Is the Lead Acid Battery Industry Dying?

IS THE LEAD ACID BATTERY INDUSTRY DYING?

If you are in the Lead Acid battery industry you may be aware that the industry is passing through a difficult phase. But things are going to be even worse in the future. Ironically the requirement of stored and rechargeable energy, especially available with mobility, is going to increase tremendously. But most of the growth is tilting towards Lithium batteries. To understand this better we should briefly look at the pro and cons of Lead Acid v/s Lithium Batteries.

As we can see the major drawbacks of Lead acid batteries is the weight and its portability. But all is not lost.

The whole future of the Lead Acid Battery industry does not depend on aggressive sales or state-of-art machinery but to a major extent on innovative design. We battery people are largely conservative people. We like to keep the basic structure the same and play about with additives and thinner grids. With the advent of VRLA we play about with variations in the AGM or the GEL which give VRLA batteries the edge.

Revisting battery basics there are some facts and factors which have taken a back seat.

1. Though the power or AH of a battery depends on the active material on the positive electrodes or more accurately on the material utilisation of the positive active material the problems or limitations of a battery are usually the Negatives. Why is that? In a nutshell low charge acceptance of a battery is related to the formation and dissolution of lead sulphate at the surface of negative plates. The less the dissolution lower the charge acceptance ability. As usual we conservatives try to solve this problem by adding more carbon and as advised by sales experts disguised as battery experts we go for graphite or actified graphite. Not that these solutions are not beneficial but are going to be very inadequate to get an edge over Lithium. NEGATIVE are our focus point.
2. Weight is the biggest enemy. When a battery system is considered for either Electric or Hybrid Vehicles or for start stop systems Lead battery have an initial edge because of their cost but when it adds 400 + kgs to the car, designers look elsewhere. How much are our designers working on this aspect? Yes we are looking at thinner containers, expanded or punched grids, thinner spines etc. These are effective but again may not help in our search for an edge over Lithium Ion batteries.

Though there are few more areas we can look at, our major benefit may come from concentrating on the above 2 aspects.

Again acting as a newbie to batteries we revisit some basic functions of the components of a battery.

1. The container: The function is to hold the internal parts without getting corroded by the acid, withstand temperatures of at least 120 deg C, be rigid and withstand impact of a normal kind. PPCP battery grade is normally used. The density is in the range of 0.9-1 g/cc which is till the present the best material for batteries. Most modifications to reduce weight result in lowering its impact strength or lead to bulging during service. In case we look at nylon its density is higher but strength is much more. It is also, in normal condition, not rigid. What is required is R&D to try and combine materials to give the required properties but be lighter and thinner. When one thinks of ceramics, naturally it gets ruled out immediately because it is brittle and difficult to shape. But interestingly a lab experiment by Ms Greer one of MIT’s brilliant researchers showed that on the nano scale the same rules do not apply. The team was able to build very light weight and very tough trusses which did not break under stress but came back to the original shape later. The example may or may not be suitable on a mass scale to build battery components or cases but definitely shows that innovative thinking may throw up good solutions.
2. Grids: These have 2 functions – act as current conduits and hold the active material in place. The various designs of grids is the subject of a volume by itself but the present grid structure suffers from basic inherent inadequacies. Normally the grids of today are either Lead-antimony or lead-calcium or lead cadmium. Lowering antimony and shifting towards calcium gave better control on self-discharge properties but lowered the strength considerably, also making the manufacturing process more difficult. With innovative manufacturing techniques like spiral grids, expanded, concast etc it was sought to make the grids thinner and lighter especially the negatives. Not much could be done on positives as they had to be thick enough to hold required amount of active material to deliver rated capacity. In the field of grids a lot of work has no doubt been done. Examples are the ALC (Advanced Lead Carbon) negative electrodes. The high carbon content in the negative is said to vastly improve charge-discharge characteristics. In simple terms it acts as a super conductor. Another example is the Firefly Energy battery which uses a light weight variant of Lead. Similarly the Altraverda battery uses a proprietary titanium sub-oxide ceramic structure, called Ebonex?, for the grid. These are AGM type VRLA batteries. The Axion Power battery also uses an activated carbon negative electrode. It is marriage between a Lead Acid battery and a supercapacitor. While the technical and commercial success of such advances are beyond the scope of this article but definitely it’s a big step in the right direction.

While there are some other components in the battery which can be studied for optimisation, our Lead Acid Battery Industry giants especially in India which will become a major supplier of batteries provided we are on the right train with the right goods. In India as far as one reads not much of innovative work is going on towards future ready batteries. Just making better and cheaper batteries may keep the cash counters ringing (high volumes do bring with it financial benefits) but soon the future will catch up with us and find us discharged.

Our designers must build on the advantages of lead as the basic raw material but work in innovative ways to overcome its disadvantages vis-a-vis Lithium. If we find that elusive edge Lead Acid will rule for a lot more time.

IS THE LEAD ACID BATTERY INDUSTRY DYING?

If you are in the Lead Acid battery industry you may be aware that the industry is passing through a difficult phase. But things are going to be even worse in the future. Ironically the requirement of stored and rechargeable energy, especially available with mobility, is going to increase tremendously. But most of the growth is tilting towards Lithium batteries. To understand this better we should briefly look at the pro and cons of Lead Acid v/s Lithium Batteries.

As we can see the major drawbacks of Lead acid batteries is the weight and its portability. But all is not lost.

The whole future of the Lead Acid Battery industry does not depend on aggressive sales or state-of-art machinery but to a major extent on innovative design. We battery people are largely conservative people. We like to keep the basic structure the same and play about with additives and thinner grids. With the advent of VRLA we play about with variations in the AGM or the GEL which give VRLA batteries the edge.

Revisting battery basics there are some facts and factors which have taken a back seat.

1. Though the power or AH of a battery depends on the active material on the positive electrodes or more accurately on the material utilisation of the positive active material the problems or limitations of a battery are usually the Negatives. Why is that? In a nutshell low charge acceptance of a battery is related to the formation and dissolution of lead sulphate at the surface of negative plates. The less the dissolution lower the charge acceptance ability. As usual we conservatives try to solve this problem by adding more carbon and as advised by sales experts disguised as battery experts we go for graphite or actified graphite. Not that these solutions are not beneficial but are going to be very inadequate to get an edge over Lithium. NEGATIVE are our focus point.
2. Weight is the biggest enemy. When a battery system is considered for either Electric or Hybrid Vehicles or for start stop systems Lead battery have an initial edge because of their cost but when it adds 400 + kgs to the car, designers look elsewhere. How much are our designers working on this aspect? Yes we are looking at thinner containers, expanded or punched grids, thinner spines etc. These are effective but again may not help in our search for an edge over Lithium Ion batteries.

Though there are few more areas we can look at, our major benefit may come from concentrating on the above 2 aspects.

Again acting as a newbie to batteries we revisit some basic functions of the components of a battery.

1. The container: The function is to hold the internal parts without getting corroded by the acid, withstand temperatures of at least 120 deg C, be rigid and withstand impact of a normal kind. PPCP battery grade is normally used. The density is in the range of 0.9-1 g/cc which is till the present the best material for batteries. Most modifications to reduce weight result in lowering its impact strength or lead to bulging during service. In case we look at nylon its density is higher but strength is much more. It is also, in normal condition, not rigid. What is required is R&D to try and combine materials to give the required properties but be lighter and thinner. When one thinks of ceramics, naturally it gets ruled out immediately because it is brittle and difficult to shape. But interestingly a lab experiment by Ms Greer one of MIT’s brilliant researchers showed that on the nano scale the same rules do not apply. The team was able to build very light weight and very tough trusses which did not break under stress but came back to the original shape later. The example may or may not be suitable on a mass scale to build battery components or cases but definitely shows that innovative thinking may throw up good solutions.
2. Grids: These have 2 functions – act as current conduits and hold the active material in place. The various designs of grids is the subject of a volume by itself but the present grid structure suffers from basic inherent inadequacies. Normally the grids of today are either Lead-antimony or lead-calcium or lead cadmium. Lowering antimony and shifting towards calcium gave better control on self-discharge properties but lowered the strength considerably, also making the manufacturing process more difficult. With innovative manufacturing techniques like spiral grids, expanded, concast etc it was sought to make the grids thinner and lighter especially the negatives. Not much could be done on positives as they had to be thick enough to hold required amount of active material to deliver rated capacity. In the field of grids a lot of work has no doubt been done. Examples are the ALC (Advanced Lead Carbon) negative electrodes. The high carbon content in the negative is said to vastly improve charge-discharge characteristics. In simple terms it acts as a super conductor. Another example is the Firefly Energy battery which uses a light weight variant of Lead. Similarly the Altraverda battery uses a proprietary titanium sub-oxide ceramic structure, called Ebonex?, for the grid. These are AGM type VRLA batteries. The Axion Power battery also uses an activated carbon negative electrode. It is marriage between a Lead Acid battery and a supercapacitor. While the technical and commercial success of such advances are beyond the scope of this article but definitely it’s a big step in the right direction.

While there are some other components in the battery which can be studied for optimisation, our Lead Acid Battery Industry giants especially in India which will become a major supplier of batteries provided we are on the right train with the right goods. In India as far as one reads not much of innovative work is going on towards future ready batteries. Just making better and cheaper batteries may keep the cash counters ringing (high volumes do bring with it financial benefits) but soon the future will catch up with us and find us discharged.

Our designers must build on the advantages of lead as the basic raw material but work in innovative ways to overcome its disadvantages vis-a-vis Lithium. If we find that elusive edge Lead Acid will rule for a lot more time.