this sector will continue to develop,” he says. “With the financial and economic crisis, what will be car suppliers’ next strategy? Will stop/start applications thanks to advanced lead acid batteries succeed?” Some analysts forecast that the market for stop-start vehicles will increase at a compound annual growth rate of 30% between 2012 and 2020, reaching a total market of 37 million vehicles sold annually by the end of the period. “But a question mark remains over the predominant technology they use,” he says. “Will it be lead acid, supercapacitors, ultrabatteries, advanced flooded batteries or AGM? What will be the market for microhybrid or HEV batteries be in 2015 & 2025? Will the Li-ion battery with a lower price cathode succeed? What is the price level to compete with NiMH technology or lead acid technology?” Pillot says his presentation will analyse the automotive battery market 2013 and he will share forecasts up to 2025 for micro hybrids, HEVs, P-HEVs and full EVs as well as industrial batteries (stationary and motive).

Regulatory challenges The next speaker in this part of the conference will cover regulatory matters. Johann-Friedrich Dempwolff, vice president of industry and governmental relations for Johnson Controls Power Solutions EMEA, will present a paper entitled Update on Market and 20 • Batteries International • ELBC Show Guide • Summer 2014

www.batteriesinternational.com


THE GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE Regulatory Trends Impacting the European Battery Industry. Dempwolff, who is also president of EUROBAT, started his career at Varta Autobatterie. He has been a management board member since 2001. He was also responsible for OEM sales for Europe at board level up until 2012. When the company was taken over by Johnson Controls in 2002 and there were other acquisitions, Dempwolff was involved in the expansion of the original equipment manufacturer’s business. Dempwolff’s presentation will showcase how the battery industry has made considerable efforts to comply with EU and global health, safety and environment rules, while at the same time striving to meet new market expectations in terms of innovation, efficiency and output. But he says more challenges remain and his presentation will allow delegates to better understand how current and future developments of the EU regulatory framework will impact their businesses. “Europe has the advantage of a highly sophisticated car manufacturing industry and many advanced electrical engineering and power companies. The European battery industry is faced with tough legislative challenges which makes the economic environment increasingly burdensome for manufacturers. “EUROBAT is discussing this situation with stakeholders in Brussels. While doing so, the association highlights the position of the Battery industry as a key pillar of EU’s sustainable economic development,” he says. Linda Gaines, a systems analyst at the Center for Transportation Research at the US’ Argonne National Laboratory, will also touch on regulatory issues specifically in relation to lithium-ion batteries in a speech entitled ‘Enabling Future Recycling of Li-Ion Batteries’. Gaines, who has a doctorate in physics from Columbia University has written a series of handbooks about energy and material flows in petroleum refining, organic chemicals, and copper industries. These have provided background for studies of technical and institutional issues involved in recycling tyres, packaging, and other energy-intensive materials. Gaines has also examined the costs and impacts on energy use and the environment of production and recycling of advanced-design automobiles, trucks, and trains, and batteries www.batteriesinternational.com

Gaines from the Argonne National Laboratory has also examined the costs and impacts on energy use and the environment of production and recycling of advanced-design automobiles, trucks, and trains, and batteries and studied the potential growth of electricity demand by industry and studied the potential growth of electricity demand by industry and performed technical and economic analysis of alternative fuels, including hydrogen and biofuels. Her most recent work has involved studying ways to reduce petroleum use and other impacts from transport by recycling of batteries and also by reducing vehicle idling. She will speak about lithium-ion batteries, starting with a brief description of their composition, production and end-of-life use. She will compare these ones to lead acid batteries as relates to recycling, and will discuss recent cross-contamination issues and what might be done to alleviate future problems. She also believes that the problems caused by Li-ion batteries at secondary lead smelters will be a big talking point at the event generally. She hopes

to use sessions at ELBC to better understand the lead industry so she I can “help keep Li-ion batteries out of leadacid recycling, and vice versa”!

“Europe has the advantage of a highly sophisticated car manufacturing industry and many advanced electrical engineering and power companies. The European battery industry is faced with tough legislative challenges which makes the economic environment increasingly burdensome for manufacturers” — Dempwolff, Johnson Controls and EUROBAT president Batteries International • ELBC Show Guide • Summer 2014 • 21




14 ELBC FLOORPLAN Farmer Mold & Machine Works Stand 63

Family owned and operated since 1938, Farmer Mold & Machine Works specializes in the design and manufacturing of any type of machinery, including battery assembly equipment, parts casting equipment, and plant automation and process engineering. Further, if you need something that’s not already in our current product line, Farmer can work with you to create custom machinery for your specific applications — whether a new technology or refining an existing process. Our portfolio of machinery not only sets the standard within the industry but is ever-growing. Plus, Farmer provides sales and support for acid dilution systems, plate curing ovens, and semi- and fully automated material handling equipment to several industries worldwide. Our highly interactive and innovative approach to automated machine, tool and die, and mold design follows precise safety standards and utilizes the best materials to produce top-of-the-line machines and equipment that are built to last in 24/7 environments. Contact details: Jim Gilmour +1 727.522.0515 jgilmour@farmermold.com www.farmermold.com

Eco-Bat Technologies Stand 8

ECOBAT Technologies is the world’s largest producer of refined lead with facilities located throughout the globe, in many European countries, South Africa and the United States. Lately, we have increased our commercial presence in Asia with a sales office in Bangkok and agents in Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Vietnam, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines. Not only are our facilities world class, ISO 9001 being just one of the many accreditations that the plants operate under, but we also undertake research and development into the improvement of our lead products to give the end user a superior product. Work continues on improving both soft and alloy lead performances, with SuperSoft® being the latest example of our development work. In head-to-head testing, SuperSoft® Ultra advanced recycled lead performed at 100% equivalency to primary lead of 99.99% purity. As ‘Leaders in Lead’ we are committed to the highest international standards and our brands are all LME registered. Whilst our principal activity is the production of lead, the company also produces a number of other products, such as silver, sulphuric acid, polypropylene and sodium sulphate. We strive continuously to improve the environmental performance of our operations by optimizing the use of natural resources and energy. The health and safety of our 3,500 skilled employees and all who come into contact with our operations is one of our core values.

SOVEMA S.p.A Stands 93/94 MORE THAN 40 YEARS OF EXPERIENCE IN BATTERY AUTOMATION WORLDWIDE

Contact details: Tel: +44 1 629 736 115 Web: www.ecobatgroup.com Email: info@ecobatgroup.com

24 • Batteries International • ELBC Show Guide • Summer 2014

Founded in 1969 SOVEMA is the worldwide leading supplier of machinery for lead-acid battery production. Recognizing years ago that automation, lead saving and environmental control are critical to plant efficiency, SOVEMA’s specialists developed state-of-the-art manufacturing solutions for lead-acid battery production. In its own industrial premises near Verona (Italy), recently enlarged, SOVEMA is the only equipment manufacturer capable of designing and producing turn-key battery plants. It is able to supply a complete range of automated systems for the entire production cycle, using an integrated technological approach, starting from the study of factory and departmental lay-out, through to product know-how and plant commissioning by specialized staff. In 2008 SOVEMA acquired BITRODE CORPORATION, one of the most respected global suppliers of electric power conversions systems for EV/HEV battery testing, as well as production and test systems used in the battery manufacturing process. More recently SOVEMA started a new division, “SoLith”, to develop Lithium-ion battery manufacturing technologies. The SoLith team has more than 15 years of experience in process automation design, winding and stacking systems, lamination, electrode punching, tab welding and pouch forming. Sovema is implementing its equipment range more and more, as to improve its market leadership and serve any kind of energy storage manufacturers.

www.batteriesinternational.com


14 ELBC FLOORPLAN

MAC Engineering Stands 40/42

MAC Engineering supplies the lead acid battery industry with high quality downstream battery making equipment since 1965. We offer complete systems for feeding, pasting, flash drying and stacking any continuous or gravity cast plate making technology. From motorcycle and automotive batteries, to industrial and traction, we have equipment to handle any size of battery production. New equipment solutions are now available for punched grids. MAC also offers finishing line equipment for automated Cast on Strap, acid filling, leak testing, heat sealing and more. Contact us today for more information on what we can do for you. Contact details: Doug Bornas Tel: +1 269-925-3295 E-mail: dbornas@mac-eng.com www.mac-eng.com

OMI-NBE COMPANY PROFILE Stand 64

BITRODE CORPORATION Stand 94

BITRODE CORPORATION, a Sovema Company, is a leading manufacturer of battery charging and testing equipment with over 50 years of industry experience. By partnering with customers to integrate their unique requirements into each product, Bitrode is consistently able to meet the changing needs of a sophisticated market. They offer an extensive product line of formation and

www.batteriesinternational.com

laboratory test equipment, user-friendly software and manufacturing automation tools appropriate to all battery applications and chemistries. Their manufacturing and engineering facility is based in St. Louis, Missouri-USA with sales and support offices in North America, Europe and Asia. In addition, Bitrode cultivates relationships with industry sales and supply networks around the globe, providing all customers with timely and knowledgeable service. Their focus on quality and commitment to providing superior technical support drives them to be the best full-service manufacturer of formation charging and test equipment for both large and small cell markets. Contact details: John Grimm, Director of Sales & Marketing +1.636.343.6112 info@bitrode.com www.bitrode.com

OMI-NBE provides the best solutions for battery formation and charging: • ACID RECIRCULATION FORMATION • ADVANCED WATER BATH FORMATION • FILLING PROCESS FOR FLOODED & AGM BATTERIES • FINISHING & DISPATCHING EQUIPMENT • ACID PREPARATION, STORAGE AND RECOVERY • TUBULAR PLATES FILLING AND SLURRY PREPARATION • AUXILIARY EQUIPMENT We work in the field of engineering and technologies for the production and charge of different type of batteries (AUTOMOTIVE, INDUSTRIAL, FLOODED or AGM & VRLA), proposing partial or complete solutions which satisfy the customer’s requests drawing to a consolidated and innovative know-how. From the smallest equipment to a complete project for a new plant for the battery charging, we are able to study and supply to you with the best solution for your requirements thanks to our technical knowledge and experience, following your indications if you have any preference about the process, or giving you different choices based on our wide offer. We can take care of your batteries coming from the assembly, starting from the acid and water preparation, forming them with our water cooling systems or with the acid recirculation formation system, test and prepare your high quality batteries for the shipment to your final client and user. Contact details: Email: info@omi-nbe.com Web: www.omi-nbe.com Tel. & Fax: +39 0363 901 981

Batteries International • ELBC Show Guide • Summer 2014 • 25


14 ELBC FLOORPLAN Sorfin Yoshimura Ltd Stand 40/42

Sorfin Yoshimura Ltd is a global service provider to the energy storage industry. Sorfin Yoshimura Group has more than 30 years industry experience exclusively in the lead acid battery industry. We supply machinery, materials, consumables and other technical services to hundreds of battery makers around the world. Our sales team is dedicated to understanding the needs of each individual battery maker and ensuring that we are supplying machinery and materials aligned precisely with each facility specific needs. When you select Sorfin Yoshimura, you will quickly identify the unique combination of commercial savvy and engineering know-how that has enabled us to become the company that we are today. Our current locations are the USA, Japan, China, France, Brasil, India and Thailand. Please contact any of our locations and get a glimpse of the Next Generation of Power: Sorfin Yoshimura! Contact details: Web: www.sorfinyoshimura.com Email: sorfin@sorfin.com, tokyo@sorfin-yoshimura.jp, qingdao@sorfin-yoshimura.cn, paris@sorfin-yoshimura.fr, pune@sorfin-yoshimura.in, saopaulo@sorfin-yoshimura.br, bangkok@sorfin-yoshimura.th • Europe: 4eme ETG, 31 Rue Carnot, 78000 Versailles, France Phone: +33 1 70 29 49 07 Fax: +33 1 73 79 18 16 Email: paris@sorfin-yoshimura.fr • Brazil: Rua General Jardim 770-10° andar-Cj. 10D CEP: 01223-010- Brazil Higienópolis – São Paulo, Phone: +11 3280-5959 ou +11 3151-2223 Email: saopaulo@sorfin-yoshimura.br • Thailand: 16th Floor, Times Square Bldg. 246 Sukhumvit Rd. Khlong Toei, Bangkok, Thailand 10110 Phone: +662-626-5965/+662-626-5964 • India: Msr Olive, Survey No. 47, Flat No. 804, B. Bldg. Pattanagar Jambhulwadi Rd, Ambegaon Budruk, Pune 411 046 Phone: +91 7387644425, Email: sales@sorfin-yoshimura.in

CMWTEC technologie GmbH Stand 92

Källström Engineering AB Stand 88

Oak Press Solutions Inc Stands 40/42

CMWTEC technologie GmbH has been operating for over 30 years on the national German and worldwide markets and has a reputation for high quality standards, reliability and experience in mechanical engineering. The efficient team works hand-in-hand with our customers, from the initial contact through the various phases, from design, delivery, start-up up to spare parts supply. The company headquarters is close to Frankfurt Int’l Airport, in Germany with good local connections by road and rail, also a shuttle service is always available to customers. CMWTEC machines are based on standard assemblies and can be adapted to various applications according to customer specification and process requirements, allowing customers to select a wide-range of products from standard automatic to high-tech fully automatic machines to meet OEM requirements. Our AGM Premium Finishing Line Equipment, ECO (Economic) Line Equipment, Single machines and complete lines have been worldwide installed successfully in the last decades. The quality stamp “Made in Germany” on all our machines stands for stability and sound workmanship.

Källström Engineering AB is a well known supplier to the battery industry. We specialise in providing custom-designed equipment: for filling all kinds of lead acid batteries, or capacitors; for gel and acid mixing; and, for acid handling.

Contact details: Michael Wipperfürth, Sales Manager Phone: +49 6431 9924 18, Fax: +49 6431 7444 3 Mobile: +49 175 221 3034 Email: mi.wipperfuerth@cmwtec.de, Web: www.cmwtec.de

Contact details: Bo Johansson Phone: +46 40 671 1206 E-mail: bj@kallstrom.com Web: www.kallstrom.com

Recent additions to our product range include: • Compact continuous acid mixing unit • Filling equipment for AGM motorcycle batteries • Filling equipment for bi-polar batteries • Filling equipment for capacitors (acid or alkali) • Four headed filling machine for VRLA batteries • Gel mixing and gel filling • Database for process monitoring Our range of products also includes: acid proof conveyors, weighing equipment, storage tanks and rotary unions. Our after-sales support includes commissioning, maintenance, spares, repairs and equipment upgrades. Källström has its headquarters in Sweden but we serve the whole world.

26 • Batteries International • ELBC Show Guide • Summer 2014

Oak Press Solutions Inc. has been designing and building high speed punching systems for over 50 years at our headquarters in Sturgis, Michigan, USA. In addition to our facilities in Sturgis, we also have a technical support facility in China, Europe and India. Our presentation will focus on the various punching systems available from OAK and the newest innovations developed for these systems. The Oak punching systems can be configured for production volumes from 500,000 to 5,000,000,000+ batteries per year. Oak systems can produce lug-in strip or lug-out panels for SLI applications, multi-panel strips for E-Bike or motorcycle applications. Come learn about the advanced battery grid punching technology from the company with the most real world experience in the battery industry. Contact details: OAK Press Solutions Inc. 504 Wade St, Sturgis, Michigan 49091 Ph: +1 269-651-8513 Fax: +1 269-659-4625 sales@oakpresses.com www.oakpresses.com

www.batteriesinternational.com


14 ELBC FLOORPLAN ITS Stand 99

The Battery Manufacturing Division of International Thermal Systems engineers energy efficient equipment for the Lead Acid Battery Industry. With over thirty-five years of experience and expertise serving, International Thermal Systems offers innovative design in equipment to maximize production efficiencies and minimize energy consumption. Approaching each project as a partnership, the goal of our Engineering Staff is to share the customer’s vision to produce the best solution for the application. Providing a distinct competitive advantage, International Thermal Systems offers a number of patent protected processing solutions. Our Technical Service Department provides international support for ALL makes/models of thermal processing equipment to keep the heat processing equipment running efficiently. Contact details: Susan Hoffmann Tel: +1 414.902.5309 Susan.Hoffmann@itsllcusa.com www.internationalthermalsystems.com

KUSTAN Stand 91

WIRTZ Manufacturing Stand 72 The WIRTZ group of Companies provides global solutions to the world-wide battery manufacturing industry. With state-of-the-art equipment designed and developed by; WIRTZ (gravity-cast, continuously-cast and rolled, punched grid and plate production); OXMASTER (ball-mill and barton oxide production systems, and paste mixing equipment); LEKO (semiautomatic and high speed fully-automatic battery assembly lines); CONBRO (battery filling and formation plants); and BATTERYRECYCLING (turnkey battery breaking lead and plastic recycling systems, including paste desulphurisation).

www.batteriesinternational.com

At the 14ELBC, WIRTZ will demonstrate their commitment to automatically control, and continuously improve critical process variables, in order to ensure that their resulting battery products are of the highest QUALITY, DURABILITY and PERFORMANCE. Contact details: WIRTZ Manufacturing Company Inc.. 1105 Twenty-Fourth Street Port Huron Michigan 48061-5006 USA Tel: +1 810 987 7600 Email; sales@wirtzusa.com

Since 1977, KUSTAN has stood for expertise in plastics, and we are active worldwide in the field of plant engineering. With qualified interdisciplinary teams at our sites in Gelsenkirchen and Rudolstadt, we offer you the entire spectrum of activities from planning to manufacturing and assembly. Our company’s core competencies involve developing and building, manufacturing and assembling thermoplastic systems, containers, pipelines, devices, plant components and special constructions in the areas of water, chemistry, air and technology, as well as maintenance and service. We are certified and recognized as a specialized company as per the Wasserhaushaltsgesetz (German Water Act, WHG). As a manufacturer of thermoplastic flat-bottom tanks and collection vessels with a volume of up to 50 m³, we hold general type approval from the Deutsche Institut für Bautechnik, Berlin. We are certified as per ISO 9001:2008. Our customers are plant operators in various industries, for instance the battery industry, chemical surface treatment, acid dilution plants, tank farms and plants for manufacturing chemicals, flue-gas cleaning systems, flue-gas scrubbers and aerosol separators. KUSTAN offers high quality standards and innovative solutions for every project phase. Contact details: Phone: +49 209 940770 Web: www.kustan.de Mail: geku@kustan.de

BATTERIES INTERNATIONAL Stand 61

Batteries International • ELBC Show Guide • Summer 2014 • 27


14 ELBC FLOORPLAN

ACCUMALUX GROUP

Hammond Group

AMETEK Fluoropolymer Products

Stand 23

Stand 41

Stand 38

The Accumalux Group performs plastic injection moulding of automotive (SLI/AGM) and industrial (stand-by and motive power) battery containers, lids and accessories. Its area of expertise covers the development and production of battery sets using a variety of plastic materials and thanks to largely automated production, combined with skilled human and logistic resources, Accumalux is in position to guarantee quality, reliability and flexibility. Taking advantage of its highly automated production facilities, Accumalux is able to make world class products with great levels of service. With its production facilities in Luxembourg, Czech Republic, Bulgaria and Australia, the Accumalux Group supplies its products to the major battery manufacturers throughout the world. Contact details: Web: www.accumalux.com Email: sales@accumalux.com Phone: +352 367 062

Hammond Expanders is the world’s leading developer and producer of pre-blended expanders for SLI/engine starting, valve regulated, motive power, standby power, hybrid/electric vehicle and solar/wind power applications. With locations in the USA, UK and Malaysia, Hammond Expanders has the ability to supply your battery company no matter where you may be located. Our expanders are custom packaged to provide you with the easiest introduction to your paste mix per a one bag per batch ratio. They are the most technically innovative and reliable available on the market; with decades of expander formulation and experience under our belt, rest assured that you are getting the highest quality product available.Also we are introducing the new K2 range for today’s Partial State of Charge Applications. Contact details Steve Barnes Email: stevebarnes@hammondexpanders.co.uk Phone+44 191 482 7592

28 • Batteries International • ELBC Show Guide • Summer 2014

AMETEK Fluoropolymer Products manufactures high purity and corrosion-resistant Fluoropolymer Heat Exchangers and Fluoropolymer Tubing and Piping for lead-acid battery, chemical processing, metalworking, semiconductor, aerospace, and other industries. Our heat exchangers feature braided tubing and thermally fused ends resulting in superior heat transfer within a smaller footprint. AMETEK’s proprietary honeycomb tube sheet ensures endurance without leaks or thermo-mechanical failures common with other heat exchangers. The fluoropolymer resins used are chemically inert to corrosion, ensuring longevity unachievable with exotic metal heat exchangers. AMETEK tubing and piping are made from high- and ultra-high purity fluoropolymer resins to meet specific applications and JIT delivery requirements. AMETEK tubing meets operating temperatures and pressures up to 70 psi. Newly introduced products made from DuPont ECA3000 resins are expected to increase pressure/temperature tolerance as much as 30%. AMETEK Fluoropolymer Products is a business unit of AMETEK, Inc., a leading global manufacturer of electronic instruments and electromechanical devices with annual sales of $3.6 billion.

www.batteriesinternational.com


14 ELBC FLOORPLAN KEY — BY STAND NUMBER 1

Digatron Power Electronics

2

Battery Technology Source Co., Ltd

29/30 31

3, 4, 5 TBS Engineering

La Pneumatica Srl / Ferrazza / Degani Aldo

55

Water Gremlin

56

Owens Corning

Jiangsu Jinfan Power Technology Co., Ltd

57

Bernard Dumas SAS

86

Leader Tech United

60

Wuhan Hilans Automation Machine Co Ltd

87

Chem Resist

88

Källström Engineering AB

61

BI Magazine

89

62

Officina Meccanica Romanese srl

Shandong Jinkeli Power Sources Technology Co., Ltd

63

Farmer Mold & Machine Works Inc

90

UK PowerTech Ltd

91

Kustan

64

OMI-NBE

92

CMWTEC Technologie GmbH

65

BM-Rosendahl

93

Sovema Group

66

Hagemann-Systems

94

Bitrode

67

Frötek Kunststofftechnik GmbH

95

Cosmec

68

P.C. di POMPEO CATELLI

96

69

Inbatec GmbH

Co-efficient Precision Engineering Inc

70

Eirich

97

CBE Srl & Ecowair

71

HADI-Group – HADI Maschinenbau GmbH – HADI Offermann

98

Imerys Graphite & Carbon

99

ITS –International Thermal Systems Battery Manufacturing Equipment Division Accurate Products

LHAM Accurate Mold Company Ltd

32

7

LAP GmbH Laser Applikationen

33

8

Eco-Bat Technologies

34

Continuus Properzi

9

AlfaKutu Ve Plastik San. Tic Ltd.

35

ILA/ALABC

10

bfs - batterie füllungs systeme gmbh

36/37

Jiangsu CEMT Energy Equipment Co., Ltd

6

Arexim Engineering (BATTBOX) Ateliers Roche

11, 12 Abertax Technologies

38

Ametek Fluoropolymer Products

13

39

Zesar

41

Hammond Group Inc

43

Hollingsworth & Vose

44

Glatfelter Composite Fibers Business Unit

Wood Mackenzie

14 15

MTH Metalltechnik Halsbrucke GmbH & Co KG

16

ATI SpA

17

Pyrotek

45

HOFMANN POWER SOLUTIONS

18a

Intercontinental Media

46

18b

Shingania

Alpha Beta Fiberglass Product Co., Ltd

19

Daramic

47

M.A. Industries Porous Plastics Division

20

CAM SRL

21

Shenyang JUGU Equipment Manufacturing Co. Ltd

48 49

85

72

Wirtz Manufacturing Co.

73

Goonvean Fibres Ltd

100

Quanzhou Yucry Traffic Appliance Co., Ltd

Batek Makina Sanayi ve Ticaret Ltd. Sti.

74

MSS

101/102 EBC Korea

77

Bertola

103

Microporous

Entek International

78

BEST

40/42

Mac Engineering Oak Press

22

Amer-sil

50

Dross Engineering

79

ENGITEC TECHNOLOGIES – ITALY

40/42

23

Accumalux Group

51

82

Associated Battery Products Pvt Ltd

Raman FibreScience Private Limited

40/42

24

Jiangsu Sanhuan Industry and Commerce Co., Ltd

52

KraftPowercon India Pvt. Ltd

83

25

Biasin Srl

53

Pütz Prozessautomatisierung GmbH

Sinoma Membrane Material Company

Sorfin Yoshimura Ltd/Mac Engineering/Oak Press Solutions Inc

58/59

Akumsan

75/76

Penox Engineering

54

Mecondor

80/81

ICS Srl (SE.R.I. Group)

26/27

Accuma S.p.A.

28

Borregaard LignoTech

84

Zibo Xinxu Mechanical & Electrical Co., Ltd

KEY — BY COMPANY NAME Abertax Technologies

11, 12

CMWTEC Technologie GmbH

Accuma S.p.A.

26/27

Co-efficient Precision Engineering Inc

96

Continuus Properzi

34

58/59

Cosmec

95

9

Daramic

19

Accumalux Group

23

Accurate Products

100

Akumsan AlfaKutu Ve Plastik San. Tic Ltd Alpha Beta Fiberglass Product Co., Ltd

92

Digatron Power Electronics 46

1

Dross Engineering

Amer-sil

22

EBC Korea

Ametek Fluoropolymer Products

38

Eco-Bat Technologies

Arexim Engineering (BATTBOX)

32

Eirich

Associated Battery Products Pvt Ltd

24

ENGITEC TECHNOLOGIES – ITALY

50

ITS –International Thermal Systems Battery Manufacturing Equipment Division

31

Raman FibreScience Private Limited

82

51

Shandong Jinkeli Power Sources Technology Co., Ltd

89

Jiangsu Sanhuan Industry and Commerce Co., Ltd

88

KraftPowercon India Pvt. Ltd

52

70

Kustan

91

79

8

33

Entek International

49

ATI SpA

16

Farmer Mold & Machine Works Inc

63

LAP GmbH Laser Applikationen

Frötek Kunststofftechnik GmbH

67

Leader Tech United

Battery Technology Source Co., Ltd

2

LHAM Accurate Mold Company Ltd

Glatfelter Composite Fibers Business Unit

44 73

M.A. Industries Porous Plastics Division

29/30 7 86 6 47

Bernard Dumas SAS

57

Goonvean Fibres Ltd

Bertola

77

BEST

78

HADI-Group – HADI Maschinenbau GmbH – HADI Offermann

71

Mecondor

bfs - batterie füllungs systeme gmbh 10

Hagemann-Systems

66

Microporous

BI Magazine

61

Hammond Group Inc

41

MSS

Biasin Srl

25

HOFMANN POWER SOLUTIONS

45

Bitrode

94

Hollingsworth & Vose

43

MTH Metalltechnik Halsbrucke GmbH & Co KG

BM-Rosendahl

65

ICS Srl (SE.R.I. Group)

Borregaard LignoTech

28

ILA/ALABC

35

Officina Meccanica Romanese srl

62

CAM SRL

20

Imerys Graphite & Carbon

98

OMI-NBE

64

CBE Srl & Ecowair

97

Inbatec GmbH

69

Owens Corning

56

Chem Resist

87

Intercontinental Media

P.C. di POMPEO CATELLI

68

www.batteriesinternational.com

Mac Engineering

80/81

18a

17

36/37

Källström Engineering AB

101/102

53

Pyrotek

Jiangsu Jinfan Power Technology Co., Ltd

Ateliers Roche

48

99

75/76

Pütz Prozessautomatisierung GmbH

Jiangsu CEMT Energy Equipment Co., Ltd

La Pneumatica Srl / Ferrazza / Degani Aldo

Batek Makina Sanayi ve Ticaret Ltd. Sti.

Penox Engineering

40/42 54 103 74

Oak Press

15 40/42

Quanzhou Yucry Traffic Appliance Co., Ltd 85

Shenyang JUGU Equipment Manufacturing Co. Ltd Shingania

21 18b

Sinoma Membrane Material Company 83 Sorfin Yoshimura Ltd Mac Engineering Oak Press Solutions Inc Sovema Group TBS Engineering

40/42 93 3, 4, 5

UK PowerTech Ltd

90

Water Gremlin

55

Wirtz Manufacturing Co.

72

Wood Mackenzie

13

Wuhan Hilans Automation Machine Co Ltd

60

Zesar

39

Zibo Xinxu Mechanical & Electrical Co., Ltd

84

Batteries International • ELBC Show Guide • Summer 2014 • 29


LEAD FOR LOW EMISSION VEHICLES One major conference theme will be the use of lead batteries in low emission vehicles. As the world comes to grips with reducing CO2 levels, smaller more efficient cars part-powered by renewable energy will become the new norm.

Carbon dioxide, the great fuel saver: why low emission vehicles make ever better automotive sense One of the most anticipated sessions at the 14th European Lead Battery Conference will cover the use of lead batteries in low emission vehicles. Some 17 sessions and papers will take place covering this topic many with multiple authors and speakers. This is a big subject for the industry given the extent to which low emis-

sion vehicles will grow as they are increasingly accepted across the globe. The most widely used batteries for the low emission vehicle market are lead-acid batteries, but other chemistries including nickel-cadmium batteries (NiCad), metal hydride batteries (NiMH), and lithium ion batteries are also making progress in becoming

30 • Batteries International • ELBC Show Guide • Summer 2014

better accepted in this sector. The low emission market was valued at $21.1 billion in 2011 and is expected to grow from $27.5 billion in 2012 to $103.13 billion by 2017. Some 826,000 low emission vehicles were shipped globally in 2011 and the number is expected to reach 3,532,000 by 2017. www.batteriesinternational.com


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LEAD FOR LOW EMISSION VEHICLES LEAD CARBON: A NOVEL APPROACH TO FUEL SAVING One presentation to look out for is by Michael Romeo and Jack Shindle, two senior executives from Axion Power International who will discuss frequency regulation and hybrid class 8 trucks and specifically how the company’s PbC technology has made these applications viable in the marketplace. The presentation is called ePower Series Hybrid Drive-Train Transport Vehicle — A Novel Architecture for Reduced Fuel Consumption Utilizing Axion Power PbC Hybrid Battery Technology. Michael Romeo is research and development manager at Axion Power International. He has been with Axion Power for five years and has been directly involved in the development, manufacture, and testing of Axion’s lead-carbon battery. Romeo has also been involved in research funded by both the Advanced Lead Acid Battery Consortium (ALABC) and the US Department of Energy. Jack Shindle is the vice president of engineering at Axion Power International responsible for project management of all engineering functions at the firm. Shindle has 18 years of experience working on materials, process and product development for semiconductor components, fuel cells, hydrogen generation and lead acid batteries. He has spent the last 10 years working in, or with, small start-up companies in the energy field. Romeo describes Axion Power’s PbC battery as cutting edge technology with the potential to change the way the world views energy storage. The firm has come a long way from its presentation (and public acknowledgement by BMW in its interest in its technology) at the Istanbul ELBC but has yet to achieve the adoption it had hoped for. “Our high charge acceptance PbC battery is built upon the tried and true lead-acid battery platform, so it is safe and recyclable, but it provides significant improvements with regard to longevity and charge acceptance,” says Romeo. Romeo says in recent years renewable energy generation systems have gained traction in the global market as energy generation costs continue to rise while demand for clean energy solutions has increased. However, the match between the intermittency of renewable power and

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the requirements of a stable grid have proved challenging. “This technology, when coupled with Axion’s purpose built electronics systems, allows for solar energy storage and load shifting while providing opportunity for the user to participate in behind-the-meter frequency regulation,” he says. “The frequency regulation model Axion is demonstrating shows significant revenue generation that offsets the cost of the storage system. The product, designed around the PbC batteries’ high charge acceptance and series string voltage stability, holds significant appeal to private consumers and business owners that have been affected by electrical grid instability. “

Romeo describes Axion Power’s PbC battery as cutting edge technology with the potential to change the way the world views energy storage. Romeo reckons that a major positive for the battery market has been the introduction of strict emissions regulations on passenger and freighttransport vehicles in the EU and North America — legislation that has driven the development of hybridized vehicle architectures. The largest user of diesel fuel in the freight-transportation industry is the Class 8 tractor trailer group, which consumes more than 28 billion gallons of diesel a year and produces more than 310 megatonnes of CO2 emissions. “These gas guzzlers were a natural market for ePower Engine Systems to focus on as they advance their series hybrid drive-train technology,” he says. “The drive train is engine dominant —meaning the engine and generator power the truck’s drive motor. The goal is to run the diesel engine at constant speed and so obtain fuel savings, while using a large battery array (56 batteries) to provide boost when the truck needs additional power.

The heavy duty trucking industry has struggled to improve fuel consumption which, according to the EPA’s SmartWay Program statistics, has languished below 6 mpg for years. ePower has been attempting to demonstrate that existing architectures have been designed for acceleration and grade climbing have been overbuilt for hauling loads on reasonably flat terrain (where the majority of their use occurs). ePower has reduced the size of engines, motors, and motor generators; added a vector drive; and installed 56 batteries for boost to the system. “They experimented with various battery chemistries but realized that the best fit for their new vehicle architecture, from a cost and functionality standpoint, was the Axion Power PbC battery,” he says. “Field testing the ePower system utilizing PbC batteries has produced an approximate 35% fuel economy improvement and a comparable reduction in greenhouse emissions.” This has been made economically viable by the PbC’s ability to charge and discharge rapidly while in a partial state-of-charge, along with its ability to self-equalize voltage while connected in series strings. “With these novel characteristics, the PbC batteries are capable of providing power assist during acceleration, while recouping energy during coasting events — ultimately allowing for Class 8 engine size to be decreased from the standard 12.0-16.0L displacement to 4.0-6.0L without sacrificing vehicle performance and showing a full system investment payback potential of less than 30 months, he says. “The system includes a 480V AC three-phase generator that is powered by a small displacement diesel engine. The 480VAC is supplied to a variable frequency drive, which rectifies the AC to DC. The DC power is then inverted back to variable frequency AC, which is used to turn the motor that is connected to the drive train. “The PbC batteries are connected to the DC bus in the VFD and power is allowed to flow in an out of the batteries as required by driving conditions. “The tremendous charge acceptance of the PbC battery, along with its inherent string stability makes it perfectly suited for the application.”

Batteries International • ELBC Show Guide • Summer 2014 • 33



LEAD FOR LOW EMISSION VEHICLES “Our high charge acceptance PbC battery is built upon the tried and true lead-acid battery platform, so it is safe and recyclable, but it provides significant improvements to longevity and charge acceptance” — Romeo, Axion Power

The drivers underpinning the rapid growth of this market include increases in the global price of petroleum-based fuel; new initiatives taken by different governments; the ever-increasing availability of different HEV models; and the continuous development in battery technology. Restraints on this sector’s growth include a lack of support and infrastructure; power, performance, and higher cost as compared to ICE-vehicle end-user segments. The charging infrastructure market and vehicle-togrid (V2G) technology are two future related opportunities for zero emission vehicle market. Philip Williams, a principal engineer

at Ricardo UK and the chief engineer of the ADEPT (ADvanced Electric Powertrain Technology) collaborative research project, says this topic will be one of the biggest themes of ELBC as a whole. “One of the huge benefits of attending will be to gain a better understanding of the different opportunities for lead batteries in low emission vehicles, and the work being undertaken to further develop the technology for these applications,” Williams says. Williams, who was previously chief engineer of the Ricardo contribution

to a novel semi-robotic aircraft towing tractor, covering vehicle dynamics simulation, control system specification, hydraulic system design, safetycritical software implementation, and on-vehicle test, will be presenting a paper on a specific project he is working on through the ADEPT project, which is supported by the UK’s Technology Strategy Board. He says that the project will apply a 48V mild hybridization to a diesel engine with the additional application of 48V ancillaries and advanced thermal systems and waste heat recovery technologies.

The presentation will describe how the ADEPT project is targeting a C-segment vehicle with very low CO2 emissions — 75g/km — using low cost technologies, including a lead-acid battery

MODELLING DYNAMIC CHARGE ACCEPTANCE A presentation made jointly by five researchers and executives will cover Modelling Dynamic Charge Acceptance of SLI Batteries for Micro-Hybrid Vehicles. The presenters are: Jan Kabzinski, Heide BuddeMeiwes, Ilka Jahn, Julia Kowal and Dirk Uwe Sauer, ISEA-RWTH Aachen University and the well respected Eckhard Karden, Ford R&D Europe, Germany Kabzinski, a PhD student at the Institute for Power Electronics and Electrical Drives (ISEA) at RWTH Aachen University, says the presentation will cover the findings of a simulation model designed to represent the dynamic charge acceptance of lead-acid batteries in automotive applications. He says the event will help delegates gain a better understanding of what represents a new modelling approach to simulate DCA and its simulation results in comparison with measurement results.

www.batteriesinternational.com

Eckhard Karden (left). Jan Kabzinski: The ISEA has already developed an impedance-based model that represents effects that cannot be covered by impedance spectroscopy

“ISEA has already developed an impedance-based model. To represent effects which cannot be covered by impedance spectroscopy, physical models were added, such as for gassing,” Kabzinski says.

“Now the part of the model covering DCA is completely renewed, the approach is based on crystal radii distributions and covers main influences on DCA such as short-term history, rest times, temperature and state of charge.”

Batteries International • ELBC Show Guide • Summer 2014 • 35


LEAD FOR LOW EMISSION VEHICLES “Our 48V demonstrator will assist global carmakers in their technical due diligence, engineering validation and industrialization of 48V-based micro-mild hybrid vehicles that motorists can afford to buy” — Pascoe, Controlled Power Technologies

“A Ford Focus demonstrator vehicle will be targeted at 75g/km CO2 as measured on the European Drive Cycle, with studies to demonstrate how to reduce CO2 to less than 70g/km, while maintaining a CO2/cost superior to an equivalent full hybrid electric vehicle,” he says. The project, which includes a consortium comprising Ricardo, Ford Motor Company, CPT, Faurecia, the University of Nottingham and the European Advanced Lead-Acid Battery Consortium, has involved a substan-

tial level of innovation. Some of the technological innovations that have been necessary include the development of a low cost switch e-machine based on 48V Belt Starter Generator (BSG) technology; the development of new high efficiency 48V electric engine ancillaries; the fundamental system optimization of the BSG-to-engine enabled with e-ancillaries for best performance/cost; the development of low cost high capacity 48V advanced lead acid battery energy storage; 48V enabled advanced thermal system technology including eturbine and novel oil heating; 48V electric oil pump used to enable base engine efficiency improvements with a novel low loss oil system; and 48V

36 • Batteries International • ELBC Show Guide • Summer 2014

BSG engine load control strategies and calibration toolset development for optimized emission feed gas and exhaust gas temperature control. The presentation will describe how the ADEPT project is targeting a Csegment vehicle with very low CO2 emissions — 75g/km — using low cost technologies, including a leadacid battery. “This represents a significant reduction in CO2 over current best-in-class performance, while avoiding the high cost associated with full-hybrid systems. The system has the potential to be widely adopted by OEMs as a pragmatic solution to affordably reduce CO2 emissions while maintaining vehicle performance,” Williams says.

www.batteriesinternational.com


LEAD FOR LOW EMISSION VEHICLES THE CHALLENGE FROM CHINA — AND THE OPPORTUNITIES

While North America has often led the way when it comes to electric and hybrid vehicles, many believe Europe is well positioned to catch up due to the fact that it is already well equipped in terms of charging infrastructure. However, China has the potential to shift to low emission propulsion technology faster than its counterparts due to its ability to heavily invest in its development. There are papers that reflect this theme with some presenters discussing the present and future role that China may play in this market. Shawn Peng, the vice president of Leoch International Technology, who is responsible for new product development and external technical exchange, will present a paper specifically examining the present status of lead-acid batteries for stopstart applications in China. Peng, who graduated from China’s Nan-Kai University and has a masters in natural science from Louisiana State University, joined Leoch Group in 2006 as an engineer and was promoted to his current position in 2010. He is now the member of IEC/TC21/ WG2- Stop-Start battery committee, a member of the SAE Stop-Start Battery Committee, and vice chair of the China Lead-Acid Battery Standardization Commission (StopStart Battery committee). He says that within seven years, driven by the Chinese government, the country will be the biggest market for stop-start and micro hybrid EV applications. He believes

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that absorbent glass matt (AGM) and enhanced flooded batteries (EFB) ,used for these applications will be produced at a rapidly growing rate in order to support OE car makers to match the Chinese government’s future goal of reducing CO2 emissions and fuel consumption. “International players and Chinese domestic players will end up in competition in the next three years trying to win this market with the latest battery technologies as well as the most advanced equipment to ensure more efficient production in a more energy saving manner,” Peng says. “This is an important topic for everyone who pays attention for global business.” Stop-start automotive applications have become increasingly widespread lately but their initial development dates back to Toyota’s experiments with a Crown Sedan in the 1970. The Volkswagen group led the way in the 1980s and 1990s, though they made little commercial impact at that time. Since 2000 SLI lead-acid batteries (AGM and EFB) have become more widely used across Europe in these attempts to improve fuel efficiency and meet environmental standards set out by the EU’s latest regulations. Peng says that, since mid-2011, the same dynamic has started emerging in China — but at a much faster rate. A new government regulation covering automobile gas emissions is widely expected to stimulate the stop-start market in the next three to five years but the momentum behind this might only peak in 2020.

The changes are driven in China by a desire to improve the environment smog occurs regularly in many big Chinese cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou, and has been acknowledged as causing shorter life spans and lung diseases. The government also wants to reduce gasoline consumption. China’s new national energy policy The automotive industry development plan of energy saving type and new energy powered vehicles, 2012-2020, published in 2012, also encourages the Chinese automotive industry — including companies with foreign investors, those structured as joint ventures and domestic companies — to gear up to develop and manufacture more types of hybrid electrical vehicles from the pure electric powered vehicles. Peng says there are many vagaries in the market. The micro-hybrid EV with STT function is preferred by OEM car makers and end consumers due to the cost advantage, the fact that it is relatively easier to develop, and concerns about the unclear future direction of EV technology in China. “In this paper, we will review the status of STT application in China for last few years and will forecast stop-start battery usage in this market from 2015 to 2020. The China AGM and EFB SLI lead acid batteries production capacity trend will be estimated and the specific requirements on AGM and EFB types will be discussed according to China’s unique application circumstance. Future battery technology will also be discussed,” he says.

Batteries International • ELBC Show Guide • Summer 2014 • 37


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LEAD FOR LOW EMISSION VEHICLES “International players and Chinese domestic players will end up in competition in next three years trying to win this market with the latest battery technologies as well as most advanced equipment to ensure a highly efficient production in a more energy saving manner — Peng, Leoch International Technology

Picking up on a similar theme will be Carsten Kaup, the team leader of the Hybrid and Electric Powertrain Systems development group at AVL Schrick in Germany, whose paper is entitled: A 48V Diesel Hybrid with Lead-Acid Batteries is not a Contradiction: It is Reality. Kaup says he will present the status of a joint development research project between AVL, ALABC, Hyundai and Valeo which is related to a diesel powertrain utilizing 48V components. Many of the findings and innovations that have resulted from it could be applicable to other sectors. “48V is a hot topic in automotive powertrain development. Beside micro and mild hybrid functionalities I will talk about electric supercharging which is nowadays especially in focus,” Kaup says.

The LC SuperHybrid One of the more anticipated papers covering this theme will be an update on the LC SuperHybrid programme. The presentation, called The LC Super Hybrid Programme: Addressing Market Demands for an Affordable Hybrid System Solution will be given by Nick Pascoe and Paul Bloore from Controlled Power Technologies, an

independent, clean-tech company specializing in the development of CO2 reduction for the automotive industry. Nick Pascoe, chief executive of Controlled Power Technologies, is a graduate mechanical engineer with early experience in engine development at Ford Motor Company and later work in an automotive engineering consultancy in UK and Germany. In 2007, he led the management buy-in of Visteon’s advanced powertrain engineering activities, including a portfolio of CO2 reduction technology based on intelligent electrification of the internal combustion engine. Paul Bloore is functional safety manager and senior engineer at Powertrain Integration at CPT. He is A chartered mechanical engineer with extensive experience in the automotive industry — he joined CPT in 2008 performing a number of roles covering the portfolio of products under development, with a particular focus on development testing. “Our 48V demonstrator will assist global carmakers in their technical due diligence, engineering validation and industrialization of 48V-based micro-mild hybrid vehicles that motorists can afford to buy,” says Pascoe. “This is particularly as we’re now seeing rapidly maturing definitions of 48V architectures by leading international carmakers, supported by the global tier 1 supply base, and increasingly diverse powertrain and vehicle applications coming from the market.” The LC Super Hybrid programme was conceived by ALABC and CPT

The LC Super Hybrid programme was conceived by ALABC and CPT to show that significant CO2 reduction can be achieved through electric hybridization at low voltages (12V-48V) complemented by the breakthrough of high power density from advanced lead-carbon batteries. www.batteriesinternational.com

to show that significant CO2 reduction can be achieved through electric hybridization at low voltages (12-48 volts) complemented by the breakthrough of high power density from advanced lead-carbon batteries. The 48V version of the LC Super Hybrid complements an existing 12V technology demonstrator. The more powerful 48V demonstrator offers greater functionality including torque assist to the petrol engine for launch and low speed transient acceleration. The vehicle also includes productionready electric boosting technology sold by CPT to the tier 1 supplier Valeo based in France.

Second phase results The ELBC presentation by Pascoe and Bloore will cover the initial results from the second phase of development of the 48V vehicle and explore the potential released by the 48V UltraBattery pack coupled with the increase in power and capability of the integrated starter generator. “In particular we’ll be talking about the practical considerations of the activation strategy, including drivability, state of charge management and obtaining improved fuel economy, which have been explored in more detail,” says Pascoe. “The presentation will cover simulation combined with some of the actual test data with the aim of delivering a highly efficient but also very dynamic and enjoyable vehicle package in a cost efficient manner.” The key point of interest is delivering the majority of the benefits of a full hybrid vehicle, but at a fraction of the cost. The new 48V standard — which has been put forward by the VDA, a German automotive body — provides a basis for technology consolidation and is being pursued by numerous vehicle OEMs. It removes at least one of the obstacles to hybridization, that of the requirement for all service staff to be high voltage qualified, but still enables higher power levels and efficiency than that of a conventional 12V architecture.

Batteries International • ELBC Show Guide • Summer 2014 • 39


PROFILE: ALLAN COOPER In 2008 Allan Cooper was awarded the International Lead Medal for his exceptional contributions to the lead industry in the fields of metallurgy, production, and battery development, particularly in electric and hybrid electric vehicles. The story isn’t over yet. Battery historian Kevin Desmond reports.

Taking the long view Little did Allan Cooper know as he flew long haul to South Africa aged 22 that half a century later a succession of long — and very long — flights would be part of his protracted working life. Or that the career he was about to embark on, was just a preparation for a yet more important second career. The year was 1961. Allan, who had just graduated at Peterhouse College at Cambridge University with tripos in Natural Sciences and Metallurgy was off to play hockey — he was a University Blue — for a joint Oxbridge team. “After the sporting tour I returned to England with a bump,” says Cooper. “I then had to finish the final year of my so-called ‘sandwich course’

with Richard Thomas and Baldwins (RTB), a major steel producer.” In the UK one fast entry into management is to work for a company for one year, take one’s degree, and then do a final year of work, hence the term sandwich course. Cooper went quite literally from the veldts of the Cape to the thenindustrial heartland of England, first

to Scunthorpe before moving on to the Midlands and then back to South Wales. He was then posted to the RTB Ebbw Vale plant as a tinplate metallurgist. After two years realising that little had changed in his work Cooper decided it was time to move on. Cooper joined Associated Lead Manufacturers in November 1964 (part of the then Lead Industries

“I was hired by a certain Douglas Laidler – the research director — as his personal assistant. His politics were way to the right of Genghis Khan and one of his claims to fame was that he had turned Margaret Thatcher down for a job”

40 • Batteries International • ELBC Show Guide • Summer 2014

www.batteriesinternational.com


PROFILE: ALLAN COOPER

Left: Cooper was a Cambridge University Blue. Right: Early days after graduation working for steelmaking firm Richard Thomas and Baldwins

Group — later to become the Cookson Group). “I was hired by a Douglas Laidler – the research director — as his personal assistant. His politics were way to the right of Genghis Khan and one of his claims to fame was that he had turned Margaret Thatcher down for a job,” Cooper says. “On joining the company he greeted me by saying ‘Welcome to the lead industry – pipe is finished — sheet lead is nearly gone and lead-acid batteries will probably be replaced by another chemistry’. Well he got the first one right!” After a brief time in London he moved to ALM’s factory in Chester. This was a secondary smelter but also produced various products from lead including sheet, die-castings and shot. Cooper spent the majority of his time there in the smelting and refining department where his steelmaking experience came in useful as he was able to introduce oxygen enrichment to speed up the smelting process. He returned to London as personal assistant to the technical director just before the World Cup football final in 1966 when for the first (and only) time England was the winner. He recalls that his first priority in his move was to find a shop that could install his first colour TV in time for the final — the day after moving in! “At that time there appeared to be little in the way of ‘customer service’ – it was more a question of the phone www.batteriesinternational.com

being answered to find someone asking for some battery alloy and being asked ‘How much antimony do you want in it? You can have between 3%-11%.’ Or ‘Oh you want some lead oxide — how much and what colour — you can have red, yellow or grey’.

Dispersion strengthened lead … and beyond “After a spike in the antimony price, there was a move to reduce the antimony content in battery alloys — or remove it altogether — as this would have the effect of lowering water loss. I was asked to oversee some joint development work with St Joe Lead (now Doe Run) on dispersion strengthened lead (DSL) which showed promise for a while. “This was in the heady days of the lead industry when the then ILZRO director, Schrade Radke, had initiated the construction of a Lamborghini car with as much lead and zinc on it as possible — Mike Rose, then R&D manager of St Joe, politely declined

to have the brake pipes extruded in DSL! “This work was rapidly superseded as around that time St Joe had hired a certain David Prengaman to work on lead calcium alloys and after our first meeting we’ve remained friends ever since. Work was also going on in developing low antimony alloys and ALM initiated a programme with TBS Engineering by which we would produce the alloy and they would cast it under different conditions so we could mutually assist customers in using these new alloys for the ‘low maintenance’ battery.” It was in early 1970s that love blossomed. Allan met his wife to be Irene while they were both working with Associated Lead, Irene was a sales executive in its export company Almeco. One thing led to another and they married in October 1975. Within a few years they had two daughters — Sophie and Debbie. Recently the two have become grandparents with the arrival of twins, Harvey and Lila. Cooper later had a spell managing

A major problem in demonstrating batteries by retrofitting into currently available vehicles is that these have been about three years in development and probably we take another two years to fit and test the batteries so we are about five years adrift in terms of vehicle development. Batteries International • ELBC Show Guide • Summer 2014 • 41


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PROFILE: ALLAN COOPER the lead smelter at Millwall in London. After this he moved north to Newcastle as R&D Director when ALM relocated its head office there in 1980. “It was ironic,” says Cooper. “As a child, my father had pointed out the lead works to me from the Redheugh Bridge and now I had an office in that very building.” During his time there, Cooper was involved in many projects such as automated battery breaking, polypropylene recovery and a lead/calcium battery strip production line. He then moved into the parent

group working on technical business development and helped set up a joint venture battery separator plant with the US’s Entek Corporation. This plant is still in operation but now back under the control of Entek. The Cookson business had been very active in the takeover market — especially in the US and after the slump in 1987 — did not adequately retrench so he happily took an early retirement package after some 26 years with the company. It was June 1991. Cooper little realized that the end of one career was but the signal for another to start —

This prompted another Insight trial with a retrofitted 144V UltraBattery pack which successfully covered 100,000 miles on the UK’s Millbrook Proving Ground test track with the only noteworthy incident being when the car hit a pheasant at speed on the high speed circuit. That said the batteries behaved impeccably.

Celebrating the 100,000 miles with Mike Kellaway (Provector) (left) and to right Mark Stevenson (Pasminco) and Pat Moseley (ALABC). www.batteriesinternational.com

and one that arguably has been influential in shaping the direction of the entire lead acid battery industry as well as, potentially — and he would probably blush here — changing the way the world drives.

Maternity leave The call to arms came in the form of an unlikely request for assistance from what was then known as the Lead Development Association. “Could I help them out on a temporary six month consultancy contract as one of the technical staff was off on six months’ maternity leave?” says Cooper. “I started in September — without a contract — and stayed (the lady never came back having become pregnant again). Thus my six month temporary assignment has become 23 years, and guess what I still don’t have a contract!” Over the years the LDA has changed from market development to look after lead’s interests on the environmental front. Cooper’s role is now less technical and he is more associated with the successful series of European Lead Battery Conferences — helping on the programme committee and organizing the exhibition. “We first tried the exhibition in Geneva in 1994 and had 14 table top displays,” he says. “This has since progressed to record attendances approaching 800 attendees and over 100 exhibitor booths.” In 1992, shortly after the Advanced Lead Acid Battery Consortium (ALABC) was set up by the International Lead Zinc Research Organisation (ILZRO) in the US, Cooper was asked to look at ways of setting up a sister organisation in Europe with a sufficient legal entity to enable the ALABC to apply for research funding from Europe. This resulted in the creation of the European Advanced Lead Battery Consortium EEIG in November 1993. This consisted of many of Europe’s lead smelting firms, the major battery producers and other suppliers to the industry. The then chairman of the LDA, Alan Pugh, asked Cooper to put together a research project on electric vehicle batteries for funding from the European Commission’s Brite-Euram industrial and materials technologies programme. Cooper won the project and was chosen as its co-ordinator, So began a long and fruitful association with the ALABC. This was scheduled to be a four year programme involving 13 organi-

Batteries International • ELBC Show Guide • Summer 2014 • 43


PROFILE: ALLAN COOPER

The industry is going to have to start classifying things differently. Cars may no longer be categorized in terms of litres but instead by torque or horsepower. Ultimately, the consumer will get more out of smaller vehicles zations and costing a total of Ecu3.8 million (€3.8 million). This was later followed by a further 44 month EU project also on EV batteries costing €3.66 million and with 12 partner organizations. By the late 1990s interest in electric vehicles — especially with lead-acid batteries — was beginning to wane and the ALABC started to look at batteries for hybrid electric vehicles where power density is more important than energy density. Although excellent progress had been made in the laboratory in the work to overcome the problem of sulfation of the negative plate when lead acid batteries are subjected to high rate partial state-of-charge cycling — and huge strides had been made in other fields of battery development — Cooper found it difficult to persuade car manufacturers that lead acid was up to the job.

Novel battery designs It was therefore decided to demonstrate the batteries in a vehicle and an application was made under the UK Foresight Vehicle Programme for funding to retrofit a Honda Insight with battery made up with a novel design of 2V spiral-wound cells modified to have current offtakes top and bottom. A major problem was encountered in tapping into the Honda electronics to essentially fool the system that it was still talking to a nickel metal hydride battery. This proved a very difficult problem to solve and, together with some battery problems, resulted in major delays to the project. After one particularly unsuccessful demonstration where the electronics were constantly tripping out, the project was nearly cancelled but Cooper, knowing a solution could be found, pleaded for a little more time. Provector, a long term collaborator with the ALABC, finally solved the problems and the project was ultimately successful in that the car covered 50,000 miles before being retired. The concept was sound but it still

needed the right battery to take it further. At this point, enter the UltraBattery. The battery coming from a CSIRO project in Australia was the invention of Lan Lam which combines ultracapacitor technology with lead-acid battery technology in a single cell with a common electrolyte. In one test an UltraBattery outperformed a nickel metal hydride battery on a hybrid test cycle. This prompted another Insight trial with a retro-fitted 144V UltraBattery pack which successfully covered 100,000 miles on the UK’s Millbrook Proving Ground test track with the only noteworthy incident being when the car hit a pheasant at speed on the high speed circuit. That said the batteries behaved impeccably. Work by Effpower in Sweden on a bipolar design of lead-acid battery was producing some excellent results in the laboratory. “We had been keeping Honda informed about the work we had been doing on the Insight vehicles and they decided to take a more active interest in the work,” says Cooper. “We bought a Honda Civic in 2007 to road test the battery at Millbrook and Honda provided an identical vehicle to exactly duplicate the test running of the retro-fitted car to compare fuel consumption and performance. The battery was put into the car in two large blocks to simulate the split of voltage in the Honda car but this proved to be a mistake as the battery design proved unable to dissipate the heat generated and it dried the battery out. “So we made another attempt, this time with the battery split into four 44V modules. This proved to be better in terms of heat control but unfortunately one of the modules developed a short circuit due to a crack in one of the ceramic bipolar plates. Effpower put this down to a manufacturing defect but it is possible that the design could have been prone to vibration in a vehicle situation. This failure ultimately proved to be a terminal blow for Effpower. “A major problem in demonstrating

44 • Batteries International • ELBC Show Guide • Summer 2014

batteries by retro-fitting into currently available vehicles is that these have been about three years in development and probably we take another two years to fit and test the batteries so we are about five years adrift in terms of vehicle development. A major breakthrough came in 2010 where we met Controlled Power Technologies at the major JSAE Exhibition in Yokohama, Japan. They were exhibiting various CO2 reduction technologies while we had the 100,000 mile Insight on display before donating it to Furukawa who had built the batteries.

Working tothe future “Their common interest in low cost CO2 reduction was to result in future talks between the organizations. This has resulted in us cooperating with them to build two vehicles to demonstrate how the use of a down-sized engine in a vehicle can be performance enhanced by the use of an electric supercharger in combination with a turbocharger to restore drivability.” The electric supercharger is driven by regenerated energy from braking with an enhanced belt-driven starter generator stored in an advanced lead carbon battery. The first vehicle (a 1.4 litre VW Passat) was built with a 12V electrical system and delivered emission reductions of 20%-25% when compared with the 1.8 litre version with which the converted car has similar performance. The added cost is estimated to be somewhere between €750-€1,250 which is well below the add-on for full hybrids such as the Honda Civic or Toyota Prius or plug in hybrids which all have very expensive, high voltage battery packs. This has more recently been followed up with a 48V/12V dual voltage vehicle based on the same 1.4 litre version. This has a much more powerful starter generator (8kW as against 2kW-3kW) allowing provision of direct electrical assist on the engine as well as other functionality such as the option of putting big power users including aircon or water and oil pumps onto the regenerative circuit. “During the last three years, we have been actively demonstrating these vehicles to car manufacturers in Europe and the US with a lot of interest being shown,” says Cooper. “The EALABC is now working directly with Ford and Hyundai in two separate projects to ‘hybridise’ diesel powered vehicles with this system to drive CO2 emiswww.batteriesinternational.com



PROFILE: ALLAN COOPER sions down below 80g/km. CPT and EALABC received a Low Carbon Vehicle Partnership Carbon Champions Award in 2012 for their work on the so-called LC SuperHybrid. “As a consequence of this we have also been nominated as one of the UK entries for the European Business Awards for the Environment in 2014. Allan Cooper, now 76 years old, continues to plan ahead: “In the future we might see an increase in the production of smaller engine cars overall. What has been added is a combination of turbo and supercharger to remove the turbo lag and improve the drivability. The potential of direct electrical assist to the crankshaft adds a further dimension. The industry is going to have to start classifying things differently. Cars may no longer be categorized in terms of litres but instead by torque or horsepower. Ultimately, the consumer will get more out of smaller vehicles.� Cooper has no immediate plans for retirement. “Why should I?� he says. “There’s still so much to do!� However, since the arrival of twin

CPT and EALABC received a Low Carbon Vehicle Partnership Carbon Champions Award in 2012 for their work on the so-called LC SuperHybrid. grandchildren in November 2012, pressures for creating more spare time have increased but have also resulted in the move of the home office to the bottom of the garden. This he continues to enjoy along with the (too) occasional game of golf. Deep down

however, there remains the desire to see one of these low cost, lead-carbon battery-based hybrids on the road. He also wonders what dizzy political heights he might have reached if Douglas Laidler had turned him down as well!

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ADVANCED BATTERIES

For almost two decades there has been a growing awareness that the inclusion of carbon could be the most important factor in the development of a new generation of better lead acid batteries.

The influence of carbon on battery design

This potentially technical session will have six different speakers explaining six often very different ways in which the use of carbon in the industry either is or could potentially influence battery performance and design — often with very radical outcomes. Nick Desimone, director of product management at EnerG2, says his firm has made technological breakthroughs in this field. “In recent years, carbon additives have enabled significant performance improvements in lead acid batteries but there is considerable variation in the properties of carbon-based products and their interactions in the NAM [negative active material],” he says. He says EnerG2 has developed a www.batteriesinternational.com

technology enabling the production of ultra-high purity, novel carbons and a broad IP portfolio. “This capability allows the development of carbons optimized for specific applications and performance characteristics, both for present and next generation battery designs,” he says. Ernst Ferg and Bolo Lukanyo, both from the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University in Port Elizabeth South Africa, will jointly present a paper entitled Effect of Carbon Nanotube Additives on the Negative Active Mass Morphology of Lead-Acid Batteries at High Rate Partial State of Charge Cycling. Ferg is an associate professor at the university lecturing in the field of electrochemistry and physical

chemistry. Lukanyo is a second year masters student at the university researching lead-acid batteries. Ferg’s talk will focus on the integration of different energy storage systems to improve the life cycle capabilities of the lead acid battery. “We looked at subjecting lead acid cells with relatively small supercapacitors to show improvement in capacity cycle tests,” he says. He says delegates interested in combining energy storage devices in various systems applications will find the presentation of interest.

Morphological change Lukanyo’s part of the presentation will focus on the influence of carbon additives on the negative electrode

Batteries International • ELBC Show Guide • Summer 2014 • 47


ADVANCED BATTERIES

“In recent years, carbon additives have enabled significant performance improvements in lead acid batteries but there is considerable variation in the properties of carbon-based products and their interactions in the NAM” — Desimone, EnerG2 of lead-acid batteries examining a comparison on the morphological changes occurring on different plates, and the improvement in the number of cycles. He says the talk will give delegates an overview on what type of research is being done over the world. Paul Everill, director of technology and lead acid batteries at Molecular Rebar Design, will present along with colleagues Nanjan Sugumaran, lead researcher at Molecular Rebar Design, Steven Swogger, the chief fi-

nancial officer of Molecular Rebar Design, and Diwakar Dubey, general manager of Pacific Batteries, based in the Fiji Islands. Their paper, called Molecular Rebar: Discrete Carbon Nanotubes as a Game-Changing Advancement in Lead-Acid Battery Performance will present the findings of research concerning Molecular Rebar Design’s new carbon nanotube derivative, Molecular Rebar, and the associated products specially formulated for lead acid batteries, Molecular Rebar Lead Negative and Molecular Rebar Lead Positive. Everill earned his doctorate at Tufts University in Boston, Massachusetts, studying the surface chemistry of biological macromolecules with the goal of developing smarter, more targeted medicines. He eventually moved into the growing field of nanotechnology. At Molecular Rebar Design, he was instrumental in formulating the functionalized carbon nanotubes known as Molecular Rebar into a lead acid battery-compatible additive. He, along with Sugumaran, directs all research-based activities of Molecu-

WATER LOSS Miki Oljaca and Paolina Atanassova, both senior executives at the Cabot Corporation in the US, will present on carbon additives for advanced lead acid applications. Atanassova says that although it is clear that carbon additives have an effect in reducing negative plate sulfation — leading to improvements in cyclability and dynamic charge acceptance — both for valve-regulated lead-acid (VRLA) and flooded leadacid batteries: “At the same time, other properties such as high rate discharge and water loss can be negatively impacted by the addition of carbon especially at high loadings,” she says. “The presentation will discuss new model and test data on strategies to balance water loss and high rate

discharge characteristics for high carbon batteries while preserving the benefits of high dynamic charge acceptance and improved cycle life.” She says that understanding the fundamentals of higher water loss as a function of carbon loading and properties is critical for identifying solutions where the benefits of carbons on dynamic charge acceptance and cyclability are further increased without a negative impact on water loss. “There is no comprehensive model yet that explains all aspects of how carbon modifies the negative plate morphology and reduces negative plate sulfation, and as a carbon producer we are encouraging the discussion on the carbon properties and what optimization is needed for further advances,” she says.

48 • Batteries International • ELBC Show Guide • Summer 2014

lar Rebar Design’s lead acid battery initiatives. Everill says the derivative has many advantages that will be explained including its ability to increase the charge acceptance of lead acid batteries by 200%, its ability to reduce energy losses of lead acid batteries by 15%, its ability to increase HRPSoC and SBA life cycle performance by 250%, and its ability to decrease battery gassing by a mechanism potentially involving hydrogen adsorption. “Although carbon nanotubes have been tested for years as lead acid battery additives, there have been no successful technological implementation because of the negative effects that increased carbon content has on paste rheology and on reserve capacity and cold cranking,” he says. “Only by using the right carbon nanotubes, those that are largely free from impurities and which exist as individualized entities instead of bundled, entwined masses, can the promise of nanotechnology be unlocked.” He believes that the first successful implementation of carbon nanotube technology and its benefits in fullscale battery production will be a big talking point at the conference. On behalf of several other researchers and academics, Manfred Gelbke, the head of R&D and technical customer support at Akkumulatorenfabrik MOLL, Germany, will present a paper entitled the Influence of the Interactions Between Carbon and Organic Expander on the Crystallization Behaviour of Lead in Lead-Acid Battery Electrodes. Gelbke has a doctorate in chemistry from Humboldt University of Berlin and joined the lead-acid battery industry in 1985. He has worked www.batteriesinternational.com


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ADVANCED BATTERIES

“Although carbon nanotubes have been tested for years as lead acid battery additives, there have been no successful technological implementation because of the negative effects that increased carbon content has on paste rheology and on reserve capacity and cold cranking” —Everill, Molecular Rebar Design as head of R&D and in several other positions at industrial battery producer BAE Berlin up to 1999. In 2000, he moved to Akkumulatorenfabrik MOLL as head of R&D and technical customer support. Since then he has been responsible for development of automotive batteries (Pb-Ca-flooded, AGM, EFB) and battery monitoring systems.

The rise and rise of microhybrids Gelbke says the majority of cars, produced worldwide in the next decades, will have combustion engines. Therefore, the increase of fuel economy of these vehicles is key to meeting the goals of CO2 roadmaps. He says that micro-hybrid func-

tions — start-stop and regen — are important and cost efficient tools to reduce fuel consumption and CO2 emission and will be applied very quickly to most of the new car models. The status and trends at regional markets of the world are different and will be discussed in his talk. But he says that the micro-hybrid application is just one part of increasingly complex requirements for batteries in automotive use. “Recent battery development has to improve significantly across several performance parameters as cycling endurance, high power supply and charge acceptance as well as to combine divergent battery characteristics in one design,” Gelbke says. His paper gives a review of the

combination of several increased technical requirements for micro-hybrid batteries and shows the progress in battery development achieved over the past years resulting in improved battery types, AGM and EFB. Both technologies, already used today in micro-hybrid vehicles, will be discussed with respect to their strengths and weaknesses. The po-


ADVANCED BATTERIES

This research describes the possible roles of graphene in charge and discharge reactions and notes that she [Kandy Yeung] is looking forward to seeing the other presentations in this session including those by Moseley, Everill from the Molecular Rebar Design, Furukawa from The Furukawa Battery and Valenciano from Exide Technologies. tential for further improvements will also be presented. “Due to the increase of technical requirements for micro-hybrid cars with even more efficient recuperation, work on the next generation of micro-hybrid lead-acid batteries is well underway,” he says. The implementation of the microhybrid function to most new cars has a significant impact on the technical requirements for batteries used in such an application. New automotive batteries have been needed with much better performance, for example, for extremely good cycling capability, very high cold cranking power and much better charge acceptance. “A couple of years ago, many battery experts thought that AGM technology would be the only option for such a combination of difficult requirements. Our paper shows clearly that flooded battery design can be improved in a way fulfilling all requirements of the automotive industry. “Thus, the new developed flooded micro-hybrid batteries give a significant contribution to the reduction of CO2 emissions. And, there is room for improvements to even higher charge acceptance resulting in an even more efficient recuperation,” he says. Kandy Yeung, a former engineer for two start-up biomaterials companies

in Seattle, in the US state of Washington who is now studying for her doctorate at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, will present on the benefits of graphene as the negative additive in prolonging PSoC cycle life and sulfation suppression. She says this research describes the possible roles of graphene in charge and discharge reactions and notes that she is looking forward to seeing the other presentations in this session including those by Moseley, Everill from the Molecular Rebar Design, Furukawa from The Furukawa Battery and Valenciano from Exide Technologies. “I have read their publications and it will be a great opportunity to discuss and learn from these outstanding scholars and researchers,” she says. Jusuf Hassoun, assistant research scientist at the chemistry department of the University of Rome Sapienza, will give a report on a lead acid battery containing a carbon additive in a pouch-cell configuration characterized by higher energy density and a smaller size. Hassoun previously worked in an industrial company for three years before completing a PhD in Material Science in the field of advanced lithium ion batteries in 2009. For the last four years he has been visiting researcher at the Hanyang University in Seoul, South Korea, and supervised the activity regarding the new generation energy storage systems, such as lithium sulfur and lithium air batteries.

Kandy Yeung: the benefits of graphene as the negative additive in prolonging PSoC cycle life and sulfation suppression

Jusuf Hassoun: carbon additives in a pouch-cell configuration characterized by higher energy density and a smaller size

He has also been co-author of more than 80 papers in international journals in the field of material science, electrochemistry and energy storage systems. He says delegates interested in the progress of energy storage systems will find this talk helpful. He also expects this to be a big theme at the event more generally.

“A couple of years ago, many battery experts thought that AGM technology would be the only option for such a combination of difficult requirements. Our paper shows clearly that flooded battery design can be improved in a way fulfilling all requirements of the automotive industry” — Gelbke, Akkumulatorenfabrik MOLL 52 • Batteries International • ELBC Show Guide • Summer 2014

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