The latest news from 17 ABC, Malaysia • September 19-22, 2017
A Batteries International publication
17 ABC Opens With Rousing Speech in Call for Clarity Chairman Stirs Industry With Appeal for Clearer Thinking
n Scenes from an Exhibition — a look around the first day of the conference in images and soundbites. Pages 10, 11 n Photos from the PreConference Cocktail Party. Page 13
It proved a lively start for a fascinating morning with interesting presentations emerging from analysts Neil Hawkes from CRU and Farid Ahmed from Wood Mackenzie. Hawkes’ thesis answered a question that has been troubling the market for some time — how much refined lead production could be constrained by tighter flows of raw material feed. In particular he showed that
the general trend, where the market surplus of lead moved into imbalance was due to the fact that consumption had been growing at a slightly faster place than production and this had been due to slower global refined production growth in the 2010s. Put at its most simple, these trends will be behind further increases in the price of lead, though as ever certain caveats will apply.
Appointment of Dry by BCI Heralds First Steps of North American Comms Campaign Battery Council International announced yesterday (Wednesday) that it had appointed Lisa Dry as its director of strategic communications, marking the active start of its communications campaign, the Advancing
n Giess Wins International Lead Award at 17ABC— The International Lead Award was yesterday (Wednesday) presented to Herbert Giess, long-time veteran lead researcher in the opening morning of the conference. It was a highly popular choice. Pages 6,7 n Hammond Offers PreConference Tour of Royal Selangor Pewter Museum. Page 8
By Mike Halls The 17ABC opened yesterday (Wednesday) morning with a bang as chairman Mark Stevenson laid down the ground rules for this, the 31st year of the ABC conference. “One of the main themes running through all our discussions this year,” he said, “should be how it’s a time for clarity, a time to develop a new path and time to see where we stand and where we see the forces opposing the lead acid industry are gathering.” In an uncharacteristic sweeping judgement, he dismissed large parts of the electric vehicle movement as a “huge misdirection for the energy storage world” and consisting of “a series of rash promises, that time will show, may never be fulfilled.”
What’s News
Lead Batteries Communications Initiative. “The aim of the ALBCI is a move to target decision makers and those that influence them across government and industry,” says Mark Thorsby, head of BCI.
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“The initiative seeks to raise awareness of the importance of lead batteries, as well as inform and educate stakeholders on the need for continued investment in
n A Farewell to Academician Pavlov — the much admired and much loved scientist passed away at the end of last month. Page 14 n In-depth Review of the 5th International Secondary Lead Conference. The price of scrap is now the deciding factor in the price of lead. A complementary agenda. Pages 16, 17 n The Last Word — Tales of darkness and distress as Sorfin’s superb marketing plan brings out the worst side of the lead battery industry, more talks of the Secret Alpha/Beta society in its recruitment drive and why Bali looks set to host 18ELBC in September 2019. Pages 18,19
Continued on page 3 >
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THE BATTERY STREET JOURNAL • 17ABC, KUALA LUMPUR • SEPTEMBER 19-22, 2017
BCI Advances, Launch of Comms Initiative > Continued from page 1
sustainable battery technologies. “Some NGOs [non-governmental organizations] have an enormous sway of influence and we intend to be able to show them the true facts about our industry,” says Thorsby. “We’re looking to communicate this to regulatory, judicial and environmental groups. This will happen in various ways but we’ll certainly be giving briefings to specialist media outlets such as Politico which are hugely influential in informing US Congress opinion.”
The move by the BCI is part of a two-pronged campaign by BCI working with the International Lead Association. The ILA is close to finalizing a similar appointment and, according to its managing director Andy Bush, hopes to be launching its own initiative in Europe early in the new year. Previously Dry was senior director of product communications for the American Chemistry Council. Here, she provided strategic communications guidance and was the media spokesperson for the Chemical Product and Tech-
nology Division, which included more than 70 different product and technology groups involved in the business of chemistry. She also spent two years as the principal of Dry Strategies where she delivered strategic planning, editorial services, media training and issue management services to a variety of biotechnology clients. Dry will work with an advisory group consisting of BCI members East Penn Manufacturing, EnerSys, Exide Technologies, Gopher Resource, Johnson Controls, RSR Corporation, Teck Metals, The Doe Run Company and the ILA’s Andy Bush.
The ALBCI team has several projects underway to support their work. The primary communications vehicle is a website, www.essentialenergyeveryday. com, which highlights four key attributes associated with lead batteries: sustainable, essential, innovative and safe. The site was launched earlier this year and the second phase incorporating additional content including video and industry reports, will soon be available. Essential Energy Everyday also has a presence on Facebook and Twitter to deliver geotargeted messages to specific audiences.
Manifesto for Change, Lisa Dry “Over my career I’ve been fortunate to work in both trade associations and large corporations where I developed communications programs to advocate for new technologies, or familiar technologies that were not well understood. “Whether the subject matter was chemicals or genetically modified organisms, these products often generated emotional responses and were of interest to lawmakers and regulators at the state, federal and sometimes local level. “I will use that experience to work with the industry to educate regulators and policymakers of the dynamic benefits and sustainability of lead batteries that make them a smart choice for solving our country’s energy storage needs. “Our research shows that these influencers are often unaware of the critical applications where lead batteries are used, despite their essential nature to our everyday life. “To help them make informed decisions as they discuss the future of lead batteries, we must communicate to them the essentiality of lead batteries and their unique role in our country’s energy landscape today and in the future. “Although we won’t be launching a campaign directed towards the general public we will, however, be tackling misinformed articles that appear in the mainstream media “As an industry, we know that lead batteries are a safe, proven and vastly used technology. We were reminded of their
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“Our research shows that these influencers are often unaware of the critical applications where lead batteries are used, despite their essential nature to our everyday life. To help them make informed decisions as they discuss the future of lead batteries, we must communicate to them the essentiality of lead batteries and their unique role in our country’s energy landscape today and in the future.”
essential nature for blackout recovery during the recent hurricanes, in fact most of the world’s fixed and mobile phone networks and IT infrastructure rely on lead batteries for 24/7 connectivity and emergency power.
“But we’re also pushing the boundaries of innovation to form a bridge to tomorrow’s energy storage challenges, and do so in a clean and sustainable way. We’re excited to see ever-growing innovative applications including hybrid electric vehicles, the electric power grid and renewable energy storage programs. These new uses will provide solutions for nextgeneration transport and energy needs. “The bottom line? Lead batteries are powering us forward.”
Dry will work with an advisory group consisting of BCI members East Penn Manufacturing, EnerSys, Exide Technologies, Gopher Resource, Johnson Controls, RSR Corporation, Teck Metals, The Doe Run Company and the ILA’s Andy Bush.
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THE BATTERY STREET JOURNAL • 17ABC, KUALA LUMPUR • SEPTEMBER 19-22, 2017
Giess Wins International Lead Award at 17ABC in Kuala Lumpur Long-time Electrochemist Recognized for Industry Contribution
Herbert Giess with Mark Stevenson (left) and Andy Bush (right) By Mike Halls
P
rominent, well-respected electrochemist Herbert Giess won the International Lead Award 2017 at a special ceremony at the opening morning of 17ABC in Kuala Lumpur on Monday, for his contributions to the lead industry throughout his 30-year career. It was a popular choice, and accepting the award, Giess said he was deeply honored and thanked the people who had helped him on his way … Gaston Planté, Camille Alphonse Faure, Alessandro Volta and then some of the brilliant people he had worked with over the years: Kathryn Bullock, Jean Burbank, John Devitt, and David Rand — who gave the introductory speech — among many others. Geisse was born in April 1945 in a small village called Jenesien
in the German-speaking Südtirol, which is in fact part of Italy. He was the eldest of 10 children, having nine sisters younger than him. His father was an engineer from Genoa, and his grandfather hailed from Vienna — strangely a peripatetic family that was to characterize his own work life and that of his son Alexandre who lives in California. Giess showed an early interest in chemistry and as a young teenager could be found happily manufacturing toxic gases such as chlorine, before bubbling it through bromine salts to create bromine as well. “My first job and taste for electrochemistry came with the European Atomic Energy Commission — better known as Euratom — in Ispra by Lake Maggiore in the north of Italy, and later I was transferred to Petten in the Netherlands,” he says.
“It was there that I was involved in determining ion diffusion coefficients of lead, cadmium thallium, and zinc in molten alkali nitrates, acetates and thiocyanates with oscillographic polarography, using a dropping mercury electrode and the Randles-Sevcik equation.” But at the age of 24 Giess sought pastures new, and on the day of the moon landing — July 21, 1969 — he could be found watching live television until the early hours before being interviewed for a position in the research group at the Battelle Memorial Institute Research Center in Geneva, Switzerland. He got the job and with it, his life changed forever. Within days of starting work he met Marie-Héléne, the French secretary for the research group. Some 48 years later, the couple are still together.
It was around this time that he discovered the second love of his life. “After a project for forming insulating passivation layers on copper in liquid hydrogen fluoride I finally found my true love, the lead-acid battery,” he tells Battery Street Journal. “I didn’t realize it immediately, but the lead-acid battery world was in for some exciting times. Delco-Remy, a division of General Motors USA, introduced in 1971 the first maintenance-free SLI battery, the Delco-Freedom Battery made with expanded metal lead-calcium grids. It was a game-changing moment for the industry.” Because the other lead-acid battery firms were trying to compete with Delco and produce equivalent battery types, the absence of antimony in the positive grid alloy created massive amounts of early capacity failures. A solution was needed, and urgently. “As Battelle Geneva was a contract research organization, we offered our research services and gathered, in a multi-year collaborative research project, 12 lead-acid battery manufacturers from Europe, Japan and the US to carry out a fundamental research study,” he recalls. “The title of the programme was the Shedding and Aging of the PbO2 Electrode. “It was the ALABC before its time. Leading this program, we were able to show and document the importance of tin in preventing the passivation of the positive lead alloy grid after a deep discharge. Tin was more effective than our old friend antimony.” Since then the presence of at least 0.2% tin in the lead alloy for positive grids has become the rule. And on to success was built more success. “Next to solving the ohmic passivation issue, we also tackled the so-called antimony-free effect at the heart of many early battery failures,” he says. “This company-confidential research led us, with many other supporting experiments, to pinpoint the exact site of the nasty sudden battery failure which was located in the interface between the grid and the active mass.
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THE BATTERY STREET JOURNAL • 17ABC, KUALA LUMPUR • SEPTEMBER 19-22, 2017 “Not only were we able to identify the site and mode of failure, but we could also yield recommendations for production process changes processes (curing). “We identified three modes of negative impact of the absence of antimony on the behaviour of the positive PbO2 electrode and coined already in 1977 the terms Sb-1, Sb-2 and Sb-3 effects so to describe the failures in performance. “These investigations were again picked up anew in the ALABC consortium about 15 years later and the terms ‘premature capacity loss PCL 1 and PCL 2’ were coined.” His research work had brought him in contact with Gould, Inc. — then one of the most exciting battery firms in the US — which later became GNB and later still, Exide Technologies. He was offered a position to join the corporate R&D lab of Gould, Inc. in Rolling Meadows, outside Chicago, in 1978. He moved out to live there that year, taking with him his young son, Alexandre. Here he was to investigate a wide variety of promising battery chemistries such as Ni-Zn, Li-S and Zn-Br. “However I stayed true to my first love, the lead-acid battery, and maybe my German accent and the release of the movie Das Boot helping, I was soon carrying out research for advanced leadacid batteries for US Navy submarines,” he says. “As a highlight of this activity, my team was able to develop a highly corrosion-resistant, titanium wire-reinforced large-size positive grid for 5000Ah capacity cells destined for back-up power in nuclear submarines. “The idea of reinforcing the grid with bare high-purity titanium wires came when, after months of frustrating efforts to incorporate bundles of alumina fibres as reinforcement, and looking out of the lab window to a nearby construction site, it dawned on me that steel-reinforced concrete structures would be a good example for a strong grid. “We were also very lucky that titanium is perfectly passivated at the potentials of the positive electrode and thus doesn’t cor-
rode when exposed directly to the acid. We needed less than 10% in volume of titanium in the volume of the lead-tin alloy grid to resist creep, corrosion-induced grid growth, as also the forces expected from an enemy depth charge. “All the current flowed along the lead volume of the grid and the titanium wire structure acted only as structural reinforcement. This avoided the ohmic resistance issues plaguing designs when a 100% titanium structure was used as active mass support.” The Gould Submarine Battery Plant in Kankakee in Illinois could thus build a full-sized battery with this technique, and installed it much later in the US Navy Seawolf SSN-21 attack submarine. But Europe beckoned again and after almost five years in the US, Giess joined Accumulatorenfabrik Oerlikon, one of the oldest lead-acid battery manufacturers in the world, and moved to Zürich. “I think my promise to Caspar Weinberger, then the US Secretary of Defense, not to sell my secrets to the Swiss navy, or to join its submarine fleet underneath Lake Zurich, satisfied the US secret service that I was safe to leave,” says Giess. Accu Oerlikon was known for many things, but one of the most famous was the Oerlikon Battery, with a gelled electrolyte, that had been developed in the 1930s. The gelling was done with a slurry of asbestos fibres and a sodium silicate solution. This prevented acid spillage when the battery glass jars broke, and the solid gel also averted short circuits between the hanging, separator-less battery plates. Even a reduced frequency of water additions was claimed as an additional benefit, or a Sonnenschein Dryfit, before its age. With the replacement of glass jars in the 1930s the stronger casing caused the gel to go out of fashion. “Because I had witnessed in Rolling Meadows the birth of the Absolyte VRLA/AGM cells, as head of R&D, I convinced Accu Oerlikon management that another momentous change in lead-acid battery design was in the making with the advent of
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the Gould/GNB Absolyte and the Chloride Powersafe VRLA/AGM stationary batteries,” he says. “We then brought on to the market the successful CompactPower VRLA AGM range, going from 12V-26Ah monoblocs all the way to 2V-3000Ah single cells. The ride was not always smooth and we were, as early adopters of this technology, plagued by the VRLA/AGM characteristic negative terminal leakage and strap corrosion. “But with tenacity and the Swiss drive for perfection and attention to detail we solved all the issues and were able to make the Rolex of the VRLA/AGM batteries.” The next task for Giess was to get the VRLA/AGM hardware into multiple applications, from 48V radio base stations to 480V 2MW data centre back-ups and 1500V UPS systems in chip plants in Taiwan. He also tried to keep his actual and future customers abreast with critical technical details of the battery and its operation. For this he delivered a series of international presentations on such diverse topics as: Thernal Behaviour of VRLA/AGM Cells and Monoblocs; Abusive Discharges to zero Volt of VRLA/AGM Monoblocs in 24V Strings; Investigation of Thermal Phenomena in VRLA/ AGM Stationary Lead-acid Batteries with a Thermal Video Imaging System; Operation of VRLA Leadacid Batteries in Parallel Strings of Dissimilar Capacity; Very Rapid Recharging of Large VRLA Cells; Operation of VRLA Monoblocs with an on/off Float Charge Regime; The Performance of VRLA Cells and Monoblocs under Arctic Conditions; Real-time VRLA Life Test or how Small Differences can have Big Effects; Ground Short Phenomena in VRLA Batteries, and so on. Around this time he also became involved in IEC lead-acid battery standardization work, first as a Swiss expert, then as working group leader, then finally as chairman of IEC TC21 Secondary Cells and Batteries. The recent standard IEC 6089621 and –22 for stationary VRLA cells and monoblocs and IEC 61427-2 for batteries for renewable, grid-connected energy stor-
age were written and published under his guidance. In 1995 he was put in charge of transferring, in a licensing deal, a full set of manufacturing knowhow to a battery manufacturing firm in Zhejiang Province, China. The technical excellence of the VRLA/AGM cells and monoblocs had in the meantime spread to China, and after many technical, organizational and cultural challenges he says: “They were able to confirm Deng Xiao Ping’s declaration, ‘to get rich is glorious’ and ‘I don’t care what colour the cat is as long as it catches mice’, and we cloned our Swiss battery design. I am proud that our design and methods are still in use.” This venture led to another China job, when Accu Oerlikon set up a production line near Hangzhou, the famous Lin’an of Marco Polo. “Having studied close to Marco Polo’s hometown of Venice in Italy I now had the privilege to become a teacher myself in one of Marco Polo’s wonders-of-theworld towns. My private interest in Chinese imperial history and antiquities helped me to win the confidence of my partners there.” The last chapter of Giess’s career began in 2006, when he left Accu Oerlikon to became an independent consultant. “Over the recent decade I’ve had the privilege to assist several companies in solving battery production and battery operating issues and found it always challenging to delve deep into the ‘black magic’ of lead-acid battery science and technology to find a solution.” His latest challenge has been to guide an R&D team at Narada Power Source Co in China to build and qualify the best VRLA/ AGM battery for renewable energy storage. Looking back on almost half a century working in lead and batteries, he says he is still constantly surprised by the fact that the lessons of the past are so easily forgotten. “I’m often being approached to solve a problem of something that we’d looked at — and solved — many years ago. “I fear for our industry that a generation of experts is going to the grave with their knowledge and expertise with them.”
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THE BATTERY STREET JOURNAL • 17ABC, KUALA LUMPUR • SEPTEMBER 19-22, 2017
Pre-Conference Fun as Hammond Tour Visits ‘School of Hard Knocks’ Delegates Enjoy Royal Selangor Tour: Home to the World’s Largest Tankard and More By Jade Beevor
I
t was a special treat. And a treat with a difference. Ahead of the hustle and bustle of the 17ABC sessions, Hammond Group offered a special tour of the world’s most famous pewter factory — the Royal Selangor. So on Tuesday lunchtime two coaches left the KLCC to visit the factory and visitor centre in a rural suburb of the capital. First bit to learn was the Malaysian heritage of how pewter — which, as good electrochemists we all know, consists mostly of tin (but with copper, antimony and bismuth added) — was discovered and how it had become one of the country’s prized materials.
With the help of a tour guide, the roughly 75 guests were chaperoned through the museum — with stories of how a lucky teapot saved the life of Yong Koon, a young Chinese immigrant and the founder of Royal Selangor in the 1880s — and how it found its way back to its family members generations later. Features of the factory included the wall of hands — a tribute to the employees who have worked with the company for more than five years — leading to a bird’seye view of the factory below and where the group could see the craftsmanship of how pewter pieces are designed and made. Everyone agreed that the highlight of the trip was the hands-on experience of pewter-
smithing in the School of Hard Knocks — a workshop dedicated to visitors learning how to get to grips with pewter itself and creating your very own pewter dish to take home. Using traditional tools, the group were equipped with a round pewter disk and hammer, which was vigorously hammered at until members of the grop were left with an object that resembled the shape of a bowl. The key part of that sentence being the word “resembled”. “It was a tour with a difference,” one of the delegates told Battery Street Journal. My thanks go to Terry [Murphy] and Eric [Holtan] for thinking this one up. A parting gift from Hammond — a pewter goblet — made for a wonderful afternoon.”
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THE BATTERY STREET JOURNAL • 17ABC, KUALA LUMPUR • SEPTEMBER 19-22, 2017
Out and About at 17ABC
A moment of calm ahead of the exhibition
SOUNDBITE
Terry Murphy: Chose Royal Selangor for Site Visit Ahead of Conference
Q&A with Terry Murphy, President, Hammond Group Q: How do you see Asia as a region for doing business? A: Hammond has facilities in Kuala Lumpur and is very committed to the Asian market. Not only is this market expanding, but the requirements are more challenging here, and we like challenges. Our business in Asia continues to grow and the general awareness of our tailored solutions is now widely accepted and sought after. Q: What are the benefits of attendance at ABC ? A: The presentations have been very good, but it also allows us to meet many of our key customers without trying to visit 15 different cities. Q: And the location? A: The venue is outstanding and the whole exhibition has been very well organized.
Check out the lads from MAC Engineering
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THE BATTERY STREET JOURNAL • 17ABC, KUALA LUMPUR • SEPTEMBER 19-22, 2017 SOUNDBITE
The Joys of Sponsorship Bitrode and the Sovema Group are glad to be a platinum sponsor of ABC 2017. ABC gives us an opportunity to stay updated on the international lead acid battery market, to learn about advanced lead acid battery technologies and to keep in touch with our valued customers. We also enjoy the venue locations that ABC is held each time; great fun! Craig Brunk, Director of Sales for Bitrode
Bitrode’s Craig Bunk (Centred) Enjoying a Leisurely Pre-Conference Meal with Colleagues and Customers
SOUNDBITE
ENTEK Rolls out Team for the Region ENTEK had its entire global sales team on hand for the 17ABC. Earlier this year, ENTEK announced a joint partnership with PT Separindo, forming ENTEK Separindo Asia. NSG has also joined the partnership snd the three companies plan to leverage their combined strengths, and enhance their position in Asia. The team from ENTEK (pictured) took a break from booth setup and conference activities to celebrate three birthdays and a birth. Rick Pekala, Clint Beutelschies and Marcus Ulrich celebrated birthdays and Ankur Singh welcomed his second child, a boy, just two weeks ago.
From front to back: Tay Hwa Beng, Steve Gerts, Robert Waterhouse, Rob Keith, Greg Humphrey, Ankur Singh, Clint Beutelschies and Carri Moffatt. WWW.BATTERIESINTERNATIONAL.COM
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Meet the team
Mike Halls, Editor Mike, a former journalist with the UK newspaper the Financial Times, has been involved in journalism, publishing and print for three decades. “I’m particularly fond of writing about the batteries industry,” he says. “It’s an unusual mixture of being fast-paced but slow to change — and friendly too. What’s more there’s always something more to learn.”
Claire Ronnie, Office Manager and Subscriptions Claire’s our unflappable person — she’s the go-to girl for subscriptions or account enquiries. Go ahead and challenge her!
Karen Hampton, Publisher In her recent years of working within the battery business Karen has become a well known figure at conferences — not least as our social butterfly. “My job,” she says, “is to get the maximum benefit for our advertisers to make sure their name and brand is out there, while maintaining the integrity, fairness and excellence our publication is renowned for.”
Antony Parselle, Designer Better known in the office as ‘Ant’ he’s been working in magazine design and layout since the early 1990s. Not so good on showing his best side however
PUBLISHER Karen Hampton Tel: +44 (0) 7792 852 337 karen@batteriesinternational.com
June Moutrie, Business Development Manager She’s our accounting Wunderkind who deals with all things financial — a kind of mini Warren Buffett.
Jade Beevor, Advertising Manager Jade, who joined the team in early 2015, is already getting a feel for the industry. “This is an incredible business we’re in,” she says. “These people are literally changing the future of our lives — and the planet too!”
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EDITOR Mike Halls +44 (0) 7977 016 918 editor@batteriesinternational.com
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THE BATTERY STREET JOURNAL • 17ABC, KUALA LUMPUR • SEPTEMBER 19-22, 2017
17ABC Pre-Conference Warm-Up Generates Tingle of Anticipation
“I
t’s good to be back at ABC,” one delegate told the Battery Street Journal as he gently sipped his first beer of the evening. “I cram more networking and learning into three days of attending here than in the rest of the year. “And the choice of KLCC as the convention centre is a great one. We’re serviced by two excellent hotels — the Mandarin and the Traders — which are just a couple of minutes’ walk away, which makes it all the easier to take short breaks when I have to do some of my regular work.” Certainly this year’s ABC is bigger and better than ever before. With well over 830 delegates registered on the eve of the conference and 170 exhibitors, once again ABC showed that it is still head and shoulders over any other lead conference in Asia. “We’ve been going for 31 years,” says Mark Stevenson, chair of the conference. “And we’ve always been ahead of the curve. “If you look at some of our conference papers in our first show in Hong Kong, you’ll be surprised to see that we were already anticipating the photovoltaic revolution and were discussing how VRLA batteries could be optimized for dealing with low level charging via solar panels.” As is customary at the start of ABC conferences, traditional dancers from the host country displayed some of the finesse and style of Malaysia’s folk history and culture.
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THE BATTERY STREET JOURNAL • 17ABC, KUALA LUMPUR • SEPTEMBER 19-22, 2017
Detchko Pavlov 1930-2017 Detchko Pavlov, scholar, academician and probably the greatest expert on the lead battery that has yet lived, died on the morning of August 25. He was widely respected, widely liked and one of the leading figures in advancing our knowledge — both theoretical and practical — of the electrochemical workings of the battery.
M
any senior figures have paid tribute to him as a man and a scholar. David Prengaman, chairman of RSR, told Batteries International: “I have been blessed to have several people over the years aid me in my career and my love affair with lead-acid batteries. Detchko Pavlov was one of them. “He had a way of explaining his theories to me that even a materials person such as I could understand. I remember many discussions with him and my wonder of his understanding of the nuances of charge and discharge reactions.” Boris Monahov, program director for the ALABC, his former student and eventually a colleague of Pavlov, said: “Detchko was a humble person never taking himself too seriously. He had a brilliant sense of humour and often made jokes at his own expense. “After the 25 years I spent with him I felt that he was my teacher and my relative. I spent more time with him than with my parents. I recall with fondness the discussions we
had in the lab after work or on Saturdays.” His intellectual prowess and subject knowledge were legendary. “Detchko? He’s forgotten more about lead than I’ve ever known!” says John Devitt, inventor of the VRLA battery and no intellectual slouch himself. “He was an outstanding researcher and scientist. One of his talents was to move step by step in understanding the mechanisms that underpin how batteries work,” says Monahov. “He was able to explain such mechanisms simply. He liked saying: ‘science is a simple thing but it’s not for simple people’. “He helped dozens of scientists design their research, prepare their theses and develop their careers. He helped thousands of battery engineers with his books and lectures and helped his colleagues to urvive and flourish in a public environment not always generous to research teams.” Roots Detchko Pavlov was born on September 9, 1930 in Shipka, a sleepy Balkan mountain town
in Central Bulgaria. He and his sister went to the local Saints Cyril and Methodius grammar school, where their mother taught mathematics and physics and their father taught in the primary school. His sister described him as “a serious tidy boy, determined to do well.” When Detchko was 16, a young chemistry teacher visited the school. He taught the pupils how to work out chemical equations and demonstrated various chemical experiments. For the young Pavlov this was an epiphany. For the next two years, Detchko was the star pupil, chosen as school standard-bearer in his last year. His academic career began in 1948, when he began to read chemical engineering at the State University in Sofia. In 1953, with a degree in electrochemistry from the Higher Institute of Chemical Technology and Metallurgy, he joined the department. It was headed by professor Stefan Hristov, a pioneer in the application of quantum mechanics to electro-chemistry. In the same department was assistant professor Svetla Raitcheva, who had just completed her higher education at the D Mendeleev Chemical Technical Institute in Moscow and already had a reputation for academic brilliance. Their scientific collaboration grew into friendship and ultimately marriage. Svetla went on to earn her PhD in quantum chemistry and became a full professor. (She eventually chaired the Department of Physical Chemistry and became head of the institute.) Svetla was to be the love of his life and he was devastated when she died a few years ago. After hearing a report by Pavlov, the director of the department of electrochemistry at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Kaishev, invited him to join the department. It was an auspicious time to specialize. Bulgaria had begun to concentrate its manufacturing efforts in the production of electric forklift trucks and Pavlov was commissioned to improve lead acid batteries. For the next half century, Pavlov and his team of some 25 co-workers — the best graduates from the University of Chemical Technology and Metallurgy and the Faculties of Chemistry and Physics of the Sofia State University — broke new ground in understanding the processes of a battery. In 1961, Pavlov got a year posting at the Institut du Radium, Marie and Pierre Curie Laboratory in Paris, working for the laboratory director, professor Haisinski, who had worked with Marie Curie. CLEPS formation In 1967, Pavlov and his colleague professor Evgeni Budevski established the Central Laboratory of Electrochemical Power Sources (CLEPS), where he became the head of the Lead Acid Battery Department (LABD). Following the discovery of rich deposits of lead ores in southern Bulgaria in the mid-
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THE BATTERY STREET JOURNAL • 17ABC, KUALA LUMPUR • SEPTEMBER 19-22, 2017 1960s, the country became the major supplier of forklift trucks and batteries to the USSR and other eastern bloc countries. Alongside their scientific research, the scientists actively supported the Bulgarian battery industry with new technologies, transfer of knowledge and genuine theoretical modelling. For example, Pavlov and colleague Vasil Iliev proved that when polymer additives are added to a battery, its power at low temperatures increases. Their scientific contribution paid off. The starter batteries produced in the Bulgarian “Start” factory in Dobritch continued to work in freezing and sub-zero temperatures. Bulgarian batteries were bought in large quantities, starting at 300,000 units and rising. In return, Bulgaria received 12,00015,000 automobiles per year from the Zhiguli-Lada factory in the Soviet city of Toliati. The extensive range of studies conducted by Pavlov and his team include the kinetics of electrochemical processes; electrochemistry of lead electrodes; semiconductor properties and structure of lead oxides, lead sulphate and basic lead sulphates; processes related to the all stages of the technology of battery manufacture including paste mixing, curing, drying, pickling, formation; structures of lead and lead oxide active masses; processes taking place inside the battery during its storage, operation and rest; electrochemistry of antimony and tin electrodes; processes of oxygen evolution and its recombination back to water, thermal phenomena in VRLA batteries and the mechanism of the processes causing thermal run away in VRLA batteries, degradation processes and the ways to suppress or avoid them. Pavlov and his team investigated how expanders affected negative lead acid battery plates. This led to the creation of highly efficient ligno-sulphonate expanders. They also developed a better AGM with programmable properties. A second family With his researches and 33 patents came international acknowledgement, and one of his more charming characteristics was the way he never distinguished his work from that of his team, who he and his wife referred to as their second family. “He was extremely proud of his team at CLEPS and fiercely protective of them” says Prengaman. “With the change from Communism, he was forced to get support for his research from outside the state. He managed to go to conferences and battery firms to get project funding for his laboratory.” Pavlov was belatedly awarded a Doctor of Science degree in 1984. Fully occupied at CLEPS, he had been unable to make a conventional approach. So when he submitted his thesis, the Scientific Council of Physical
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in scientific literature worldwide. His last work, Lead-Acid Batteries, Science and Technology, Second Edition, appeared in March. Pavlov’s contributions have been recognized through a huge range of honours: 1976, The Cyril and Methodius Medal; 1980, The Award of the Federal Ministry of Australia; 1984, The Research Award of the Electrochemical Society; 1986, The National Dimitrov Award for Science; 1994, The Gaston Planté Medal; 1995, The International Cultural Diploma of Honor; 2006, The Marin Drinov Medal with Ribbon – the highest award of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. In 2010 he was awarded the ILA Lifetime Award and most recently NAATBatt’s Lifetime Achievement Award.
Pavlov and love of his life, wife Svetla Chemistry — the toughest in Bulgaria — agreed this was much bigger than PhD work. They awarded him a DSc. From 1988, he was the force behind the success of the LABAT series of conferences — he chaired 10 of them — which have since been held every three years. He also influenced the decision of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences to award battery scientists the Gaston Planté medal for outstanding contributions. So far, 17 veterans from a range of countries have received this award. In the early 1990s, with the Republic of Bulgaria undergoing rapid change — and the economy being hit — Pavlov realized the department he had been building up was at risk. He began what he called “the American approach to science”, using commercial partners to boost his research efforts. Before long he had persuaded Varta Research in Germany, ALABC in the USA, and Oerlikon in Switzerland to offer his department remunerative contracts to develop production technologies. Pat Moseley, a former manager of the Advanced Lead Acid Battery Consortium, said: “Detchko led his strong team in the scientific study of lead-acid batteries without the financial advantages of his contemporaries in other parts of the world. The work and the spirit of Detchko will stay alive through his papers.” Academician In 1997 he was elected a full member of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, the highest scientific rank in eastern Europe. It is only when one academician dies that a new one can be elected. Pavlov and his team have had more than 200 papers published in scientific journals. These have been cited more than 2,700 times
The analytic process Admirers say the genius of Pavlov was the way he could pinpoint a problem in, say, a piece of battery production and then strip the processes down to fundamental methods. He is also famous for the clarity of his writing so that any production engineer can understand it. All who knew him had anecdotes to tell. “’Detchko’ is the Bulgarian word for ‘kid’,” says Paolina Atanassova, R&D manager at Cabot Corporation. “I remember in April 2011 when I arrived at the Institute’s conference room. Detchko asked if the Wi-Fi TV connection was good — he wanted to watch the wedding of Prince William and Kate. He was as excited as a kid. “Polarization curves can wait,” he told us. ‘This is a love story and a fairy tale.’” David Rand, an industry veteran and former head of the ALABC, says: “I first met Detchko in 1980 when he was on sabbatical at Flinders University in Adelaide. “We were in a car park on top of one of the university buildings where a number of EVs were on display. Detchko was invited to drive an Enfield 8000. Without hesitation, he jumped into the car and zig-zagged around the other vehicles in a cavalier, but alarming, display of steering and then hurtled down the ramp to the street, several storeys below. “I believe he was rescued sometime later after the battery had run out. Many years later for LABAT 1, he picked me up from the airport in Sofia in his Trabant… his style of driving hadn’t changed!” Pavlov died days before what would have been his 87th birthday, succumbing to a fever that overcame him after a heart operation. “He loved many things in life: his wife, his mountain cottage, his CLEPS colleagues, teaching how to build better batteries, and lead acid batteries. I will miss him very much,” says Prengaman. “The battery industry will miss him, his friends throughout the world will miss him, but most of all lead acid batteries will miss him.” Detchko Pavlov, Academician, 1930-2017 We will not see the like of him again.
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THE BATTERY STREET JOURNAL • 17ABC, KUALA LUMPUR • SEPTEMBER 19-22, 2017
ISLC Enters Second Decade as Forum for Secondary Lead 5th International Secondary Lead Conference Provides Complementary Agenda to 17ABC
By Brian Wilson
T
he 5th International Secondary Lead Conference, now in its 10th year, was opened by conference chairman Mark Stevenson on Monday (September 18) with a record number of delegates and a comprehensive technical agenda covering most aspects of used lead battery recycling. Delivering the keynote address, Andy Bush, the managing director of the International Lead Association, congratulated the industry for prioritizing the sustainability agenda and acknowledged that the lead battery industry was at the forefront of “green” battery technologies, because the recycling sector ou-performed all other competing battery chemistries. However, Bush also reminded the industry that the underperforming recyclers in certain emerging economies were the Achilles heel of the industry, giving the sector a bad press on occasion, and there was an ever-pressing need to improve standards across the board.
Huw Roberts, the director of CHR Metals, reminded delegates of the huge increase in demand for lead on the world markets, and especially China, over the past 10 years. He also pointed out that forecasts for growth in lead demand were entirely positive, especially the growth in energy storage. However, Roberts reminded the delegates that outside the SLI market, the lead battery industry faced competition on a level playing field and the only tangible advantage over the competing technologies was the recycling performance of the lead battery market. It was timely therefore for Dong Li, the chairman of Leoch Batteries, the largest integrated lead battery manufacturer and recycler in China, to explain how the Chinese lead industry had raised its environmental performance over the past six years. The initiative in China to upgrade recycling operations was led by the government and most recently revised the environmental performance standards upwards. These are now forcing companies to either raise their environmental profile or leave the business. Athan Fox, technology director for Aurelius Technologies, then explained how in conjunction with Vasant Kumar, from Cambridge University, they were in the final development stage of commercializing a hydro-metallurgical recycling process based on dissolving the lead components of a battery in citric acid. This process, he claimed, eliminated all emissions, discharges and hazardous waste problems,
but also produced a lead oxide with a modified crystalline structure that gave rise to a dense paste that had the potential to store up to 30% more energy than conventional battery paste. Life Cycle Assessment The overriding message from the speakers in the morning session was the move to a greener recycling industry, and Alistair Davidson, the ILA’s products and sustainability director, updated delegates about the ILA’s plans for conducting a new Life Cycle Assessment for lead batteries. He said it was important because, since the last study in 2011, the industry had made so many improvements to its environmental performance that there was no doubt that the industry’s footprint had dropped several shoe sizes in the past half dozen years and the previous study was not a true reflection of the current performance. The outcomes of the study would also be used to reinforce the lead battery industry’s claims to be the only battery technology that is truly holistic in its approach to life cycle management. Matthew Morton, the RMT Plant Metallurgist, took this further and presented to the conference an approach taken in Australia to eliminate effluent discharges into municipal sewage or surface water capture systems. Clearly quality and environmental performance can only be confirmed if accurate measurements of the material produced can be assured and Mukund Pant, from Metal Power, profiled the
many applications of the analytical equipment available to the industry. Whilst the industry’s headline topic for most of the media has been the environmental performance, internally the sector has been dedicating itself to reducing not its environmental footprint, but also occupational exposure and Dan Askin, the president of ESCA Tech, shared his experiences about the best ways and means of reducing occupational exposure by abiding with and following a series of logical and progressive behaviours that minimized the opportunities for lead to enter the human biology. Metallurgical Thermodynamics The afternoon session opened with a short metallurgical course in metallurgical thermodynamics by Sander Arnout, the managing director of InsPyro NV, with a focus on the application of the Gibbs Energy Minimization Concept and the Ellingham Diagrams by interpreting the information from the various phase diagrams so that the pyro metallurgical recycling process could be conducted in a manner that was most energy efficient, extracted the maximum amount of lead from the feed material and produced the minimum amount of slag with as low a lead content as possible. This short course was without any doubt the most challenging technical session of any of the previous conferences and also the most appreciated for the high level of content. Undoubtedly, Arnout will be invited for a second course in lead recycling dynamics. Gravita’s head of the lead business, Vijay Preek, then discussed ULAB scrap in India. This has long been a major problem for the licensed and environmentally friendly recycling sector because of competition from the hundreds, if not thousands, of informal recyclers. He said the government’s recent monetary initiatives to counter the black economy had opened the door for authorized smelters to obtain more ULAB scrap and even drive some of the informal recyclers out of business. With these monetary initiatives
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THE BATTERY STREET JOURNAL • 17ABC, KUALA LUMPUR • SEPTEMBER 19-22, 2017 in mind, Gravita had invested in further plant upgrades and commissioned a new secondary lead smelter at Chitton. Joshua George, the CEO for Citrecycle, informed the delegates that the company would shortly be commissioning a pilot plant in India to test the hydro-metallurgical process his company had developed specifically for adoption by informal operations as a means of eliminating the unacceptable environmental contamination and occupational exposure generated by their backyard smelting operations. Brian Wilson, representing Environmental Resources Management of Germany, finished the day with a case study in Nepal that outlined a model methodology to determine the most environmentally and cost-effective approach to the management of ULABs in countries with economies in transition, and particularly in those nations harnessing the green energy opportunities that used lead batteries are the media for energy storage. Managing Financial Risk The second day of the ISLC began with a workshop session looking at managing the financial risks associated with a commodity-based business and was led by Edric Koh, head of the LME’s South East Asian Division. With the lead price trading at more than $2,000 per ton, recycling used batteries can lead to financial ruin if the LME lead price falls before the lead recovered from the batteries is processed and sold. Koh explained how financial risks can be minimized by hedging the lead content of the used batteries and locking in the recycling margins. With its eyes set across the world of lead recycling, three presentations followed from India, China and the United Arab Emirates. Lakshmanan Pugazhenthy, better known to those in the lead business as Pug, updated the delegates on the impacts of the Indian government’s recent financial interventions in the money markets, resulting in a noticeable increase in the availability of ULAB to the licensed recyclers. A welcome, albeit unexpected, outcome of
demonetization and the introduction of the Goods and Services Tax or GST. China’s latest initiative to improve the lead industry’s environmental performance, the introduction of the principle of Extended Producer Responsibility or EPR ,was illustrated by professor Lin Yeo, the director of the Industrial Development Research Centre at Zhejiang University. Yeo Lin explained that this wellintentioned initiative had fallen short of expectations because it had been introduced on a voluntary basis, unlike the EPR in the European Union, where it is mandatory, and its effectiveness was being undermined by a regressive tax regime. Nevertheless, Yeo Lin informed everyone that the ineffectiveness of the EPR scheme was well understood and she was preparing a study to submit to the government with the objective of streamlining the EPR scheme in a manner that would close the loop for batteries and direct the ULAB to the formal sector for recycling. Salam Al Sharif, chairman of the Sharif Group, then explained how his firm had expanded its recycling abilities in three different countries to cope with the increasing numbers of ULAB found in the Middle East. Sulfur Elimination Massimo Sbrosi, the Engitech metallurgical technology and business development manager, said the firm had further developed its lead recycling CX process to extract more sulfur from the furnace feedstock, thereby reducing the amounts of slag produced and the levels of sulfur dioxide in the furnace off-gas stream. Improvements to burner operations will also reduce the levels of NOx gases and this together with upgrades to the filter plants will reduce particulate emissions to well below current limits. Massimo also announced that Engitech will be looking to develop electrowinning technologies in a partnership arrangement with leaders in this field. Rob Wirtz, Wirtz Engineering’s director of engineering, then looked at the latest innovations in recycling equipment, particu-
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What was clear from the discussion was that there are many different recycling technologies with each one producing a different form of furnace residue. larly the push button access to the battery crusher, a real breakdown time saver, and the continuous cast screw conveyor were certainly welcomed by those in the front line of ULAB recycling. Traditionally the favoured route to process the battery electrolyte has been to produce commercial gypsum because the cost of reconditioning the electrolyte to regenerate the battery acid has rendered the final product uncompetitive. However, Almir Trindale, the CEO of the Brazilian company Antares Reciclagem, announced that the company had developed a low-cost process that can regenerate the battery electrolyte to a saleable quality at a competitive price. The process, known as EcoÁcido, has won national and international environmental awards and has been adopted by nearly all secondary lead smelters in Brazil. Making his first appearance at the ISLC was Genaro Guinto, the combustion applications engineer for Air Liquide in the Philippines. Genaro described how the company’s three oxygen combustion technologies could reduce the levels of NOx gases by up to 90% and carbon dioxide emissions by 60% using their Boostal burner systems. Rasvir Mustan, the CMO for VitaPro International, then discussed a possible means of detoxification using a medication called ProPectin, derived from apple pectin. Trials had shown that even a short course of the medication has resulted in measurable reductions in lead in blood levels. Rasvir informed the conference that the company understood the
lead industry might regard ProPectin as a “novelty” product and so he offered a free one-month trial to any number of employees for any company at the ISLC who wanted to test it. Slag forum First residue, or slag, as it is known in the industry, is classified globally as a hazardous waste and disposal of the slag to a special confinement site is becoming increasingly expensive. Added to that, there are very few such sites in nations with emerging economies. Over the years companies have piloted several schemes to either render the slag inert or non-hazardous or convert it into a saleable product that binds the lead content in such a manner that it will not leach into the environment. Nevertheless, there is no disposal solution that is entirely environmentally sound and so the final session of the conference was a discussion forum to share ideas about possible processes that might result in either a recycling technology that did not generate any slag, or a process that would, in a cost-effective manner, either remove the toxic components or render them harmless to human health and the environment. What was clear from the discussion was that there are many different recycling technologies with each one producing a different form of furnace residue. Resolving the slag issue was an important aspect of closing the environmentally sound life cycle of the lead battery, but as a first step the industry needed to know what the present state of slag generation was, that is, the ratio of slag to metal and the composition of the slags. The ILA’s Bush said he would make arrangements to set up a data base and use that as the basis for further work on slag reduction and the production of inert residues. Closing the ISLC, Mark Stevenson thanked all the contributors and the delegates for their participation in what has been a most rewarding two days, and he welcomed the industry to meet again in two years’ time in Bali, Indonesia.
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d r o w t s a l e Th Blood, blood, glorious blood
What’s Up Pussy Cat?
“There’s no lead in my pencil,” boasts Brian Wilson, one of the world’s top trouble shooters in dealing with lead contamination in the developing world. “In fact my blood lead level is so low — its under 2µg/dl — that you wouldn’t even be able to test me.” Brian, a former smelting manager at Britannia Refined Metals, knows every trick going in keeping lead levels down — “personally I still do everything that I did in my smelting days, I wash my hands thoroughly, I don’t touch my hair, I drink plenty of fluids and much, much more. “But the things I’ve seen! When we instituted a ban on overtime for those with high lead levels at Britannia, we were astonished to find that some of our staff were getting round this by donating blood and then filling themselves up with water. Once I got wind of this, I instituted haemoglobin testing. There may not be lead in his pencil, but he’s as sharp as ever. Electrochemists and eminent scientists are a rare breed of animal. And, following the recent appointment of Allan Cooper to the Grand Order of the Alpha-Beta Society — he apparently is still merrily doing laps of the gardens in his Isle of Wight home — suitable applicants have been hard to find. The anonymous Master Sergeant In Arms and famed for his Black Hood that is worn on Feast Days — sometimes known as distinguished electrochemist Pat Moseley — says he is on the lookout for new blood. The Alpha-Beta society was formed in the late 1980s when the then prominent electrochemists of the day decided to form a forum to discuss topical issues in an informal and very liquid fashion. One prominent member known only through a pseudonym via the uncrackable codename of Ravid Dand said that past and present members now had risen to the low 20s. There were only a few signs of potential candidates were capable of boosting their number. Dand said that he was broadening the Alpha Beta membership and, in flash of the rapier wit that characterized the society said that this new member’s job was as a cat-aloguer.
And Now for Something Completely Different… Strange Conference Facts. No 101 The Petronas towers facing the Kuala Lumpur Convention Center were the location for high rise film thrills with Sean Connery and Catherine Zeta-Jones in the movie Entrapment as they dangled between the two buildings. On September 1, 2009, French climber Alain ‘Spiderman’ Robert, using only his bare hands and feet and with no safety devices, scaled to the top of Tower Two in just under two hours. His two previous attempts in 1997 and 2007 had been stopped when he reached the 60th floor.
The answer is a lemon. Or that’s what Joshua George, co-founder of Citrecycle says. George is here to promote his firm’s product — a hydrometallurgical way of recycling lead batteries. “Essentially the process converts lead sulphates, carbonates and oxides — all the residual components of battery paste — into lead citrate. As a essential precursor to SNO flakes (synthetic nano-oxides). Citrecycle’s target audience is India and the world’s large informal battery recycling sector where standards are low and health even lower. “It’s a sweet opportunity to clean up a sour part of the lead industry,” says George.
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d r o w t s a l e Th Sorfin, Steps and a Fallen Humanity A strange sight on the opening day of the ABC meetings. A hundred people waving a black wristband in a frenzy. On closer examination this was a watch-cum-pace counter. For every step you walked, it counted them. It was all part of a clever marketing ploy called ”Run with Sorfin Yoshimura” for the firm, which acts as a marketing agent for a host of battery-related products and firms. Each day those that wear the wristwatch can count their steps at the conference and, if they’ve done the most, can win a prize. The best, on the Friday, is a highly desirable Apple watch. In theory an admirable metaphor for using a fast paced, competitive business player to boost your sales. But not when the black-hearted lead industry gets involved. The first wave of cheats found that they could wiggle the watch in the air with each movement adding a step. “I’m running at about 10 miles an hour,” said one cheating Brit.
It’s Bali Folks! Yes, Bali — the tropical paradise as equally famous for its unspoilt beaches as its night life — will host 18ABC in September 2019. Unlike the ELBC conferences in Europe where death threats are muttered about any move to the next venue, the ABC folk are easier. When pushed for details by Battery Street Journal they admitted that the next ABC meetings were to be held somewhere or another probably in September and probably in a couple of years’ time. “We’re not fudging the issue,” they said. “We’re not like that ELBC mob who are just plain indecisive.” But that all changed last week when Mark (the Australian organizer) remembered that the fates had intervened in the past. “Last time at 16ABC there was a meteor shower over Bangkok — as pictured in this excellent newsletter — and it announced miraculous signs ahead of my 25th birthday. And do you know what I saw today, a travel agent offering cheap flights to Bali. “The gods have intervened.”
“Well we did know that fibres were good for you!”
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But that was child’s play for the more devious — and wicked — in the lead battery community. One senior Australian figure immediately suggested that his wife should wear it in the gym on the treadmill, and then pass it on to her friends. Another budding entrepreneur (American) suggested a rental scheme to a local child who had to engage in running around all day. But the pièce de résistance came from a stunning young Asian lady who examined the watch for a few seconds and immediately said that it’d be child’s play to shorten the length of the stride to something ridiculous. Meanwhile the rest of us more honest folk continued to wiggle our hands in the air.
Manners Maketh Man Can we never have a break from the moaners at our conferences? At the last ABC we heard delegates moaning that the sky bar in Bangkok was “just too high” to be satisfactory. “It makes you feel a bit dizzy being so high, perhaps they should have put the sky bar lower down?” we heard. (The ground floor?) At a recent conference in Goa we heard moans that — published verbatim — “the palm trees by the pool were too high … if this hotel knew what they were doing they’d have made them shorter to give you more shade by the pool.” So Battery Street Journal has been waiting to see what complains would be made this time. Would the elevators be too fast? Or too slow? Did that floor really had to be that shiny? Wasn’t it unfair of the organizers to choose a capital city that was hard to spell? But surprisingly no. No complaints about the venue so far. Yes, a few mutterings from the North American contingent about the lack of a golf course nearby — “what’s the point of a battery conference if it doesn’t have 18 holes?” — but that was compensated in the Mandarin by a virtual driving range. The worst we’ve heard so far was that the lilies in the reception smelt a bit but, grudgingly, “I suppose they’re meant to do that.”
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