Exide Technologies, SRNL and University of Idaho to Collaborate to Advance Lead-Acid Battery Chemistry
18 July 2009
Exide Technologies entered into a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) with the US Department of Energy’s Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL) and the University of Idaho to develop and commercialize improvements on lead-acid battery technology for applications including hybrid electric vehicles and renewable energy storage.
SRNL is the applied research and development laboratory at the US Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site. This project is part of SRNL’s portfolio of research and development programs in support of energy storage, hydrogen, nuclear energy, and renewables such as wind and biofuels. The laboratory’s scientists have recently developed unique glass microsphere technology now being considered and developed for a variety of commercial uses, including battery additives to enhance performance. (Earlier post.)
The chemical engineering team at the University of Idaho, led by Dean Edwards, Ph.D., P.E., Professor in Chemical Engineering, has more than 20 years of experience in academic research and development on enhancing lead-acid battery technology, particularly concerning additives to improve utilization of the active material in the battery.
With Exide Technologies as the industrial partner, these two research institutions will collaborate on their unique strengths, with Exide providing the resources to commercialize the technologies to improve lead-acid battery performance. Exide anticipates the alliance to expedite development of advancements in lead-acid chemistry for use in enhanced product development and broaden opportunities for market applications.
The Cooperative Research and Development Agreement will be directed by the Global Research, Development and Engineering organization at Exide Technologies, led by Dr. Paul Cheeseman, Vice President, Global Engineering and Research.
The new agreement follows recent collaborations with Axion Power International, Inc. (a developer of advanced batteries and energy storage products that incorporate patented lead carbon battery PbC Technology, earlier post), and Nano-Terra (a leading surface engineering and nanotechnology co-development company, earlier post).
We expect our partnership with Exide to help drive development of improved battery materials, such as cathode plates, to enhance lead-acid battery performance in terms of charging capacity and charging cycle times while lowering material costs and weight.
—Dr. David Newell, SRNL
Lead-acid batteries, which are used for transportation and stand-by applications, account for half of the rechargeable battery market. Although alternative battery chemistries are growing in popularity, such chemistries are not expected to diminish the demand for lead-acid.
Exide Technologies, with operations in more than 80 countries, is one of the world’s largest producers and recyclers of lead-acid batteries.
It appears that Firefly Energy has a pretty good battery. Could someone tell me if there is something wrong with Firefly's battery?
Posted by: vbstenswick | 19 July 2009 at 02:22 AM
Yes there is something wrong with firefly's battery. They refuse to produce it in quantity. Automobile manufacturers have a new model every year but it takes a battery manufacturer years to produce a battery in large quantity. It would be nice just to have firefly's corrosion resistant positive plate technology, but they refuse to sell it in the market at a useful price. It will be sometime before the carbon foam positives are made because of high oxidation voltages. EFFPOWER also keeps delaying their mass introduction year by year, but their technology works year after year. Ebonex is waiting in the wings with EFFPOWER for bipolar. EFFPOWER should get together with firefly. ..HG..
Posted by: Henry Gibson | 22 July 2009 at 06:03 AM