Batteries International Issue 121, Autumn 2021

Issue 121

Autumn 2021

The Great Hydrogen Challenge

A potential body blow to battery futures 2021 a year to remember, but better times ahead

Vehicle-to-grid: energy storage finds new uses, new markets

N YO L Sadly missed: Roger Berger Pasting fibres: a basic block UT B A and Geoff Clementson for lead battery health NN E I TV O 2, N 2 0 C2 B L Bringing the industry together :E D R www.batteriesinternational.com WO T AS L E TH

Intelligent design for various scenarios

Flexible configuration

Parallel power expansion up to maximum 48 KW Advanced anti-theft software to protect batteries Lithium & lead-acid battery hybrid and old & new lithium batteries coworking Supporting CAN and RS485 communication interface Wide operating voltage range: 36~60Vdc

FIND OUT MORE: en.naradapower.com intl@naradapower.com

CONTENTS COVER STORY: HYDROGEN

50

Turning water into power Hydrogen’s potential for offering long term duration energy storage means there’s a new challenge for the battery storage industry. Projected sales volumes of lead and lithium batteries in coming years for transport and grid storage could be threatened by a huge upsurge in substituting fossil fuels for hydrogen EDITORIAL 4 Separating hype from substance — reasons to be rational in a world of irrational data

SADLY MISSED Roger Berger November 5, 1943 - October 2, 2021

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Geoff Clementson January 31, 1938 - September 18, 2021

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PEOPLE NEWS

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Lead ploughs a solitary course over 2021 and into 2022 • BCI presents distinguished service awards to Weinberg and Meyers • Advanced Battery Concepts appoints Michael Everett as president as well as COO • Jacques David wins ICBR award in Geneva • Begüm Bozkaya joins CBI as technical manager • Women in Batteries group launched at BCI • BCI offers educational webinars to focus on roles of batteries for energy storage • Cilia appointed as chairman of Abertax Technologies, ‘K-D’ Merz joins council • Sunlight Batteries USA announces Sechrist as new CEO • Long Duration Energy Storage Council formed by 24 tech companies • Two ex-GM executives join Nanoramic advisory board • Argonne National Laboratory hires new chief scientist for energy storage • Kore Power appoints Panasonic’s Cowder to lead operations in Arizona

NEWS 21 China to ban lead batteries for E-bikes in 2022, says Taiwanese research group • ‘Fraught freight’ to cause problems for US battery makers for foreseeable future • Hammond chooses name for new awardwinning additive GravityGuard • Vernon battery recycling defendant NL Industries hits back with countersuit • Gopher Resource fined $320k for air violations • Tesla big battery sued for failing to deliver • Warnings ahead for lithium batteries as cost reductions taper off, supply risks rise • Monbat to open bipolar lead battery facility by 2024 • Sunlight expands to create world’s largest motive lead battery unit • India takes first step towards ambitious 1GW energy storage target • US battery storage set to defy expectations with 10GW leap • Ecobat announces new five-year financing deal for ‘further upsizing’ www.batteriesinternational.com

• Birla Carbon tailors additives for lead and lithium batteries • ENTEK achieves new international certification, opens expanded plant in Nevada • Nyrstar announces new Port Pirie facility to reduce lead emissions around the site • Pure Earth receives $8 million for lead pollution clear up • Clarios expands reach in lithium ion battery technologies • ABC launches new home emergency storage system• Australian battery firms join up to explore zinc bromide technology • Exide Technologies reveals range of heat-hardy car batteries • Stryten expands lithium portfolio with purchase of Galvion Power • Global partners PositivEnergy and Redivivus in move to improve supply chain weak points • Li-Cycle to build new battery recycling facility in Alabama • SunPower launches VPP for residential customers

TECHNOLOGY NEWS

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Brill Power launches BMS increasing battery life by up to 60% • Alencon Systems gets BOSS patent for BESS • Sila to market anode replacement for graphite in lithium batteries • Generac unveils portable BESS for remote job sites

Berger: much-loved with multi-faceted career

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Clementson: champion in the golden age of UK batteries 11

ALTERNATIVE CHEMISTRY NEWS 35 ESS to deploy 2GWh iron flow battery systems with SB Energy • RES and Octopus Energy agree $4.1 billion deal to build hydrogen plants • Honeywell steps into storage technology with flow battery • Plus Power closes $219 million financing for Hawaii project for 565MWh

Jacques David: award winner at ICBR meetings in Geneva 12

RENEWABLES + STORAGE NEWS 36 Engie cancels solar+storage project in Hawaii, abandonment spills over to NHOA storage deal • Total Eren signs MoU for 1GW wind+storage project in Kazakhstan • EDF North America signs PPA for 600MWh solar+storage project • Canadian Solar signs O&M agreements solar plus battery storage projects in the US

ENERGY STORAGE CORPORATE FINANCE

BCI: Weinberg, Meyers; honours for distinguished service 13

40

Eco-Bat expands reach with acquisition of Emrol • Recurrent Energy completes majority sale of 1.4GWh storage project in California • ESS becomes first publicly traded long duration energy storage firm

Life at the top: Meng becomes new Argonne chief scientist 20

Batteries International • Autumn 2021 • 1

CONTENTS • Elemental Holding continues US buy-ins • Briggs & Stratton buys SimpliPhi Power • Li-Cycle receives $100 million funding for expansion • Fluence Energy IPO success, taps market interest • ATEPS Nederland acquired by Exide Technologies • Energy Vault to list on NYSE through merger with Novus Capital Corp

OM Impianti — Melissa Maggioni Properzi — Giulio Properzi Stryten Energy — Tim Vargo Sorfin Yoshimura — Scott Fink Inbatec/Kustan — Christian Papmahl Hammond — Terry Murphy

MEGA/GIGA DEAL NEWS

V2G technology—still poised between hype and reality

45

Another day, another world’s largest energy storage project • Malta and NB Power plan 1000MWh facility for eastern Canada by 2024 • World’s largest utility-scale battery fails a month after installation completed • Neoenrun big battery project approved, post-fire, to resume battery testing • Gould Creek 450MWH BESS gets development approval

BACK TO BASICS: PASTING FIBRES

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The hidden strength that reinforces the battery.

Leading fibre firms Cellusuede and Goonvean fibres discuss their business and technology

64

Batteries International’s regular gauge of market opinion of the year gone by and the one ahead. Industry experts include: Advanced Battery Concepts — Ed Shaffer Daramic — Dawn Heng CAM-Srl — Francesco Marfisi Penox — Thorsten Peters ENTEK — — Clint Beutelschies MAC Engineering — Doug Bornas ILA — Andy Bush Nanobase — Jae Hak Jeong Monbat — Viktor Spiriev

Publisher Karen Hampton karen@batteriesinternational.com +44 7792 852 337 Editor Michael Halls editor@batteriesinternational.com +44 7977 016 918 Advertising director Jade Beevor jade@batteriesinternational.com Deputy editor Debbie Mason debbie@batteriesinternational.com

BATTERY RECYCLING

Fibres: the fluffy force behind a truly powerful battery 42

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Recycling focuses on the recovery of lead, but little is mentioned of the other materials inside it — separators, additives and other metals contained in the battery

SNAPSHOT: POLAND

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Poland moves to re-invent its battery industry

CHEMISTRY UP CLOSE

Experts united (yet divided too) over the year ahead 64

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A new generation of battery storage chemistries is emerging

EVENT REVIEWS

FEATURES THE YEAR AHEAD

VEHICLE-TO-GRID 78

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26 ICBR Plus ça change ... plus c’est la même chose 19ABC All hail the end of the virtual conference

Va-va-voom! Why vehicle-to-grid technology is future 78

EVENTS 104 All the latest events — both virtual and real — of this season’s coming events

LAST WORD

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CBI competition — Barnes wins (yawn) again • I don’t care how you spell it, but where are the golf courses? • Fashion time at the Yuasa snack counter

Contributing editor Frank Millard Researcher, journalist Hillary Christie hillary@batteriesinternational.com

Vienna? Of course. It was always ELBC’s destination of choice 111

Production/design Antony Parselle, aparselledesign@me.com International advertising representation advertising@batteriesinternational.com

Finance administrator Juanita Anderson juanita@batteriesinternational.com

The contents of this publication are protected by copyright. No unauthorized translation or reproduction is permitted.

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Disclaimer: Although we believe in the accuracy and completeness of the information contained in this magazine, Mustard Seed Publishing makes no warranties or representation about this. Nor should anything contained within it should be construed as constituting an offer to buy or sell securities, or constitute advice in relation to the buying or selling of investments.

2 • Batteries International • Autumn 2021

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EDITORIAL Mike Halls • editor@batteriesinternational.com

Separating hype from substance Reasons to be rational in a world of irrational data Did you know that there is an almost 1:1 correlation between the number of US crude oil imports from Norway and the number of train drivers killed in collisions with other trains?

The peaks and the troughs of their charts are in near-perfect sync!

offering new technology paths could be so right and so wrong for investors.

Take Apple, whose share price this time 20 years ago had just peaked at 34¢. It now stands at around $160, with a market capitalization of $2.6 trillion.

Yes, the charts cannot lie.

By contrast, at the same time 20 years ago, A123 Systems had just been born. But 10 years later it had swallowed almost a billion dollars of state and private investors’ money, and its shares were trading at around $10. The following year it was bankrupt.

But people can. Advertently or inadvertently, human beings often make a mess of the way we link things together.

But even if we don’t quite comprehend the size of the numbers, we know that understanding the fundamentals is important, if difficult.

Sometimes we get it right. It’s raining in the UK, it must be summer.

Human history is illogical. It works in fads, swings between fashions — from clothing to technology — and is often fed by a press that endorses much but understands far less.

Equally fascinating: there is a 95% correlation between the marriage rate in Kentucky and the amount of people who drown each year in the US from falling out of fishing boats.

We’ve joined the dots up and reached a satisfactory conclusion.

But when it rains in Howard County, Missouri, there’s a 93% correlation with its daily rainfall and the number of pedestrians killed across the US in collision with a railway train. Fact.

So why should this be of interest to the battery business?

It’s because in the flood of numbers that daily surrounds us, our natural instincts get confused.

People, for example, don’t have a strong intuitive sense of how much bigger 1 billion is over 1 million.

Translate that into seconds and a million seconds is about 11 days. But a billion seconds? That’s just over 35 years.

So when we talk about the market capitalization of EV maker Tesla — it capped $1 trillion in October — we’re not in a position to understand it.

(A trillion seconds, by way of comparison, is in fact 31,000 years.)

Or even to understand how two similar firms 4 • Batteries International • Autumn 2021

But it’s not just the media or the financial press: the same situation appears at the heart of the battery industry.

This may be found in the mountain of internet announcements, industry presentations and woeful blogs. Sadly it is as equally likely to happen at the best-run conferences as could occur at the worst.

The fact is there’s a new generation of startups clamouring for media attention and some of the claims being made are exaggerated (at best) or in a couple of instances possibly completely untrue. Wishful thinking on the basis of research is being muddled with a wish for investors’ money.

The difficulty for us is separating the truism that publicity is the life-blood of any startup from the fact that publicity alone isn’t necessarily a key to understanding.

The general dictum — it’s always the best policy to speak the truth, unless of course you’re an exceptionally good liar — isn’t helpful for us trying to print the truth or discern the falsehoods. www.batteriesinternational.com

EDITORIAL So here are Batteries International’s three truth detector rules.

• The illusion of substance. Perhaps the cardinal rule of misrepresentation is to give the impression of substance when the reality is vapour.

In a magic show, it’s called misdirection.

Clues here are an emphasis of talk of a corporate structure — making flimsy companies sound solid that were established sometimes just months before.

Here it’s easy too to talk about receiving government funding for research — but a funding award often means little more than this is a line of research worth pursuing. It’s light years away from any reason to build a factory.

• The illusion of completeness. Here the misdirection is to show a linear process, for example, which blurs over a couple of key steps (normally costs). But the basic information we all need to know is simple. Give us the data.

And all of it too!

Oddly enough this is often presented in layman’s language. Here is one comment we received recently. “I was not a big fan of the [deleted] presentation. It was like he was talking to ordinary people on the streets, and not people that have been in the industry for years. He tried to make it way too simple and we both know that it never is.”

• The illusion of meaningful noise. The misdirection here is for us to conflate activity — real or imaginary — with achievement.

In the words of a former US president, this is through the creation of fake news. Or rather news that isn’t news but can be dressed up to look like news.

One well known strategy in building up brand awareness is the equivalent of a rolling barrage in a military attack. The first salvo is to announce the possibility of some action. The second, to give a date. The third to do it. The fourth to report on its conclusion.

been a master of grabbing media attention and those hundreds of thousands of column inches — initially, will he or won’t he succeed?

— allowed him to fire the imagination of countless investors.

Some of his tactics were subtle and, let’s face it, perfectly legitimate. When there was a media furore about where the first battery gigafactory was going to be located — would it be Texas, Arizona, or Nevada? — Musk fed the flames by refusing to comment.

Huge swathes of timber were chopped down as the newspapers eagerly discussed the issue of what state would subsidize what and by how much. Meanwhile, of course, Tesla had already started preparing the ground for its plant in Sparks, Nevada.

And all the time the Tesla brand was in everyone’s faces. Why advertise when the press will do it for you?

But for those of us who have no axe to grind, remember Mark Twain’s words: “If you tell the truth you don’t have to remember anything.”

If the press is uncritical and reports it all, it ends in some form of media validation.

And that’s a lesson never to forget!

Tesla founder Elon Musk, for example, has

Mike Halls, Editor

www.batteriesinternational.com

Batteries International • Autumn 2021 • 5

NEWS

Lead ploughs a solid, if solitary, course over 2021 and into 2022

By Farid Ahmed, Wood Mackenzie

6 • Batteries International • Autumn 2021

Nov 21

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LME lead price - index: 1 January 2021 = 100

that lead’s days are numbered, so why Throughput is quite steady, “so bother much with it or try to under- where’s the need to spend money forOn the whole, lead stand that market? mally hedging using the LME?” they has had a good year The lead business is much smaller argue. Either way, that’s another huge — or at least an than those other metals. At current chunk of lead transactions that isn’t interesting one. Its prices, annual LME traded volumes going to be traded on the LME. London Metal Ex- for lead’s sister metal zinc are three This is evidenced by total annual change (LME) price and a half times greater than for lead. LME lead trades for 2019, the last has, at the time of Nickel is four times bigger, aluminium complete pre-pandemic year, falling by writing, gained over over six, and copper dwarfs it by be- 11.3% — a bigger drop than any of the 10% in value since ing worth more than a dozen times the other key metals. It feels like the LME’s the start of 2021. But all things are rel- value of LME lead trades. appetite for lead may be diminishing. ative and, in truth, lead has been a bit Thus, being relatively illiquid, there This goes part of the way to explain of a laggard in the context of general generally aren’t the same opportunities why lead hasn’t been more attractive metals markets. The other key LME to make money in trading lead. So, it to the moneymen (and women) of the commodities — copper, aluminium, tends to get side-lined in favour of the LME. zinc and nickel — all saw higher gains, other more lucrative glamorous metals.

But there’s no denying that, in hisaveraging 19% higher since 1st JanuThe LME operates pretty much torical terms, the price is still good for ary. globally, with the notable exception the lead producers. For many recyclers, There have been plenty of reasons of China, which is covered by its own this had been an absolute bumper year. for the lead price to have pushed high- Shanghai Futures Exchange. With Scrap supply has been ample, often er this year, so why didn’t it? We’ve three quarters of global lead produc- plentiful, which has helped push the had the lowest LME lead stocks for tion in China coming from secondary, cost of their principal raw material many years, strong demand in North this has a further impact on LME lead down to its lowest for many years in America and Europe, and tightness in volumes. proportion to the lead price. Strong supply from both primary (mined) and Relatively few lead recyclers would demand — especially in the US and Chart title:supply. secondary (recycled) consider hedging their material on the Canada — has seen premia surge to It’s true that for metals traders, lead LME. Instead, they believe there is a record levels. is too often considered as the ugly natural hedge between buying raw maRight now, in the US, the premium Lead’s gains this year so impressive compared duckling of base value metals, the dull cousin terialnot (overwhelmingly scrap batteries) for domestic 99.97% purity secondary that no one wants to know. The (false) one month and selling the recycled lead lead is around 50% higher than that of to other base metals belief among many market players is product the following month.

99.99% primary lead a year ago.

That’s big money to smelters. So, the comparatively low scrap prices, 160 plump premium levels and high LME prices are giving North American and Pb European lead producers plenty to be Zn 150 pleased about this year.

Cu But wait! It’s not all going their way.

Al You can’t have helped but notice that 140 Ni energy costs have spiked recently. Add to that freight costs going absolutely 130 bananas, whether that’s taking a bulk cargo of lead concentrates across the ocean, a shipping container of refined 120 lead across the sea, or a truckload of lead ingots down the road to the next city.

110 Higher energy and transport costs have really hit smelters hard and erod100 ed those margins that were looking so sweet earlier in the year.

But those lead producers are still 90 smiling, even with their higher costs, as they get into the most intense phase of their negotiations for 2022 long-term supply contracts. It’s not often that the Source: LME, Wood Mackenzie market plays a little into their hands, Lead’s value gains this year not so impressive compared to other base but this year is one of those times. metals Next year, who knows?

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OBITUARY

Roger Berger

November 5, 1943 - October 2, 2021 Roger Berger, well liked and well known to two generations of US and international batterymen, died aged 78 in early October.

Roger had a long and successful career, both in sales and manufacturing, that started with his first job in the battery industry in 1966 in California and culminated five years ago with the sale of his own business.

It is probably best to say his main career started in 1970 when he joined an Iowa firm called Voltmaster, where he was to eventually become plant manager. In a pattern that was to characterize his life, his employers and colleagues were to become life-long friends. Roger became good friends with Roger Winslow (senior) who later bought Voltmaster, and Roger the son who is still well known across the North American battery business.

Steve McDonald, later Roger’s boss at Microporous, recalls meeting him for the first time that year and a friendship blossomed that was to last until his death.

“We used to meet at conventions such as IBMA and later BCI, he was fantastic company, dedicated to the battery industry and with a fantastic sense of humour.”

Roger was later to work on two BCI committees — the Industrial Battery and Charger Committee and the Convention and Arrangements Committee.

In 1975 he left to join WR Grace, probably the most charismatic US battery company at the time, and at

the cutting edge of developing VRLA batteries.

In a move that characterized much of Roger’s life, he was able to flip between the technology side of operations to sales. He did this so well that he exceeded his sales quotas for six consecutive years.

In 1981, excited by the challenge, he moved to join Alco Battery in Lithonia, Georgia, first as general manager and then in 1983 as vice president for manufacturing. During this time he built an electric golf cart battery manufacturing facility from scratch.

It attracted much industry interest: to create an operation from the very beginning required a huge understanding of the different processes and problems in making lead batteries — and specialized ones to boot.

Alco was bought in 1988 by Trojan Battery to complement its own skills as a deep-cycle battery manufacturer.

At Trojan, Roger was initially general manager before being promoted to senior vice president of operations.

He was one of the leading figures in the massive expansion of Trojan during the 1990s. His sales area covered the east coast of the US. During this time he grew the business from more than $7 million to $60 million, and unit sales from more than 200,000 to 1.8 million.

“This was probably one of the most enjoyable periods of his career,” says McDonald. “He built a fantastic reputation both inside and outside the company. Sometimes it’s tough being

“Inside or outside the industry you would not find a better man to align with. Roger knew the product, process, and the right people to talk with to better your company and life.”

Early days in the industry

8 • Batteries International • Autumn 2021

an employer and a good boss, but all those who reported to him loved him.”

It was during this period that Trojan became the leading golf-cart battery manufacturer, taking a huge chunk of the North American business and extending its range of deep cycle batteries for other applications.

Although he left Trojan after a difficult relationship with a new chief executive, Roger remained firm friends with the employees and the Godber family, who then owned the company.

He was immediately approached by John O’Wirtz, head of Wirtz Manufacturing, who had already known him for some time, professionally as well as at the regular BCI conventions which both the Wirtz family and the Berger family attended.

Wirtz offered him work to manage the installation of all battery equipment for its new battery manufacturing facility in Isabella in Puerto Rico.

It was designed to be a showplace for the Wirtz Group of Companies to demonstrate their full line of equipment.

It showed Roger’s technical knowhow to full effect, as he knew how to work every job on the plant. On completion in 2002 it was a fully functioning facility from manufacturing the oxide to formation and finishing.

At home in his workshop at home, he proudly kept on display the very first battery that came off the production line.

His wife Pam recalls: “It was a challenging time for him living mostly in Puerto Rico, but his Spanish was good — because of his experiences in California in the 1960s.

“Throughout his life if I were with him in a plant he knew everybody by name and their families too. From his time at Trojan he knew how to ease frictions in a diverse workforce when, for example, if there were conflicts between African American employees, Hispanics and Caucasians.”

In December 2002 — see below — he joined Microporous, the international separator firm, as an account manager for domestic sales.

He already had strong contacts with separator developer Amerace Microporous Products (later to be just known as Microporous) — the firm had worked closely with Trojan on

www.batteriesinternational.com

OBITUARY separator design, which the firm had rightly identified as having a major impact on the overall life cycle performance of deep cycle batteries.

After Daramic’s acquisition of Microporous in 2008, instead of retiring aged 65, he decided on his third career — this time with his own firm, Processing Supply Company.

Working with Giovanni Terzaghi, who owned the company Termar — and who Roger knew from working with him at Microporous — he bought an existing and underperforming company and built a successful business selling ITB seamless pasting machine belts.

“At first it was a real challenge,” his wife Pam recalls. “The belts were top quality but made in Italy, and his challenge was to convince people that the extra price would eventually pay off.

It is a tribute to him that his technical understanding was such that he could talk to the head of pasting of any plant in the US and he could explain and make the sale.”

Roger was to become the sole distributor for North America. He sold the company in 2016 and finally retired.

Tributes paid to him by colleagues and friends to Batteries International showed he was an extremely well liked, sociable and agreeable man.

Terry Agrelius, chief executive of US Battery, wrote: “Roger was a great guy to be around. He always had a way to lighten up your day with a pointed punchline and humour. Inside or outside the industry you would not find a better man to align with.

Roger knew the product, process, and the right people to talk with to better your company and life.”

His family said: “Roger was an honest and sincere man full of joy and always ready for a good laugh and a joke. He was known for his sayings and quick wit. He loved fishing, golf, music, the classics, country music; and had a beautiful voice that he shared occasionally with others by singing a few tunes. He was loved by many.

“His wife, sister and children and his many lifelong friends will miss him so much, but all agree that his life was a life well lived.”

His death was unexpected. Despite being twice vaccinated against Covid, he was one of the unlucky few to succumb to the disease.

He is survived by his wife of 30 years, Pamela Berger; his sister and brother, two daughters, five grandchildren and one great grandchild.

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“GOLF IS EASY, LET’S PLAY RUGBY INSTEAD?” Roger’s favourite pastime was fishing — “minnow drowning” was his term for it! But just a fraction behind that was his immense love and enthusiasm for golf.

As ever in the immense collection of friends gathered over the years, he would play golf whenever and wherever he could.

Roy Bray, now a vice president with Sanders Lead Company and who knew Roger from his early days, said he was always joking, bursting into song or making up limericks.

“Everyone who knew him had a golf story about him,” he says.

Ron Anderson, who knew Roger from his Alco days in the 1980s, remembers watching him play.

“His opponent wasn’t particularly good at the game, so as they were teeing off, he decided that he would just hit it as hard as he could. He did

an enormous swing … and missed.

Roger, without missing a beat, whispered to him. “You know if you’re going to swing that hard, you’d better try and hit something.”

Mike Gilchrist, a former CEO and president of Microporous, first knew Roger when he worked for Trojan in the mid-1990s. “Since then we’ve played hundreds of games, both on foreign trips and across the States.

“He was a capable player and we had a standing match with each other which always included a small bet as we tried to mess with the psyche of the other. I remember the one time I really floored him.

“We’d just got to the 16th hole when out of the blue I asked him if he’d be interested in a job with us at Microporous. It was so unexpected that his game went to pieces. It was a double win for me —I got a great salesperson — and won a $20 bet!”

Roger playing at St Andrews with Mike Gilchrist

Roger at home, and with with his wife of 30 years, Pamela

Batteries International • Autumn 2021 • 9

Essential reading - Batteries International magazine

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OBITUARY

Geoff Clementson

January 31, 1938 - September 18, 2021 It is with sadness that Batteries International reports that Geoff Clementson, a huge figure in the UK and international battery industry from the 1970s to the late 1990s, has passed away at the age of 83.

Geoff’s career spanned most of the golden age of UK battery manufacturing when the country was regarded as a centre of excellence in the world — firms such as Chloride, Lucas and Hawker Siddeley were well known international brands and had a huge global footprint.

Geoff joined the Royal Marines in 1956 after electricians training at a commercial college in Liverpool, and left them aged 21 after seeing combat service in the Eastern Mediterranean, to work in the family firm Radio Battery Services for his father who had set up the business in the 1940s.

These were years of big change for him both in understanding the business and personally too. The following year, 1960 he married Carmel McIvor and two years later his only son Greg was born.

Over the next three decades Geoff was responsible for transforming a small regional distribution business now known as Car Battery Services into a large UK firm with an international presence.

In doing this Geoff, with great enthusiasm, put himself at the heart of the business working as a member and senior adviser to the International Battery Manufacturers Association and Battery Council International.

As such his firm, renamed CBS Batteries and which was now a medium scale lead battery manufacturer producing upwards of half a million vehicle batteries a year plus industrial cells.

His enthusiasm for the new technologies emerging meant him becoming first firm in the UK to use the thennew TBS cast-on-strap equipment to speed up battery assembly, and as an independent producer, manufacturing their own oxide and making tubular plates for industrial batteries.

He was well known and well liked for not just his enthusiasm but his

www.batteriesinternational.com

Geoff’s son Greg recalls: “There’s a typical Geoff story behind this picture: he was approached on a flight back from the Caribbean, by someone from a London ad agency who was looking for an Ernest Hemingway type for a Deutsche Bank campaign. He laughed, agreed and a week later a well known photographer took this. He was paid £1,000 — a substantial amount in the early 1980s — for his time although he never cashed the cheque.

“That pic ended up being used across Germany for the next few years. He saw himself many times, and had friends/acquaintances tell him they had ‘passed’ him at some airport or train station, and he hadn’t acknowledged them!

“He dined out on the story many times! He joked he wanted to put ‘International Model’ down as his profession afterwards!”

ability to help lead on the next generation of the industry.

He travelled extensively and visited battery manufacturing sites in every continent they existed, Europe, Africa, Asia and all through the Americas, sharing knowledge and comparing manufacturing techniques, looking for a competitive advantage over his local UK/European competition.

“I had the pleasure to work with Geoff as technical, quality and R&D director for his company CBS Batteries from 1986 until 1990,” says Doug Lambert, vice president for sales and technology at Wirtz Manufacturing, a global battery machine developer.

“His vision and drive were instru-

mental in the development of my career, and I have always appreciated his support and the opportunity he gave me to visit many other battery manufacturing plants even as far as South Africa; which in the early 1980s was an adventure and even included a trip through Soweto!

“A heartfelt ‘Thank You Geoff’ for everything…”

Other industry veterans described Geoff Clementson as a ‘true gentleman and a great character’, well known and respected throughout the industry, world-wide. “He was enthusiastic about batteries, life and caring for his family, friends and employees,” says one.

John O’ Wirtz, the retired head of Wirtz Manufacturing, said: “I always had the highest respect for Geoff, as well as his wife and team mate Carmel. Geoff was always happy to share his thoughts on the lead acid industry.

“When I first started travelling to Europe to establish relationships with the European battery manufacturers, Geoff always took the time to explain an overview of the industry, and also his opinion as to the direction of the industry.

“I viewed Geoff as a spokesman and an ambassador for the lead acid battery industry, and will always be thankful for his friendship.”

His son Greg, who shared part of his early years of his career with his father, said: “He loved talking about the industry and was as much at home talking with, say, a grid casting machine operator in a small manufacturing site in Kenya as he was chatting with the chief executive of one of the largest battery manufacturers in the world. He was friendly and very gregarious.”

Geoff also led the way with the development of traction batteries and the firm also became the first UK manufacturer of block batteries for small EVs. He retired from the industry in 1998.

Geoff leaves behind Carmel, his wife of 61 years, and his son Greg.

Batteries International • Autumn 2021 • 11

PEOPLE NEWS

Jacques David wins ICBR award in Geneva ceremony This year’s winner of the annual ICBR award, presented at the 26th International Congress on Battery Recycling in Geneva, went to Jacques David, a popular industry figure known for his lifelong commitment to the battery recycling industry.

Mr David is recognized internationally for his extensive knowledge — he has more than four decades of experience — and, most particularly, as a true battery pioneer of the industry.

He started to collect and recycle batteries in 1977.

This was many years before any legislative support would encourage the return of spent batteries or enable him to collect batteries with a recycling fee included.

As a pioneer in the recovery of nickel, cobalt and cadmium from batteries, he became renowned internationally after he developed

The annual ICBR award, presented at the 26th International Congress on Battery Recycling in Geneva, went to Jacques David

a successful global network for the French recycling company SNAM, where he

Begüm Bozkaya joins CBI as technical manager The Consortium for Battery Innovation announced in early November that Begüm Bozkaya has been appointed as its technical manager.

Bozkaya is already known among the advanced lead battery community, having been involved with recent CBI workshops and ELBC presentations.

In the past six years she has investigated the effects of carbon additives on negative plates for lead batteries as part of her PhD, studying with Fraunhofer R&D Center for Electromobility at Fraunhofer ISC. Separately Power

Technology, an energy publication, has nominated CBI for its 2021 Excellence Award. It is included in the Batteries & Storage shortlist as part of its Sector Excellence category.

Begüm Bozkaya

12 • Batteries International • Autumn 2021

became a director. He spent 28 years with SNAM. After his retirement from SNAM, he ran Screlec for eight years, collecting and recycling primary and rechargeable batteries in France.

After his industrial career, he became a consultant in 2013, advising and supporting the battery recycling community in its efforts to accompany the growing development of the primary and rechargeable battery collection and recycling business.

He is still active as a consultant on lithium-ion battery recycling with an operation known as ‘Just Different’.

Jacques David has been instrumental in setting up the modern landscape of structures that support the battery recycling business.

In 1998 he was a founding member and chairman of the European Battery Recyclers Association. This has proved an important

body in advising the European Commission on the collection and recycling of portable and industrial batteries. It has also been an important body in setting the agenda for regulation.

EBRA was involved in the landmark 2006 Directive on Waste Batteries and Accumulators, better known as the Battery Directive.

He was also instrumental in opening up the field of recycling for lithium batteries with the creation of RECHARGE, the advanced rechargeable and lithium batteries industry association in 2004.

Early on David recognized the need for the recycling business to share not just a common voice through its industry associations but its need to communicate internally on the latest trends and technologies. He has supported such conference meetings from the first Florida Battery Recycling Seminar in 1990 to the 26th ICBR held this week in Geneva. He has attended every ICBR since its inception.

The award, says the ICBR steering committee, is granted to a person for remarkable commitment and outstanding achievements to the battery recycling industry and its related fields such as: the development of new battery recycling technologies and chemistries; improving battery collection and recycling; the protection of the environment; and advancing sustainable development and the circular economy.

Jean-Pol Wiaux, chair of the ICBR steering committee, said: “His lifelong commitment put the worldwide battery recycling industry on the path to a profitable and environmentally sound business model.”

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PEOPLE NEWS

BCI presents distinguished service awards to Weinberg and Meyers Lawyer David Weinberg and Quexco chairman Howard Meyers received Distinguished Service annual awards at this September’s BCI annual convention. Weinberg’s was for 2020 and Meyers for 2021.

The presentation of Weinberg’s award was delayed a year due to the Covid pandemic, which caused the BCI annual convention to be held virtually.

“Howard’s contributions to the industry and the world go well beyond the businesses he created.

His service to the industry has been demonstrated by his commitment and engagement with BCI” David Shaffer

Meyers, who started building his lead recycling business in the 1970s, has been a mainstay in the industry, building what eventually became the largest battery recycling business in the world, BCI said.

EnerSys president and CEO Dave Shaffer said: “Howard is an amazing businessman. He has shown dogged determination throughout his entire career back to a very young age to succeed in the difficult recycling business.

“He is always thinking about the complexities of the business on multiple levels. Howard’s contributions to the industry and the world go well beyond the businesses he created.

His service to the industry has been demonstrated by his commitment and engagement with BCI and other trade associations throughout his tenure.”

BCI said that he had been a mainstay of the industry for five decades, building what eventually became the largest battery recycling business in the world.

Weinberg receiving the award from BCI’s Miksad, who spoke about his three decades’ service

“His business acumen has been widely recognized by his colleagues and competitors alike, and his efforts have gone on to shape the industry,” BCI said.

BCI also acknowledged Meyers’s philanthropic activities, including his donations to NYU Paths to Peace programme, which brings together students of different faiths and backgrounds from Israel, the West Bank and Gaza, to study and live together at NYU. David Weinberg, a part-

ner of the law firm Wiley Rein, began working for BCI in 1989 and since then has worked with the Environmental Protection Agency in an effort to limit the unnecessary regulations placed on the lead battery industry based on scientific advice and best practices.

Just over a year ago, he received acclaim from the American Society of Association Executives for a ‘groundbreaking model for lead battery recycling’ that he helped to develop on behalf of BCI. The model was called ‘one of the most important regulatory accomplishments of the past 100 years’.

In his acceptance speech, Weinberg quoted the poet Edward R. Murrow, who said: “We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty. We must remember always that accusation is not proof and that conviction depends upon evidence and due process of law. We will not walk in fear, one of another.

We will not be driven by fear into an age of unreason.”

Advanced Battery Concepts appoints Michael Everett as president as well as COO Bipolar battery firm Advanced Battery Concepts has promoted Michael Everett to president alongside his current job as chief operating officer, with the main objective of commercializing the firm’s new Home Emergency Energy product line, the firm said on November 8.

The HEES, which uses the firm’s GreenSeal bipolar batteries to provide back-up power storage when grid power is out, was launched in September 2021.

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Everett joined ABC in June 2019 from Trojan Battery, which had been bought by C&D Technologies in November 2018.

At Trojan he was senior vice president for engineering for three years, following 13 years at Maxwell Technologies as CTO and vice president.

One of Everett’s key tasks has been to industrialize ABC’s GreenSeal processes and manufacturing equipment, which enables continuous production of electrode assembly so that

OEMs can build the batteries in-house at manufacturing scale volumes.

“Michael Everett has been a great addition and contributor to the Advanced Battery Concepts team and its growth over the past two years,” said ABC founder Ed Shaffer.

“His ability to lead our industrialization programme and focus on process improvements has been a key to his promotion as president.”

“GreenSeal batteries unlock much higher value

Michael Everett

for the lead battery industry than historically achievable, as measured by the higher performance, longer lifetime and more efficient use of raw materials and resources in manufacturing, and there is more to come,” said Everett.

Batteries International • Autumn 2021 • 13

PEOPLE NEWS

Women in Batteries group launched at BCI A new women’s group aiming to promote and support the professional development of women in the battery industry was officially launched at September’s BCI convention in San Diego.

In a sector where women are traditionally few and far between, the Women in the Global Battery Industry group aims to ‘help women further their own careers as well as help to further their companies’ goals by relationship building within the industry’.

MAC Engineering chairwoman Julie McClure will chair the group. Membership is open to all in the industry.

Spearheading the formation of the group was a steering committee of women well known in the industry, including Virginia Archibald, Surrette Battery; Melissa Floyd, Stryten Energy; Claudia Lorenzini, Microporous; Ellen Maxey, Clarios; Maria Roma, Advanced Battery Concepts;

In the 2019 BCI convention in Tuscon, Arizona, women in the battery industry (pictured) met to discuss the possibility of the formation of this professional group

Sheila Ryles, Teck Metals; Donna Snyder, East Penn Manufacturing; Tammy Stankey, The Doe Run Company; Emma Thacker, EnerSys; and Pam O’Brien, BCI. Julie McClure said: “As a second generation professional in the battery industry, I know how valuable relationships are in building leadership skills to serve in executive positions with-

in the industry, especially in one that is a traditionally male enterprise.

“Through the networking, professional growth, education and mentorship opportunities we will offer, I am excited to increase the number of C-suite executives in our growing industry.”

The vice-chair is Virginia Archibald, CFO at Surrette Battery in Canada.

Chris Pruitt, BCI president and president of East Penn Manufacturing, said the launch signalled a great opportunity for women to advance in the sector. “I’ve seen within my own company the power of diverse points of view from an inclusive workforce,” he said.

East Penn has been named one of America’s best employers for women by Forbes and Statista.

BCI launches educational webinars to focus on roles of batteries for energy storage Battery Council International announced early November that it had launched a series of short webinars on subjects integral to US federal policy discussions on batteries’ role in the future of the country.

The content is designed to highlight ways to meet US energy storage needs through domestic resources, and why supply chains, manufacturing infrastructure, minerals and battery innovation are essential to meet these goals.

The information is be-

ing offered on demand to make it accessible to viewers at a time and place of their choosing.

“We know that policymakers and our stakeholders have busy schedules,” said Roger Miksad, BCI executive vice president.

“Our goal is to provide them with the information they are looking for on their schedule, not ours. Just as streaming has become a preferred method for viewing television shows and movies, we believe it’s also an effective way to connect

14 • Batteries International • Autumn 2021

with policymakers.”

In the first briefing, Critical Minerals & Supply Chains for US Energy Storage, Miksad and John Uhrie, vice president, exploration, research and technical development for The Doe Run Company, will discuss the role of metals and minerals for a low carbon future in the US and internationally.

“The low carbon future is coming, and there’s a variety of minerals that are central to this low carbon and renewable energy future,” said Uhrie.

He says these minerals

are essential to the global battery market, which today is about $90 billion in value, but by 2030 will be $150 billion.

Miksad and Uhrie say they “will also examine the closed-loop manufacturing system that keeps 130 million lead batteries out of landfills each year and provides a continuous supply of recycled lead to manufacture new batteries”.

Future webinar topics will address the role of lead batteries in supporting the transition to electric vehicles.

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PEOPLE NEWS

Cilia appointed as chairman of Abertax Technologies, ‘K-D’ Merz joins council Joseph Cilia took over the chairmanship of the Abertax Foundation in early October, replacing Martin Florin, who becomes deputy chairman ahead of his retirement.

Cilia started at the Abertax Group in 2003 as the group’s chief executive and R&D director. Since then the group has expanded extensively in terms of staff and turnover.

Cilia says the firm is still poised for more growth.

“The Abertax group has a comprehensive R&D team with engineers and specialist in different areas. We’re

very active in the development of new products and we hold 18 patents,” he says.

“All these and other relat-

Joseph Cilia

ed products are produced in-house. These range from plastic injected components to highly sophisticated electronic products, coupled with IATF 16949 Quality Control.”

Cilia is also a professor at the University of Malta. He has published more than 100 papers in international conferences. His research interests include high speed drive systems, electrical transport, energy storage systems and the efficient use of energy and renewables.

Separately, Klaus-Dieter Merz — known affection-

Sunlight Batteries USA announces Sechrist as new CEO Todd Sechrist has been appointed the CEO and president of Sunlight Batteries USA, the American arm of Olympia Group battery subsidiary Systems Sunlight, the firm announced on October 11.

Sechrist has been a board member of the company since 2020. He joins Sunlight after a long career in the energy storage sector, including 25 years at lead-acid battery maker EnerSys, where his positions have included president – Americas; and president – Europe, Middle East and Africa.

He will head up the company as it builds its new 103,000 ft2 (9,600m2) lead and lithium battery facility in North Carolina, which has an annual capacity of more than 2GWh of lead and lithium batteries.

The facility will take about two years to complete at a cost of $150 million, Sunlight says, and includes expanding its Greensboro plant, which will triple the unit’s capacity for the assembly of lead and lithium batteries by 2022.

“Todd brings a wealth of knowledge and experience from both the battery industry and the

16 • Batteries International • Autumn 2021

Todd Sechrist

forklift-focused side of the business,” said Lampros Bisalas, Sunlight CEO. “Energy storage, and more specifically the battery and charging system industry, is becoming increasingly important to contemporary society,” said Sechrist. “Sunlight has an important role to play on a worldwide scale, and I am keen to assist the company at this seminal moment of its evolution to global reach.”

Sechrist’s appointment comes as the company records a 68% year-on-year growth, turning over €126 million ($146 million) in the first half of 2021.

In September, the company said it would spend €50 million ($59.2 million) on expanding its lead and lithium battery manufacturing unit in Xanthi, Greece.

Klaus-Dieter Merz

ately to the battery world as KD — has become a member of Abertax Technologies’ Council. KD joined Abertax in 2008, initially as a technical consultant and adviser. Later he became VP for technology and a member of the executive board at Abertax.

KD has worked closely with the R&D team at Abertax to design and develop products that are needed in energy storage technology.

Several patents on products and manufacturing processes have resulted from this work.

“My main expertise is in lead-acid batteries, and most of the products developed and manufactured by Abertax are to for the leadacid battery business,” says KD. Besides his new role in the council, KD is still a member of the Abertax Executive Board as an adviser. He also supports many companies in battery development and manufacturing processes, particularly for VRLA batteries.

Abertax’s main product lines are battery accessories such as precision safety valves for VRLA batteries, and electronic components such as sensors and battery management systems.

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ALL YOU NEED www.froetek.com

PEOPLE NEWS

Long Duration Energy Storage Council formed by 24 tech companies The Long Duration Energy Storage Council announced its formation on November 4. It is the creation of 24 technology companies, users and investors with a stated aim of achieving grid net-zero by 2040.

Electrochemical founding members of the council are Ambri, CellCube, Enlighten, Eos Energy Storage, ESS, eZinc, Form Energy, Redflow and Ceres Power, representing the chemical side.

Mechanical energy stor-

age founders — firms that use the manipulation of physical objects to capture energy for later release — are Energy Dome, Highview Power and Quidnet Energy.

Thermal energy storage founder members, where energy is stored through heating a solid or liquid for later release, include: Azelio, Echogen Power Systems, Malta and Stiesdal.

Additional members include equipment manufacturers (Alfa Laval, Baker

Hughes, Siemens Energy), low carbon energy system integrators & developers (BP, Greenko, NEOM), industrial customers (Rio Tinto) and capital providers (Breakthrough Energy Ventures).

In its opening announcement the council said it had “united to provide guidance to governments and grid operators, and will publish a strategic report on technologies, with the aim of enabling global de-

Two ex-GM executives join Nanoramic advisory board Nanoramic, an energy storage and advanced materials company, announced early November it had added two senior industry leaders to its advisory board. These are Rick Wagoner, former chairman and CEO and Larry Burns, former corporate VP of research and development.

“Wagoner and Burns will assist Nanoramic in revolutionizing the lithium-ion battery market with its Neocarbonix electrode technology,” said the firm. “Using Neocarbonix, battery manufacturers can reduce costs by 20% and improve energy density by 30% compared to current battery designs, substantially increasing the range and affordability of electric vehicles.

Wagoner had a 32-year career at GM and is best known for his pivotal leadership as the company’s chairman and CEO. Since retiring from GM in

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2009, he has been active as a board member and adviser to various public and early-stage companies. He is chairman of Invesco and a board member of ChargePoint, Excelitas Technologies, and Graham Holdings.

Burns worked in R&D for GM from 1998-2009, during which he was responsible for advanced technology development, product portfolio, and strategic planning.

In 2011, Burns was elected as a member of the National Academy of

Rick Wagoner

Engineering for his leadership and contributions to automotive technologies.

He currently advises organizations such as Kitson & Partners, Goodyear, and Niron Magnetics on the future of mobility, manufacturing, energy, and innovation.

Previously, he was a consultant to Waymo (Google self-driving cars), a professor of engineering practice at the University of Michigan, and director of the Program for Sustainable Mobility at Columbia University.

Larry Burns

ployment of long duration energy storage by 2040.

“This would see dispatchable renewable energy used to eliminate the 1.5 to 2.3 gigatonnes of CO2 produced annually from fossil fuels to meet grid energy imbalances, equivalent to 10%-15% of total emissions in today’s power sector.”

The council said on November 23 it would publish its first annual report on the need for long duration energy storage to reach NetZero carbon emissions.

“The report, based on research and collaboration of council members, concludes that 1.5TW-2.5 TW and 85TWh-140 TWh long duration energy storage could be deployed globally by 2040.

“This will cover around 10% of global electricity consumed, require between $1.5 trillion to $3 trillion in investment, and would represent between four and seven times the total TWh global lithium-ion deployment today and between five and 11 times the total investment in renewable power in 2020.”

“The world is not on track to limit the rise in global temperature to 1.5°C,” said Ramya Swaminathan, CEO, Malta. “To achieve the necessary decarbonization, significant efforts must begin immediately to reduce emissions across all sectors. The power sector, which accounts for roughly one-third of global emissions, will be central to global decarbonization and will need to achieve net-zero emissions by 2040.

“Long duration energy storage is the lynchpin to decarbonization.”

Batteries International • Autumn 2021 • 19

PEOPLE NEWS Kore Power appoints Panasonic’s Cowder to lead operations in Arizona Former Panasonic manufacturing general manager Randy Cowder will lead KORE Power’s new facility in Buckeye, Arizona, the battery cell technology developer announced on September 30.

Cowder, who becomes vice president of manufacturing and heads up the company’s KOREPlex facility, previously worked in Panasonic’s gigafactory in nearby Nevada.

He has more than 25 years’ experience in manufacturing, the company says, and will help to build an American supply chain of energy storage solutions.

KORE Power’s new facility will add a whopping 16GWh capacity to its existing 2GWh by the end of 2023.

Its battery cells are made for the energy storage, e-mobility, utility, industrial and mission-critical markets, KORE says.

Randy Cowder

Argonne National Laboratory hires new chief scientist for energy storage Material science expert Shirley Meng has been appointed chief scientist of the Argonne Collaborative Center for Energy Storage Science — ACCESS — the department announced on October 25.

The appointment, a newly created position, comes at the same time as Meng takes a post as professor at the Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering (PME) at the University of Chicago.

She leaves the University of California in San Diego as a materials scientist and professor to take up the post.

Meng will help drive the energy storage research strategy at the ANL, ‘enhancing Argonne’s wide portfolio of battery research, which ranges from the fundamentals of battery science, to high-energy lithium-ion and beyond lithium-ion systems, to long duration stationary storage systems’, the ANL says.

Matthew Tirrell, dean of

Hyundai becomes newest member of CBI South Korean car firm Hyundai has become the latest member of the Consortium for Battery Innovation, the organization announced on November 15.

It has joined the association through its North American design, technology and engineering arm, Hyundai America Technical Center, Inc (HATCI), which is headquartered in Michigan with operations in California, Alabama and Georgia.

CBI has more than 100 members and although few of them are auto OEMs, the association works

20 • Batteries International • Autumn 2021

Shirley Meng

the PME, said: “Shirley’s work regarding material design for energy storage aligns perfectly with, and will greatly expand, PME’s existing theme of materials systems for sustainability and health. She and her lab bring exceptional talent and expertise in next generation battery development to the university, Argonne and the Chicagoland area.”

Meng graduated from the Nanyang Technological University in Singapore in 2000. After her PhD in materials science, from the National University in Singapore, she went to MIT as a postdoctoral fellow and closely with the automotive industry.

It says it expects microhybrid vehicles to take up 60% of new car sales globally by 2030, and has expanded its technical roadmap to include targets for start-stop applications.

FREYR Battery becomes newest member of EUROBAT EUROBAT today welcomed Norwegian lithium battery maker FREYR Battery into its membership.

FREYR makes lithium batteries using electricity generated by hydro and wind energy, and targets the electric mobility, stationary energy storage,

then to the University of Florida, as assistant professor of materials science, in 2008.

She then worked in the Nanoengineering Department in San Diego, where she became the founding director of the Sustainable Power and Energy Center.

Meng has produced more than 200 publications and several patents that have led to start-up companies and higher energy batteries, the ANL says.

One start-up it mentions is South 8 Technologies, which is commercializing a liquefied gas electrolyte that Meng worked to develop.

This is a battery that can operate at -80oC. (Lithium batteries cannot operate below -20oC.) Meng has also used the ANL’s Advanced Photon Source to image the nanoparticles of batteries in a research effort to improve rechargeable batteries for EVs. marine and aviation sectors. FREYR is building a gigafactory in Norway.

“FREYR Battery’s ambitions will place us as one of Europe’s largest battery suppliers,” said CEO Tom Einar Jensen.

“We do compete globally in the battery cell industry, but in FREYR Battery we believe it is right to collaborate where we can, to drive important areas that we all benefit from such as regulations, access to the market, research, education and sustainable materials.”

EUROBAT executive director Rene Schroeder said the company would be a welcome contributor to drafting future EU policy frameworks for batteries.

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NEWS

China to ban lead batteries for E-bikes in 2022, says Taiwanese research group A bombshell announcement

by Mark Lu, from the Taiwanese Industrial Technology Research Institute, that China is on the brink of banning lead-acid batteries for e-bikes, will have major implications not just for battery manufacturers but for the lead, zinc and silver smelting industries, ABC co-organizer Mark Stevenson said at the recent conference.

Low-speed electric vehicles are also being considered for a lead battery ban, Lu said in his presentation ABC, although any regulation was still at a draft stage.

“As far as I know, they will be banned for E-bikes in 2022,” said Lu. “With regard to low-speed vehicles it’s still a draft regulation and hasn’t been implemented so there may be some negotiation space for lead acid batteries.

“It seems like these may be kept for some years.

But with E-bikes as far as I know they will be directly blocked from 2022.”

According to a Bloomberg report in April, there are around 300 million electric bikes in China now — and if the Chinese state-owned news medium Xinhua is correct and the number increases by 30 million a year, this will have major implications for the lead battery industry.

In Leoch chairman Dong Li’s presentation today, he said E-bikes made up 90% of the lead battery market in the motive power sector and was worth $9.6 billion a year.

“Our understanding or feedback from our members and some of our colleagues on the ground in China is that that’s still under discussion, and it’s not a done deal yet,” said Alistair Davidson, managing director of the

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Consortium for Battery Innovation.

“So there’s still a possibility of pushing off that restriction in the same way that we’ve been doing similar things in Europe.

“We get mixed messages about the E-bike market with some forecasters predicting that it’s going to fall off a cliff, and there’s going to be a big switch from lead to lithium batteries, with other forecasters painting a much more positive message. These are saying that lead batteries will continue to take a huge portion of the E-bike market in China and that there’s a lot of growth opportunities in areas such

as India, Bangladesh, Vietnam and southeast Asia.

“For ourselves, we are erring on the side of more positivity, our members are still developing new batteries, there’s been research going on for lead batteries for Ebikes and we think it could still be a growth opportunity or certainly a large market for lead batteries, but we have to be aware that there are still these restrictions hovering over us.”

Lu intimated that if the regulation did come in, lead batteries in existing E-bikes might have to be swapped for lithium ones.

“Advertising it as a dropin is a little bit of a stretch,”

said technical head of CBI Matt Raiford. “There are things like charging infrastructure, the actual connections in some of the electrical system on the bike itself; all of these things need to be considered for a different battery. There’s also the supply chain concerns in switching over millions of batteries in one fell swoop.”

Although Lu said a ban on lead batteries for lowspeed electric vehicles had not been implemented yet, in March the news agency Reuters said regulators at a meeting in Tianjin had drafted documents with the ban in place.

Quoting a post on the China Automotive Technology and Research Center’s website, it said the decision had been made but not confirmed by China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

Generac unveils portable BESS with lead or lithium batteries International energy firm Generac on October 18 unveiled a portable energy storage system that works with lead-acid or lithium-ion batteries.

The MBE Energy Storage System can be paired with a diesel generator in a hybrid system that can be used in many applications for a temporary reserve of power to help reduce the runtime of the generator and the amount of fuel consumed.

The battery is charged when power demand is low and stored in the battery, and when it runs low, the generator automatically starts up, recharging it.

The battery can also be used on its own for low-power or short-term periods, which is suitable on job sites with nighttime noise restrictions, Generac says.

“The MBE30 is a more efficient, more robust and more resilient solution while being both easy to use and easy to integrate with existing mobile generators,” said Aaron LaCroix, senior product manager at Generac Mobile.

The system can be fitted with a 90kWh lead battery or a Li-ion 120kWh battery.

Generac, which is based in Wisconsin, US, makes mobile light towers, generators, heaters, pumps and dust suppression equipment. It also makes home solar plus storage systems with lithium batteries.

The current prime mover in looking at hybrid lead lithium batteries is GS Yuasa with a project called ADEPT. The first demonstration of the project went live

at the end of 2018. Since then, the firm has been working on three projects — two in Wales and one in Portsmouth in southern England.

“We looked for the lowest cost solution and showed how lead and lithium with different operational characteristics can obtain an overall improved storage performance by combining the best points of both,” said Peter Stevenson, senior technical co-ordinator at GS Yuasa, who pioneered the project.

ADEPT is a 100kW grid-connected hybrid connected directly to the DC bus. The general operational pattern has been charging the system overnight at around 20kW and discharging it at 100kW, maximum inverter power, during evening peak hours.

Batteries International • Autumn 2021 • 21

FOR THE CHALLENGES AHEAD...

INNOVATION AWARD WINNER

NEWS

‘Fraught freight’ to cause problems for US battery makers for foreseeable future Shortages of lead in the US and Europe are likely to continue for the foreseeable future because of ‘fraught freight’, said analysts at the Asian Battery Conference earlier this month, which will give US battery makers a headache in production.

More batteries have to be imported into the US because the country is not self-sufficient in lead, said Wood Mackenzie principal analyst, lead markets, Farid Ahmed. But because of the clogged-up shipping lines and cargo anchored offshore for weeks at a time, battery imports were not easing the pressure either.

“You will get lead, but not as quickly as you want it, and you will be paying more for it,” he said.

“You can’t magic it out of nowhere. The reality is we can’t get it soon because the supply chains in Europe and North America are paper thin.

“The stocks on the ground at the smelters and at battery plants and distributors are also razor thin. It will take a while to pump it up to normal level before you can have any reserve. People will abandon their just-in-time philosophy because they’ve got their fingers burnt.”

Neil Hawkes, commodity analyst for lead with CRU, said he believed the freight market would be stretched for the next year — “and it will get worse because people will try to get buffer stocks and over order,” he said.

“Supply was very disciplined going into Covid then we had this unleashing of pent-up consumer demand with the easing of restrictions. There is port congestion because of restrictions and staff shortages, and inland freight is struggling too. The pinchpoint along the supply

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“In my 25 years in the industry, I’ve never seen it like this. We are being told the vendor delays will get worse before they get better” — Doug Bornas, MAC Engineering chain is all the way along.

“People are moving away from just-in-time to just-incase — building a buffer stock because they don’t know how this is going to play out in the next year or two.”

Hawkes said there was a polarization of the lead market, with stock surplus in China and shortages everywhere else.

The closure of Ecobat’s Stolberg smelter in Germany in July because of flooding meant supply in Europe was severely curtailed, and now, “whatever is left in Europe will stay in Europe”.

He added that while there was a stockpile in China, this was nowhere near as great as it was at the beginning of the century.

“In my 25 years in the industry, I’ve never seen it like this,” said MAC Engineering president Doug Bornas.

“We are being told the vendor delays will get worse before they get better. There are up to 150 ships anchored outside the ports — we have empty shelves in our stores now.

“Every company we deal with — we make our own machines here, but we have to buy a lot of materials and parts — is having problems.

For example, we ordered some parts in September, which were due four or

five weeks later and we’re now being told we won’t see them until the end of February, which means customers expecting things in December aren’t going to get them until March.”

A dearth of staff has also caused some of the delay issues, according to Bornas, who said many of them had been taking advantage of government benefits which meant they could afford to stay at home during the lockdowns and not go in to work. This has now ended, however.

“We are told the supply chain issue won’t end until Covid ends, but when is that going to happen?” he says.

“If the freight situation wasn’t so bad the Chinese lead would probably be in the US right now,” said Hawkes. “There are a lot of batteries coming out of China this year, as well as Vietnam and Korea. US imports of batteries are substantially up — and this reinforces the point that the US is struggling to cope with batteries and getting them in any way they can.”

Hammond chooses name for new award-winning additive GravityGuard Hammond Group has named its new awardwinning acid stratification reducing, battery life extending additive GravityGuard, the company has announced. It won the BCI Innovation Award in September.

“Effectively, the product is available for sampling and will soon be commercially available around the world,” says Ray Goodearl, director of global accounts.

Hammond’s CEO

Terrence Murphy said: “Technological advances in energy storage are required if the world is to successfully transition to renewable energy and electrify our transportation systems.

“Advanced lead batteries, incorporating our additives, along with many other significant changes in battery configurations, have dramatically improved charge acceptance and cycle life. A new genera-

tion of advanced lead batteries are an emerging, more sensible alternative to lithium-ion for a green energy future.”

“Effectively the product is available for sampling and will soon be commercially available”

Batteries International • Autumn 2021 • 23

NEWS

Vernon battery recycling defendant NL Industries hits back with countersuit NL Industries has filed a lawsuit in California blaming the lead contamination around the former Exide Technologies lead battery recycling plant on a host of other parties.

The lawsuit targets dozens of potential industrial sources of lead contamination, such as the nearby Exxon Mobil refinery, which once produced leaded petrol.

“The California Department of Toxic Substances Control knows that the former Exide Technologies property in Vernon, California is not the reason there is or was soil lead above 80 milligrams per kilogram in some portion of residential neighborhoods,” says the introduction to the lawsuit.

“Extensive testing and analysis by the DTSC and

others already have proven, beyond any doubt, that the DTSC’s 80mg/kg clean-up level for these neighborhoods is well below the ‘background’ lead level that would exist in these neighborhoods, even if the alleged activities at the former Exide property had never happened.”

The document says the primary source of soil lead in residential soils is residue from historic leaded gas emissions, as well as airborne gasoline from the many planes flying in the Los Angeles area.

Lead, historically, was also widely used on residential lawns in pesticides known as lead arsenate, which was 60% lead, ‘to control crabgrass, caterpillars, grubs and moths’, the document says.

“Property owners following the recommendations of the Los Angeles Times added pounds of lead directly to their lawns with each application, and then washed the lead into the soil for control of insects and crabgrass,” the document says.

Exterior leaded paint is also mentioned.

The court document says the DTSC itself had admitted it expected the levels of lead to be several times higher than was discovered, even without Vernon existing.

The document says the lawsuit filed by the DTSC attempted to shift 100% of the clean-up costs to NL Industries and the other parties associated with the property — when ‘the conduct and the other parties

targeted by DTSC, even taken together, did not cause the need for any clean-up on the properties.”

News of the court action was met with horror by local news outlets, including City Watch LA, which said Exide had been sued last year by the state “for its role as an owner and operator during the 1970s of a notoriously dirty lead-acid battery recycling facility in Vernon.”

It claims the ‘largely low income Latino neighborhoods’ lack the resources to stage an adequate legal defence.

Exide filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy last year and was seen by many as effectively walking away from the clean-up costs it had been ordered to pay.

Gopher Resource fined $320k for air violations Gopher Resource, a lead battery recycling facility in Tampa, Florida, was on September 30 found guilty of a ‘wilful violation for exposing workers to inhalation hazards’ despite warnings to the company since March 2020 and an inspection of the site in April 2021.

The company failed to make the necessary changes to avoid worker exposure to lead in the air, said the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) under the US Department of Labor, and has proposed a $319,876 fine.

“The company also failed to provide employees with adequate respirators that could have kept worker exposure to hazardous substances at or below the allowable level,” OSHA said.

“This employer put their bottom line above the safety and wellbeing of their workers,” said OSHA area director Danelle Jindra.

“Every worker has the

right to a safe workplace, and they should never have to decide between their own health and earning a living. Continuing to put workers in harm’s way is unacceptable, and OSHA will continue to hold employers like Gopher Resource responsi-

ble.”

OSHA also found that Gopher had allowed cadmium, lead and inorganic arsenic exposure to exceed permissible levels; failed to implement adequate controls to prevent exposure; failed to provide an annual update of a written

compliance program; allowed workers to share damaged protective clothing that was exposed to lead; did not test fit respirators; used insufficient methods to remove accumulated lead; and failed to identify all hazards on entry permits.

Tesla big battery sued for failing to deliver Proceedings were issued in Australia on September 22 against the Hornsdale Power Reserve, the 150MW/194MWh Tesla battery installed by French firm Neoen, for failing to provide back-up power for four months in 2019.

The Australian Energy Regulator instigated the proceedings after the market operator AEMO reported the facility ‘did not provide the frequency control services it was paid for’.

“AEMO first brought the alleged conduct to the AER’s attention following a

24 • Batteries International • Autumn 2021

power system disruption at Kogan Creek Power Station in Queensland in October 2019,” the AER said.

“Hornsdale Power Reserve’s failure to be capable of providing the frequency control ancillary services in accordance with its offers and AEMO’s dispatch instructions, over the four months, undermined AEMO’s ability to maintain frequency within the Frequency Operating Standard limits, creating a risk to power system security and stability.”

Each breach of national electricity market rules in

Australia can attract a penalty of up to A$100,000 ($73,000), but it is not clear how many breaches the AER is claiming.

Reuters news agency said Neoen was ‘disappointed’ with the AER’s lawsuit, although it did not comment on the allegations.

Fire broke out in the battery in July, with fire fighters taking four days to extinguish the flames.

Safety regulators have now cleared scientists to resume testing the battery, which is being doubled in size to an ultimate 300MW/450MWh.

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NEWS

Warnings ahead for lithium batteries as cost reductions taper off, supply risks rise The spectacular growth of the lithium-ion battery market in the past 20 years is set to continue in the years ahead, but further huge cost savings per kWh are unlikely, according to Christophe Pillot, a director of Avicenne Energy research house, speaking to the annual ICBR convention in Geneva on September 22.

Lead batteries, he said, would enjoy steady growth in the future, although it would be far less spectacular than their lithium counterparts. He predicted that the lead market in 2030 would have increased to 495,000MWh annually as opposed to 415,000MWh in 2020.

Pillot, who has a reputation for realistic and conservative forecasting of the rechargeable battery market, said that reductions in scale manufacturing now meant that the cost of the raw materials would dominate lithium battery production.

Raw materials account for some 60% of a lithium battery, he said.

Instead he reckoned that the variability of prices in cobalt and nickel in particular could even push the price per kilowatt hour up if supply shortages were to occur.

He foresaw a compound annual growth rate for lithium batteries between 2020 to 2030 of around 20%,

Christophe Pillot

but warned that the metal needs for cobalt, nickel and lithium would soar — cobalt for example would soar from just over 30% of world production in 2020 to 70% by 2030. Similar huge lurches in production would have to be seen for nickel and lithium.

Pillot said that the huge growth in lithium battery

demand, in particular for EVs and which was creating a network of gigafactories across Europe, had created an urgent need for the ability to recycle the spent batteries at the end of their lives. The ability to recycle the more expensive materials would act as a form of buffer against price hikes.

Although he predicted that recycling of the more valuable metals would continue to be profitable, as yet he didn’t foresee that recycling LiFePO4 was commercially viable. He also said that the gradual replacement of cobalt with nickel in some lithium battery types would make recycling these batteries less attractive.

Monbat to open bipolar lead battery facility by 2024 Plans to open a bipolar lead battery plant in northwest Bulgaria that were derailed for two years because of the coronavirus lockdowns will go ahead, battery maker Monbat said on November 9.

The factory will produce bipolar batteries using the GreenSeal technology licensed to it by Advanced Battery Concepts 2019.

The 2.4GWh factory in Vratsa was announced in 2019, but has so far not been able to go ahead, although tests of prototypes of the batteries have been completed successfully, according to a statement issued by SeeNews and written by Monbat.

“This technology would help us significantly reduce lead in batteries, be more cost-competitive and achieve a higher margin,” it quotes former chief financial officer Viktor Spiriev, who became CEO in August, as saying.

The firm will consider two kinds of financing to fund the bipolar battery plant —

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EU support, or a ‘strategic investor’, it said.

Monbat also produces lithium-ion batteries, mainly in the marine sector, but says it plans to look at develop-

ing energy storage products as well.

“The lithium-ion division is one option for the development of such products and the other option is the

bipolar technology,” said Spiriev, who is quoted as saying he expects an increase of at least 5% in earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization.

Sunlight expands to create world’s largest motive lead battery unit Sunlight Systems, the Greek battery manufacturing firm, will spend €50 million ($59.2 million) to expand its lead and lithium manufacturing unit in Xanthi, north-eastern Greece, it announced on September 2.

The company said it would plough €30 million ($35.5 million) into increasing its Xanthi unit’s annual lead-acid motive battery production from 4GWh to 5.3GWh, the largest output of motive lead-acid batteries in the world.

It also plans to invest €20 million ($23.7 million) in its production of

lithium batteries, adding 1.7GWh in annual capacity, on top of the €105 million ($124.4 million) it has already spent on the Xanthi plant on R&D and a prototype lithiumion cell production line.

The company says around 60% of the raw materials needed for the lead batteries will come from its recycling facility.

“This latest €50 million investment brings Sunlight’s total committed capex spend for 20212023 to €180 million, with €150 million committed to the expansion of lithium production and €30 million committed to the respective lead one,”

it said.

“The additional investment is fully aligned with our strategic objective to play a key role in both lead and lithium battery technologies,” said CEO Lampros Bisalas.

“The investment is already under implementation, and we’re excited for the new, state-of-the-art machinery to be installed and expand our capabilities.

“We’re keen to meet both current and future demands in the off-road mobility and RES energy storage, by scaling up capacity and rendering our Xanthi industrial park a true gigafactory.”

Batteries International • Autumn 2021 • 25

NEWS

Clarios expands reach ABC launches new home storage system in lithium ion battery emergency Bipolar battery developer could be worth $1.3 billion Advanced Battery Concepts for 2021. technologies on September 14 unveiled ABC quoted a University

Lead-acid battery global leader Clarios announced in November it had signed a deal with the American KULR Technology Group ‘to develop the manufacturing and re-use of lithium-ion batteries and their chemical elements in the US for the purpose of domestic national interest’.

The partnership is part of a Department of Energy lithium battery lifecycle initiative. KULR will provide the transport for the batteries through their entire life cycle, from manufacturing to recycling and re-use, a statement said.

The company has been given a special permit from the Department of Transportation to allow it to ship up to 2.1kWh capacity of damaged or defective batteries per case.

Clarios has a ‘Powering the Future’ project in place, in which it works with various industry partners to identify and separate lithium batteries from lead-acid batteries and then recycle them.

“As the producer of one third of the world’s car batteries, Clarios is uniquely positioned to facilitate and spearhead the lithium recycling economy,” the company said. “Clarios has established a world-class closed-loop process where up to 99% of materials from lead-acid batteries can be recovered and turned into new batteries.”

The same cannot yet be said for lithium batteries, but the Department of Energy funding marks a determination to explore and improve the process.

Australian battery firms join up to explore zinc bromide technology Gel battery maker Gelion Technologies has teamed up with the Australian gel leadacid battery firm Battery Energy Power to develop Gelion’s zinc bromide batteries in Fairfield, Sydney, the firms confirmed on September 8.

Gelion’s zinc batteries were designed by the University of Sydney, and the companies’ partnership will quicken the road to commercialization for Gelion, which will make use of Battery Energy Power’s existing distribution networks in Australia and New Zealand.

Gelion will use Battery Energy Power’s manufacturing facilities, and full testing will be carried out next year with a view to deployment in the first quarter of 2023.

Because both firms’ technologies have similarities it means the equipment will not have to be completely

overhauled to make the new products.

Gelion says its zinc bromide batteries use a gel chemistry to replace the liquid bromine, simplifying the design to make a more robust product that is cheaper to make and maintain.

“The zinc bromide chemistry can operate in hightemperature environments without the need for cooling, making it perfect for Australia’s climate,” the company says.

“The chemistry also allows the battery to be fully discharged with no harm to performance. It is designed to last up to 5,000 cycles with 100% DoD.” Battery Energy Power makes lithium and lead batteries and energy storage systems for applications including grid solar, critical power, standby backup and railway rolling stock.

26 • Batteries International • Autumn 2021

its home emergency energy storage system (HEES) to address what is perceived to be a growing need for residential back-up power.

The system was specifically designed to supply batteries for the microgrid storage market, says CEO Ed Shaffer, who reckons the US market for residential backup power in generators, fuel cells and battery systems

of Michigan study that indicates demand will increase for battery and fuel cellbased technologies along with the rise in smart homes and smart home technology.

The HEES system uses ABC’s GreenSeal bipolar batteries and takes up about 0.74m2 of floor space.

The system, ABC says, can store 18kWh and dispatches energy at up to 6kW.

Exide Technologies reveals range of heat-hardy car batteries European lead-acid battery maker Exide Technologies said on October 12 it had come up with a new range of heat-resistant car batteries for light vehicles.

“High temperature accelerates the corrosion of connectors (grids and lead) and increases water loss, both resulting in premature failure,” said Sophia Kargl, marketing and communications specialist with Exide. “Lead-acid flooded batteries can operate safely up to 50°C but can’t with-

stand temperature peaks up to 75°C (45°C-60°C in the case of VRLA).”

To address the issue, the connectors on the Excell range are made with a special anti-corrosion alloy, an ultra-high purity lead-oxide for the active material, and a specific separator, she said.

The batteries are labelled with the letter ‘H’ to distinguish them.

Kargl said the price of the batteries was ‘perfectly competitive with standard batteries’.

Stryten expands lithium portfolio with purchase of Galvion Stryten Energy has bought the vehicle power division of Galvion, a military equipment maker whose products include lithium batteries for onboard systems typically used in combat vehicles such as tanks.

In an announcement on November 15, Stryten said the deal had been struck just as the Biden administration was committing more money for manufacturing specialized lithium-ion batteries to boost ‘military preparedness, energy security and the advancement of clean energy goals’.

“Energy storage solution companies like Stryten

Energy are critical to strengthening America’s supply chain and ensuring access to advanced lead and lithium battery technologies,” said Tim Vargo, Stryten CEO. “The addition of Galvion’s extensive lithium battery knowledge to our research and development group, as well as Galvion’s Vehicle Power Division assets, will provide our customers with nextgeneration lithium battery technology.”

Stryten Energy is primarily a lead battery manufacturer, and in June it joined two lead battery associations BCI and CBI.

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US battery storage set to defy expectations with 10GW leap The growth in battery storage in the US could increase by 10 times 2019 capacity by 2023, the US Energy Information Administration said in a report released on August 16.

“Electric power markets in the United States are undergoing significant structural change that we believe, based on planning data we collect, will result in the installation of the ability of large-scale battery storage to contribute 10,000MW to the grid between 2021 and 2023 — 10 times the capacity in 2019,” the report says.

At the end of 2019, the EIA counted 163 largescale battery storage systems operating in the US. While this is not a large

number, it was still a 28% increase over 2018.

In total, the sites stored a maximum capacity of 1,688 MWh, with a power capacity of 1,022MW. By 2023, the capacity of battery storage — whether it’s standalone or solar, wind or fossil-fuel paired — is predicted to total

10,000MWh. The report also says that before the end of 2019, more than 60% of battery storage had been installed under the two regional grid operators PJM Interconnection and California Independent System Operator (CAISO).

Of the additional storage

to be put in place by 2023, a third will be in states outside those operators, the report says.

Another growing trend is the installation of batteries as support for solar power.

Whereas in December 2020 most US large-scale systems were stand-alone, with just 30% co-located with generation from renewable resources, by 2023 the proportion is expected to double to 60%, the EIA says.

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International Thermal Systems moves operations into bigger, modern facility International Thermal Systems has moved its operations into a new facility eight miles from its original location, the company said on November 8.

The US firm is based in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin.

The new plant will enable it to expand the development of its heat processing and aqueous washing products that it makes for a wide range of industries, including battery manufacturing.

Its equipment includes humidity drying chambers, plate dryers and thermal degreasers.

“This is a key part of our plan to keep growing and improving our business,” said president Tom Stricker. “In this new location, we will continue to provide our customers the solutions they expect us to deliver.”

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NEWS

ENTEK achieves new international certification, opens expanded plant in Nevada Battery separator firm ENTEK on November 16 announced its Lebanon plant in the US state of Oregon had been certified to the International Automotive Task Force 16949 standard — the only PE lead battery separator firm, it says, to have done so.

The IATF 16949 ‘emphasizes the development of a process-oriented quality management system that provides for continual improvement, defect prevention and reduction of variation and waste in the supply chain,” the company says.

“Achieving the certification was the culmination

of much hard work and dedication from our team in Oregon,” said CTO Rick Pekala.

“This significant milestone demonstrates our steadfast commitment to providing the highest quality separators and speciality materials to not only our battery customers, but to all the markets we serve.”

Separately, ENTEK on October 2 announced the opening of an engineering and manufacturing plant in Nevada, US. The 98,000ft2 (9,100m2) facility will be fitted with equipment costing about $10 million for the new production, engineering

and assembly operations.

ENTEK Manufacturing vice president of sales Linda Campbell said the company was experiencing record growth and needed the additional space to keep up with demand.

Nevada was chosen by the company, which is headquartered in Lebanon, Oregon “because it is a growing area of the country with a strong labour market,” said ENTEK Manufacturing president Kim Medford.

“We used an outside firm to do a multi-city survey, and the greater Las Vegas metro area came out first when it came to the avail-

ability of skilled labour.

This expansion is the first step in what we expect to be a very active period for our company,” she said.

The opening comes a month after ENTEK revealed it had completed a majority stake purchase of the Japanese company NSG’s Battery Separator Division.

“With this strategic acquisition, ENTEK becomes the only separator manufacturer in the world producing all three primary separator technologies (PE, AGM and lithium-ion) for the global energy storage industry,” said CEO Larry Keith.

Nyrstar announces new Port Pirie facility to reduce lead emissions around the site A new enclosed product recycling facility at the Port Pirie smelter in south Australia will reduce lead in air concentrations around the site, owner Nyrstar announced on November 12.

The facility will be sealed under negative air pressure, the company says, with materials used in the production process to be stored and mixed in an enclosed area, ‘thereby reducing the potential for losses of lead-bearing dust to the atmosphere from the plant’.

Because it will be built adjacent to existing processing plants, there will be less handling and transport of materials in the open air.

Nyrstar vice president of Australian operations Dale Webb said the facility would mean a reduction of lead in air of up to 25%. It is expected to be completed in the second half of 2024.

Nyrstar has received media attention several times over the past couple of years.

In June 2019, a series of

unplanned outages at the smelter caused lead prices to soar by about $250 per tonne.

It June 2020 it signed a new licence agreement with Australia’s Environment Protection Authority to cap emissions by 20% as well as submit a comprehensive lead monitoring plan.

In June 2021, it accepted responsibility for a January 2019 sulfuric acid leak that had seeped into waterways

near the site.

The new improvements, construction of which will begin early next year, are being part funded by the South Australian government.

“The investment that Nyrstar Australia is making will act to improve both the environmental and operational performance of our Port Pirie plant, and we welcome the state government’s support for this

important project,” said Webb.

“Nyrstar Australia will focus on how we can continue to improve our operations to reduce lead in air concentrations and complement the Targeted Lead Abatement Program and actions of the state government, Port Pirie Regional Council and people of Port Pirie to reduce lead levels within the local community.”

Pure Earth receives $8 million for lead pollution clear up Pure Earth, the environmental clean-up organization that is focused on lead and mercury pollution, announced mid-October that it had received final approval for a grant of $8 million from the charity assessment organization GiveWell.

Part of the grant will help fund the initiative called ‘Protecting Every Child’s Potential’, founded in 2020 by Pure Earth, Clarios Foundation and UNICEF to prevent

28 • Batteries International • Autumn 2021

children’s exposure to lead.

In July, GiveWell recommended a grant of $8 million to Pure Earth to work on reducing lead exposure in low and middle-income countries. The grant was funded by the Effective Altruism Global Health and Development Fund ($5.67 million), Open Philanthropy ($2.13 million), and an anonymous funder ($0.2 million).

The grant will expand Pure Earth’s work combat-

ting lead poisoning over the next three years to: identify likely sources of lead exposure in 25 low and middleincome countries; implement interventions to reduce lead exposure from key sources; and, conduct analyses of blood lead levels to evaluate the effectiveness of the interventions.

A portion of the grant will focus on reducing lead exposure from lead-adulterated spices.

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NEWS

India takes first step towards ambitious 1GW energy storage target The Solar Energy Corporation of India on October 14 invited expressions of interest for the installation of 1GWh of battery storage in a step towards the ultimate aim of achieving 50GWh by 2030, media reports said.

The SECI, which comes under India’s Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, is also working with

Eco-bat announces new five-year financing deal for ‘further upsizing’ Global lead battery recycler Eco-bat on November 10 announced it had agreed a new loan period of five years with a financing facility led by J P Morgan.

The amount of money involved was not revealed, but the terms ‘offered further upsizing of the global facility to support Eco-bat’s growth plans’, a statement said.

The money, from a syndicate of the world’s largest lenders, as yet unnamed, will support Eco-bat’s growth plans in North America and Europe.

“The terms of the new facility not only extended maturities of the outgoing facilities, but it also offered further upsizing of the global facility to support Eco-bat’s growth plans,” the statement said.

“The new financing facility consists of a revolving credit facility and letter of credit commitments on the terms and conditions beneficial to Eco-bat.”

Eco-bat has over the past year bought German lithium-ion battery recycling firm Promesa and Emrol, a motive power distributor in the Benelux.

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the Ministry of Power to draw up a plan to get battery storage installed along with 450GW of renewable energy.

Guidelines were to be published in November, detailing the applications to be targeted for energy storage — including balancing and stabilizing the electric grid, improving the efficiency of

the transmission system and allowing more flexibility.

The Indian government is serious about a storage future, putting up billions of dollars in cash to offer incentives to battery firms Debi Prasad Dash, executive director of the India Energy Storage Alliance, said major companies such as Exicom, Tata Chemi-

cal, Amara Raja and TDSG were already planning to set up new cell manufacturing plants in India.

“ACC battery storage manufacturers will be selected through a transparent competitive bidding process,” he said. “The market looks promising for international and domestic players.”

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NEWS

Power Global partners PositivEnergy and Redivivus in move to improve supply chain weak points Power Global, a Californian provider of energy and mobility products, announced two new MOUs (memorandums of understanding) with stationary storage integrator PositivEnergy and battery recycling processor Redivivus.

“Despite the benefits lithium-ion batteries have over incumbent energy sources or lead-acid, there are key gaps in the supply chain — namely lifecycle and recycling — that are only now being addressed in the early markets in developed nations,” says Pankaj Dubey, CEO of Power Global’s India subsidiary.

“Our goal was to bake those aspects into our strategy from the beginning so that countries like India, which are now on the path to electrification, have a chance to leapfrog those challenges and advance quickly and more sustainably.”

The proposed partnership with PositivEnergy, a company that provides system design and service for commercial energy storage and EV charging infrastructure, aims to develop stationary storage solutions that support projected grid demand from electrification and en-

Li-Cycle to build new battery recycling facility in Alabama Li-Cycle Holdings Corp, a lithium-ion battery recycler in North America, announced on September 8 that it plans to build a fourth commercial lithiumion battery recycling facility — called Spoke 4 —in Tuscaloosa in the US state of Alabama.

The firm says: “The southeast of the US is emerging as a critical region for the lithium-ion battery supply chain, as battery manufacturers and automotive OEMs establish operations in the region. This will lead to the generation of significant quantities of battery manufacturing scrap and end-of-life batteries available for recycling.

“Univar Solutions will be an anchor battery feed supply customer for the new facility, following our on-site partnership with them to provide waste management solutions for electric vehicle and lithium-ion battery manufacturing.”

Univar announced a part-

nership with Li-Cycle in July.

When completed in mid2022, the new facility will have an initial capacity of up to 5,000 tonnes of battery manufacturing scrap and end-of-life batteries per year, bringing Li-Cycle’s total North American recycling capacity to 25,000 tonnes per year, the firms say.

The Tuscaloosa site is also being developed to accommodate a future, second 5,000 tonne processing line, which would increase capacity at the Tuscaloosa site to 10,000 tonnes per year, and Li-Cycle’s total North American recycling capacity to 30,000 tonnes per year.

Li-Cycle had previously planned three North American Spokes. Two are operational in Kingston, Ontario, Canada and Rochester, New York. Spoke facilities are commercially operational. The third in Gilbert, Arizona announced this April is under construction.

30 • Batteries International • Autumn 2021

able the renewable energy transition in diverse global markets.

“Built upon our scalable battery technology, the stationary storage solution is expected to achieve an industry-leading 15-20 year product lifespan,” says Power Global. “The full solution will be integrated by PositivEnergy and backed by their bankable performance guarantee, PositivCare, reducing the barriers to entry for renewable energy adoption in all markets.”

Once Power Global’s battery modules ultimately reach their end-of-life, new partner Redivivus will, claims Power Global, “cost effectively reclaim up to 92% of materials, while recirculating and reprocess-

ing chemical reagents for direct reuse in the recycling process”.

“Current lithium-ion battery recycling processes require high-temperature melting-and-extraction or single-use chemical processes, generating a significant waste stream. Redivivus’ novel no-burn, hybrid process, Redi-Cycle technology recovers battery materials for secondary markets, reducing the reliance on metal mining.

“Redivivus will offer mobile ‘Redi-Shred’ recycling units for Power Global service and sales centres throughout India and build recycling lines at Power Global’s factories in Pasadena, California, and Greater Noida, India.”.

SunPower launches VPP for residential customers November 25, 2021: Solar and energy firm SunPower Corp has launched a virtual power plant for its SunVault customers, it said on November 16.

The lithium iron phosphate batteries are produced in 13kWh or 26kWh sizes and when they detect utility disruptions they switch automatically to the back-up storage in customers’ individual homes.

“During hours of peak energy demand, like a hot summer day when many air conditioning units turn on at the same time, utilities need additional resources to meet increased demand and simultaneous energy needs,” says SunPower.

“VPPs can enable utilities to extract this energy from efficient, renewable energy resources like distributed solar and energy storage, and disperse it among all

grid-connected customers to create a more stable and sustainable source of power.”

“With battery storage, homeowners gain energy independence and control for their household, even as blackouts and power shutoffs increase,” said Peter Faricy, CEO of SunPower, which is based in California.

Home battery energy storage systems are seeing rapid growth globally, and just this week Japanese electronic giant Panasonic announced the launch of its own EverVolt system.

The battery integrates with the company’s own solar panels.

“Innovations in energy storage have never been more exciting – and necessary – than they are today,” said Mukesh Sethi, director of Solar and Energy Storage with Panasonic.

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Batteries International • Autumn 2021 • 31

TECHNOLOGY NEWS

Brill Power launches BMS increasing battery life by up to 60% An Oxford University spinoff on October 6 launched a battery management system that it says increases battery lifetime by up to 60% and storage capacity by up to 129%.

The BMS — BrillMS B62 Premium — has been developed by engineers who formed the company Brill Power in 2016 after 10 years of combined PhD research into battery degradation, modelling and power electronics at the university.

It works by determining the health of the cells within a battery pack and utilizing them accordingly. Faulty cells can be bypassed until they are replaced, while keeping the battery fully operational.

The BMS can work with lead and lithium hybrid systems as well as lithium, controlling how much power is drawn from either side of the system at specific times and also how the current is controlled between the different cells.

The firm is headed up by Christoph Birkl as CEO, with co-founders Carolyn Hicks as COO and CFO; Adrien Bizeray, chief data

scientist; and Damien Frost, CTO. “Software logarithms figure out how well each one of the cells in the battery is doing, then it utilizes the weaker cells less than the stronger ones,” said Birkl.

“It’s usually individual cells that limit the performance and safety of the battery.

“The same concept applies to the modules in the pack. The BMS diagnoses each module and controls the level of current to each one. Another novelty is the DC-DC conversion step within the battery pack, which means the battery can be directly connected to other power sources or loads, like solar PV arrays or EV chargers, without the need for a converter.”

International certification firm DNV has carried out testing after in-house testing was completed.

The firm has already received several (unnamed) orders for BrillMS B62 Premium — which is targeting stationary storage applications at first but will eventually be rolled out for other uses, such as the batteries in electric vehicles.

Sila to market anode replacement for graphite in lithium batteries Sila, a lithium-ion battery materials company, claimed on September 8 that it “is bringing to market the most significant breakthrough in battery chemistry in 30 years — the technology to replace graphite anodes — which will usher in a new era of energy storage.”

Sila says its silicon anode chemistry dramatically increases the energy density of batteries, reducing battery size without sacrificing

safety or performance. The firm, which had prviously focused on wearable battery technology, says the advance will benefit the deployment of lithium batteries at all sizes and scales.

“Sila’s materials increase the energy density of batteries by nearly 20% and have the potential to do so by up to 40%, without compromising cycle life, power, safety or other performance parameters, says the firm.

32 • Batteries International • Autumn 2021

Alencon Systems gets BOSS patent for BESS Alencon Systems, a USbased PV power conversion hardware firm, announced on October 13 that its patent for a BiDirectional Optimizer for Storage Systems (BOSS) had been granted. US patent 11,146,079 specifically addresses the technological and applications aspects of Alencon’s galvanically isolated bi-directional DC:DC converter for use in largescale battery energy storage systems.

The technology allows for isolation of grounding between battery racks and a common DC bus. This feature improves BESS safety by allowing batteries to float as intended by their manufacturer while being isolated from the rest of the system The patent also addresses the BOSS’s silicon carbide-based, galvanically isolated topology — and the differentiated benefits the BOSS brings to BESS, whether those systems are stand-alone or DC-cou-

pled with solar.

The patent also shows that the BOSS allows for the reduction in fault current contribution from battery racks which lets system designers build safer and larger BESS. The BOSS’s galvanic isolation specifically allows for more battery racks to be placed in parallel, which can be critical for building ever longer duration energy storage systems.

Longer duration energy storage is useful when coupled with solar to turn PV from an intermittent energy resource into a more dispatchable one.

The patent —the seventh of the firm’s patents — also specifically discusses the BOSS’s approach to rack level battery charging and how the device can help balance the state of charge of batteries with differing states of health.

Such charge balancing is critical as BESS age and their component cells degrade.

Generac unveils portable BESS for remote job sites International energy firm Generac on October 18 unveiled a portable energy storage system that helps reduce the runtime of generators on remote job sites.

The MBE Energy Storage System can be paired with a diesel generator in a hybrid system that can be used in many applications for a temporary reserve of power to help reduce the runtime of the generator and the amount of fuel consumed.

The battery is charged when power demand is low and stored in the battery, and when it runs low, the generator automatical-

ly starts up, recharging it.

The battery can also be used on its own for lowpower or short-term periods, which is suitable on job sites with night-time noise restrictions, Generac says.

“The MBE30 is a more efficient, more robust and more resilient solution while being both easy to use and easy to integrate with existing mobile generators,” said Aaron LaCroix, senior product manager at Generac Mobile.

The system can be fitted with a 90kWh lead battery or a Li-ion 120kWh battery.

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Meet the team Bringing the industry together

Karen Hampton, publisher

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PUBLISHER

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Tel: +44 (0) 7792 852 337 karen@batteriesinternational.com

34 • Batteries International • Autumn 2021

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Kevin Desmond, historian

DIGITAL MEDIA OPPORTUNITIES Jade Beevor +44 (0)1243 782 275 jade@batteriesinternational.com

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ALTERNATIVE CHEMISTRY NEWS

ESS to deploy 2GWh iron flow battery systems with SB Energy ESS Tech, the iron flow battery manufacturer, announced today that it had entered into a framework agreement with SB Energy, a wholly owned subsidiary of SoftBank Group, to deploy 2GWh of ESS batteries through 2026.

The first ESS system has already been delivered to an SB Energy location in Davis, California, and will be commissioned in the month ahead. SB Energy plans to install additional ESS flow battery systems to complement its expanding portfolio of solar power projects in Texas and California, two of the fastestgrowing markets for longduration storage in the US.

The announcement of this framework agreement will enhance the attractiveness of ESS ahead of its Nasdaq listing as a public company through a merger with a special purpose acquisition company, ACON S2 Acquisition Corp. SB Energy is already a major investor in ESS. ESS’s iron flow batteries are manufactured using commonly available ingredients of iron, salt, and water.

Separately, on September 23 ESS announced that it had closed an order with Enel Green Power España to deliver 17 ESS Energy Warehouse iron flow battery systems. The ESS sys-

tems will have a combined capacity of 8.5MWh. The long-duration batteries will be used to support a solar farm in Spain as a part of a broader EUwide engagement, providing resilience for the local power grid.

Pasquale Salza, head of long-duration storage and hybrid systems for Enel Green Power, said the project aimed to “assess and validate the ESS flow batteries, which we selected due to their combination of long-duration capacity, long-life performance, environmental sustainability and safe operation”.

Eric Dresselhuys, CEO of ESS, said the firm’s sys-

tems had already passed a six-month technology and company readiness assessment, “meeting Enel’s stringent performance, durability and cost requirements to become an officially qualified global vendor”.

“Another key factor in Enel’s decision is that our batteries are covered by a comprehensive insurance plan underwritten by Munich Re, the world’s largest reinsurance company,” he said.

ESS says it is working with several key partners on this project, including Loccioni, a global systems integrator with projects in more than 45 countries, and Enertis, an international consulting and engineering firm headquartered in Spain.

RES and Octopus Energy agree $4.1 billion deal to build hydrogen plants RES, which claims to be the world’s largest independent renewable energy company, will boost the UK’s green hydrogen capacity in a partnership with Octopus Energy’s Octopus Renewables division to spend £3 billion ($4.1 billion) on

new plants across the UK, the firms have confirmed.

The firms said the hydrogen they produce will be aimed at industrial businesses ‘who want to be leaders in decarbonization’.

“RES is the largest independent renewable en-

ergy company in the world based on our total global capacity of projects,” says the company. “We’ve delivered more than 22GW of projects worldwide and also support an operational asset portfolio exceeding 7.5GW.”

Octopus Renewables, which manages more than 300 solar, onshore wind and biomass projects, was brought under Octopus Energy in July. Octopus Energy was launched in 2016 by parent firm Octopus Group.

Honeywell steps into storage technology with flow battery

Plus Power closes $219 million financing for Hawaii project

Technology giant Honeywell has entered the energy storage sector with a trial 400kWh flow battery that will be field tested in North Carolina by Duke Energy, the firms announced on October 26.

Honeywell did not reveal details of the battery technology other than to say it ‘uses a safe, nonflammable electrolyte that converts chemical energy to electricity’.

The flow battery, which will be delivered to Duke Energy’s facility in Mount Holly in 2022, will work with wind and solar generation sources and can store enough energy to be discharged for up to 12 hours, Honeywell claims.

Plus Power on November 9 announced it had closed a landmark credit facility for its 185MW/565MWh Kapolei Energy Storage project in Hawaii.

The battery is on the island of Oahu, and is the largest selected by the utility Hawaiian Electric.

It will provide load shifting and 50MW of fast-frequency response, as well as virtual inertia and blackstart capabilities.

Plus Power has a pipeline of 7GW of projects across more than 20 American states, it says.

“Plus Power’s transmission-scale standalone energy storage systems provide capacity, energy and ancillary services, shifting low-

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If the trial is successful Honeywell aims to install a utility-scale pilot project of 60MW in 2023.

Ben Owens, vice president and general manager, Honeywell Sustainable Technology Solutions.

Said: “By partnering with Duke, we can implement this energy storage technology at scale and bring to market a revolutionary flow battery to meet growing energy storage demands while assisting companies in meeting their carbon neutral goals.”

Over the next five years, Duke Energy plans to install almost 400MW of battery storage capacity in its service territory.

cost renewable energy delivery to match demand,” the firm said.

“Standalone energy storage can be sited precisely to deliver services that enable accelerated decarbonization by integrating onshore and offshore utility-scale renewable energy as well as distributed renewable resources.”

The Kapolei project was approved by the Hawaii Public Utilities Commission this May and on completion, the island’s coalfired plant will be closed down.

The financing was led by Mizuho Securities and Keybank, and were joined

by Silicon Valley Bank and CoBank.

Batteries International • Autumn 2021 • 35

RENEWABLE ENERGY + STORAGE NEWS

Engie cancels solar+storage project in Hawaii, abandonment spills over to NHOA storage deal ENGIE North America notified Hawaiian Electric Company on October 25 that it had decided to abandon the Puako solar and storage project — this means that New HOrizons Ahead (better known as NHOA) will not install a 240MWh battery storage facility in Hawaii.

At the time the contract was awarded — in May 2020 — NHOA was still majority-owned by ENGIE and known under its former name, Engie EPS. A 60.5% stake in the company was sold to Taiwan Cement Corporation for just over $150 million with the deal completed this July.

NHOA said it “will consider, in coordination with its majority shareholder, the Taiwan Cement Corporation, the legal im-

plications to NHOA and TCC of ENGIE’s decision, in light of the assurances given in the past by ENGIE to NHOA’s board of directors and TCC at the time of the acquisition by TCC of ENGIE’s majority stake in NHOA.” ENGIE North America said the reason was due “to elevated interconnection costs coupled with global supply chain and production issues, as well as tariffs and trade disputes specifically affecting the photovoltaic solar industry.”

NHOA said it was “obviously disappointed with ENGIE’s decision, and takes this opportunity to clarify that the production issues mentioned by ENGIE are in no way related to NHOA’s technology nor scope of supply.”

EDF North America signs PPA for 600MWh solar+storage project EDF Renewables North America and Clean Power Alliance, a Californian utility, announced on September 2 the signing of a 15-year PPA for the Desert Quartzite solar-plus-storage project.

The project consists of a 300MW solar project coupled with a 600MWh battery energy storage system.

This should begin delivery of clean electricity to CPA’s customers throughout Los Angeles and Ventura Counties in February 2024.

The CPA Board of Directors approved the longterm contract during its September meeting.

The project is on unincorporated land in Riverside County, designated a Solar Energy Zone and Development Focus Area, set aside for utility-scale renewable energy development.

At full capacity, the electricity generated will be enough to meet the consumption of more than 163,000 average California homes,, says EDF Renewables. This is equivalent to avoiding more than 669,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions annually.

“By coupling the solar facility with an energy storage solution, electricity produced during peak solar hours can be dispatched later in the day, thereby creating a balance between electricity generation and demand.

Energy storage can further smooth electricity prices and provide grid stability in an environmentally friendly way,” the company says.

The project should create more than 800 construction jobs.

36 • Batteries International • Autumn 2021

Total Eren signs MoU for 1GW wind+storage project in Kazakhstan Total Eren, the Paris headquartered independent power producer based in Paris, signed a memorandum of understanding on October 28 with the Kazakhstan energy ministry, the National Wealth Fund known as Samruk-Kazyna, and the state-run KazMunaiGas. The four will work on the development, financing, construction and operation of hybrid power plants deploying 1 GW wind energy combined with 500MW to 1 GWh of energy storage system to be located in central Kazakhstan.

It is the largest renewable energy project coupled with storage ever initiated by a private renewable IPP in the country.

“It is a remarkable step forward for the energy sector in Kazakhstan, a country which has put in place a long-term sustainable strategy with the aim of reaching carbon neutrality by 2060, with an intermediary step of increasing the portion of renewables to 15%

by 2030,” according to a Total official.

The project will consist of about 200 wind turbines totalling 1 GW of installed capacity, coupled with a very large battery storage system (500 MW-1 GWh) provided by Saft, and 100% owned by TotalEnergies.

“The project will produce about 3,800 GWh annually for 30 years, enough to supply more than 1 million people in Kazakhstan every year with low-carbon electricity, while reducing CO2 emissions by about 3.2 million tonnes per year.

The project will support regional sustainable growth and contribute to local employment. Diverse educational programs involving the local population such as workshops on renewable energy will be conducted in cooperation with the local municipalities, and a centre of expertise on storage will be created.

Total Eren was one of the first international players to develop renewable energy projects in Kazakhstan.

Canadian Solar signs O&M agreements solar plus battery storage projects in the US Canadian Solar announced on September 7 that it had signed long-term operations & maintenance agreements with two solar plus battery storage projects — the Slate and Mustang projects —and owned by Goldman Sachs Asset Management Renewable Power.

The agreements cover the full Slate Project, which is a 300MW solar plant designed with a 140MW/561MWh battery energy storage system; and the storage component of the Mustang Project, which is a 100MW solar plant retrofitted with a 75MW/300 MWh battery storage system. Both projects are lo-

cated in Kings County, California. Both were developed by Canadian Solar’s subsidiary Recurrent Energy.

Under the long-term agreements, Canadian Solar will be responsible for O&M across both projects, including plant monitoring, NERC registration, performance management and maintenance. Canadian Solar services will help increase site availability, minimize downtime and maximize value.

“These contracts further solidify Canadian Solar’s position as a leading solar and energy storage O&M provider,” says the firm.

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ENERGY STORAGE COPORATE FINANCE

Eco-Bat expands reach with ESS becomes first publicly traded long duration energy storage firm acquisition of Emrol Battery recycling and distribution giant Eco-bat has expanded its operations and range of batteries with the purchase of Belgian battery distributor Emrol, it said on October 18.

The deal achieves two purposes for Eco-bat — a step into e-mobility and motive power markets, and a greater presence in the Benelux region. “The acquisition perfectly complements our current operations allowing Eco-bat to serve our customers in Europe with more diverse solutions and services for energy storage,” said CEO Jimmy Herring.

Emrol distributes what it describes as a ‘virtually infinite’ range of lead-acid and lithium-ion batteries.

The company was founded

in 1981 as an independent battery distributor without being tied to any specific manufacturer.

In August, Jamie Pierson was hired as chief financial officer for Eco-bat, which the company said completed its new leadership team.

The appointment was made just after the company had expanded its recycling operations with the purchase of Germany-based lithium-ion battery recycler Promesa in July.

“It is an exciting and dynamic time at Eco-bat,” said Herring. “With the acquisition of lithium-ion recycler Promesa, we are positioning Eco-bat for solid growth in the coming years as our industry adapts for the future.”

ESS Inc, a manufacturer of long-duration batteries for utility-scale energy storage, became a publicly listed company on the New York Stock Exchange on October 11. This follows the completion of a so-called ‘business combination’ between the firm and ACON S2 Acquisition Corp that day. ACON was already listed on the exchange.

The combined company retains the ESS Inc name and its shares will trade under the new ticker symbol GWH. Its warrants trade under GWH.W. “This is a milestone for the industry at large,” said Eric Dresselhuys, CEO of ESS. “We are excited to begin our next chapter as the first publicly traded

Recurrent Energy completes majority sale of 1.4GWh storage project in California Canadian Solar announced on September 8 that its wholly-owned subsidiary, Recurrent Energy, had sold an 80% stake in its 350MW/1.400GWh Crimson storage project to Axium Infrastructure, a fund manager.

Recurrent Energy will retain the remaining 20% ownership. This is Axium’s first investment in battery storage.

Construction of the storage project will begin in Q3 2021 and should reach commercial operation by next summer.

The Crimson storage project is Canadian Solar’s first stand-alone storage project and the largest developed to-date. It holds two energy storage contracts with local utilities.

The first contract is to provide 200MW/800MWh over a 14-year and 10-month contract with Southern California Edison under a full tolling agreement. The second contract is a 15-year

150MW/600MWh agreement with Pacific Gas and Electric for resource adequacy only. Recurrent and Axium will operate the battery system in the wholesale California wholesale power market.

Canadian Solar’s majority-owned CSI Solar subsidiary will provide both EPC (engineering, procurement, and construction) and longterm operational services for the Crimson storage project.

Shawn Qu, chairman and CEO of Canadian Solar, said: “Once it reaches commercial operation,

Crimson will be one of the largest battery energy storage projects in the world.

We are collaborating with our partner Axium to help improve California’s grid reliability and safety by providing critically needed resource adequacy capacity to meet electricity demand in all scenarios.”

The US Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management issued final approval earlier this year for the Crimson project: it is located in Riverside County and is sited on public lands in the California desert.

long-duration energy storage company. Our technology gives us a first mover advantage in a rapidly expanding market, while simultaneously transforming the value proposition of long-duration storage to support renewable energy generation for the electrical grid.

“The proceeds from this transaction will enable us to scale our operations to meet the growing global demand for a product that the world needs today to support the transition to clean, renewable energy.”

ACON S2 CEO Adam Kriger said: “ESS is delivering a pioneering technology to the market today and we are confident it will become the gold standard in the industry. We are excited to close this transaction and I look forward to seeing the company play an important part in the world’s transition to a renewable future.”

ESS, which was set up in 2011, designs, builds and deploys iron flow batteries for long-duration commercial and utility-scale energy storage applications requiring four to 12 hours of flexible energy capacity.

The ESS executive management team will continue to be headed by Eric Dresselhuys; Craig Evans, president and co-founder; Julia Song, chief technology officer and co-founder; and Amir Moftakhar, chief financial officer.

Elemental Holding continues US buy-ins Polish recycling and mining group Elemental Holding said on September 18 it had bought the US firm Legend Smelting and Recycling, which recycles strategic metals including lead-acid batteries.

The move will strengthen Elemental’s business in North America, it says, as

40 • Batteries International • Autumn 2021

LSR is a big player in the US market, having sourced and produced strategic metals in the country for about 40 years.

LSR says it recycles nonferrous metals — ‘everything from aluminium to zinc’, including lead batteries.

Acquiring LSR certainly fits with Elemental’s recy-

cling business lines, which are four-fold: spent automotive catalysts, waste electrical and electronic equipment, printed circuit boards and non-ferrous metal scrap.

Earlier this year Elemental bought the catalyst recycler PGM of Texas and auto scrap recycler Maryland Core Inc.

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BACK TO BASICS: PASTING FIBRES Pasting fibres are an integral part of the battery production process.

Batteries International spoke to two leading producers — Cellusuede and Goonvean Fibres — for their approach to their manufacture.

The hidden strength that re-inforces the battery Talk about the whole battery manufacturing process and the focus for improvement and the headlines are clearly focused on the plate, the separator and the additive — in fact almost everywhere but on one of the most fundamental blocks of battery manufacture, the fibres that bind the lead paste on to the grid.

Fibres are used to increase the strength of the plates against shedding of the active material. Most of this strength occurs after pasting and curing and happens during the formation process.

Historically, polymeric fibres have been used within lead acid battery (including EFB, AGM, wet, gel) plates as a physical reinforcement of the plate to provide stability. Reinforcing the plates increases performance, so improving strength and rigidity to help combat severe road conditions and prevent plate failure via dislocation of the active material from the grid.

Fibres don’t impact on the ability for a lead acid battery to be recycled through smelting. The fibres themselves can be recycled in their pure form as part of a circular economy without affecting the recycling of other elements of the battery. With hydrometallurgical processing this circularity is less certain.

The differences between batteries with or without pasting fibres can be

measured by a drop test. Christian Withers, technical manager for Goonvean Fibres, an international firm based in the south of England, says: “To quantify the impact on the physical performance of the fibres on the plates, a test method has been developed to simulate severe road conditions.

“This involved vigorous vibration of the plates, mimicking general use, the kind of vibration the battery and the plates may be subjected to during normal road conditions and then dropped from a height; to simulate potential impact; such as potholes or collision. We can then quantify the level of paste that is dislocated.”

Plates without fibre were shown to lose an average of 35% of their active

Goonvean says its Primafloc+ product “has demonstrated improved charge acceptance under JIS D3501; traditional fibre reinforcement reduces charge acceptance (-14%) but Primafloc+ reverses this effect but improves charge acceptance”

In 2016, Cellusuede moved into a 125,000ft2/1,600m2 facility in Rockford in the US state of illlinois., where it cut and processes all its fibers under one roof. “This new plant will enable Cellusuede to grow into the largest pasting its supplier in the world and continue to provide first-quality fiber to our ever increasing customer base,” the firm, which is employee owned, said at the time. Last summer Cellusuede completed the purchase of Engineered Fibers Technology, a well known industry brand in precision short-cut technical fibres.

42 • Batteries International • Autumn 2021

material, whereas plates reinforced with fibres lose less than 1%, he says.

Indonesian battery firm, NGS Batteries has studied the impact of fibres subjected to this and figure 1 on the facing page shows the results with and without fibres using various materials.

“That’s consistent with our research too,” says Andy Honkamp, president of Cellusuede Products, an international fibre firm headquartered in the US state of Illinois. “But on top of that you must factor in the quality of the fibre that you are adding — this is really where firms such as us distinguish ourselves from others. This is vital and irrespective of whether they are acrylic, modacrylic, polyester or polypropylene, depending on the battery they are to be deployed.

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BACK TO BASICS: PASTING FIBRES “Important factors here are the length and consistency of the cut. We use vertical cutting machines because we know they give us the precision we demand and strong end-cut quality.”

Research into the benefits of polymeric and carbon fibres in lithium-ion batteries continues. Although, polymers, polyesters and polypropylenes provide rigidity for the paste on the grid, they also resist charge acceptance. This was not a major issue until recently when the entire lead battery industry is looking to improve DCA and water loss.

The drop in charge acceptance with traditional fibres was often the limiting factor to the addition of fibres, typically it’s around 0.1% of the lead oxide paste; due to the low permeability of the inert polymer from which the fibre was manufactured.

Goonvean Fibres says it has developed a product, Primafloc+, that increases the stability of the plate but improves charge acceptance as well.

“Primafloc+ has demonstrated improved charge acceptance under JIS D3501; traditional fibre reinforceAd.pdf 1 9/17/2019 3:13:17 acceptance PM ment Finalreduces charge

(-14%) but Primafloc+ reverses this effect but improves charge acceptance (+10%), which is even better than that of carbon fibre. A 19.4% improvement has been seen, when compared to a typical battery plate with polyester fibres,” says James Mullins, managing director.

“There has been a good take up of Primafloc+ so far. “We have been supplying the product for over two years and have been improving our manufacturing processes to meet the increasing demand.”

Another Goonvean product is Thermafloc+ which has better thermal stability over traditional polyester (26% increase) exhibiting similar thermal stability to acrylic and modacrylic alternatives. The thermal benefit was seen in the shrinkage results with a 1.2% Shrinkage at 100°C, an 82% improvement from polyester, and comparable with traditional acrylic and modacrylic options.

These properties have an impact on the battery’s performance, because if the fibre shrinks, micropores can appear in the paste, reducing strength & stability.

“There has been a good take up of Primafloc+ so far. We have been supplying the product for over two years and have been improving our manufacturing processes to meet the increasing demand” — James Mullins, Goonvean Fibres

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Batteries International • Autumn 2021 • 43

ENERGY STORAGE COPORATE FINANCE

Briggs & Stratton buys SimpliPhi Power SimpliPhi Power has been snapped up by the gas engines and power generation equipment manufacturer Briggs & Stratton, the firm announced on September 7.

The purchase will accelerate Briggs & Stratton’s growth in the energy storage system market, the company says, and broaden its customer base.

“Combining forces with Briggs & Stratton will provide SimpliPhi Power with new growth opportunities and substantial resources to lead the energy storage system market,” said Catherine Von Burg, CEO of

SimpliPhi Power.

“Briggs & Stratton’s expansive distribution network, power application expertise and commitment to innovation will accelerate our growth.”

Briggs & Stratton is headquartered in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and claims to be the world’s largest producer of gasoline engines for outdoor power equipment.

It also designs and makes lithium-ion batteries, as well as other power products.

SimpliPhi makes LFP batteries, having moved away from cobalt in 2007.

Fluence Energy IPO success, taps market interest The initial public offering on the Nasdaq Global Market for Fluence Energy, an energy-storage joint venture between Siemens and international power-plant developer AES Corp, closed over-subscribed on October 28. Market sources said the company had raised $868 million and that after the listing the shares traded up.

The company sold 31 million shares that day after marketing them for $21 to $24 and pricing them at $28.

The offering by the Arlington, Virginia-based company was led by JPMorgan Chase, Morgan Stanley Barclays Capital and BoA Secu-

rities. The shares are trading on the Nasdaq Global Market under the symbol FLNC. Upon completion of Fluence’s offering, AES will have an indirect economic interest in Fluence of approximately 35% (or approximately 34% if the underwriters exercise their option to buy additional class ‘A’ shares).

Fluence will be a so-called “controlled company” within the meaning of the Nasdaq rules, and AES will have approximately 46% of the voting power in Fluence. AES will hold its economic interest through Fluence Energy.

ATEPS Nederland acquired

by Exide Technologies ATEPS Nederland announced in October that it had been acquired by Exide Technologies, the European arm of the former US battery giant, on October 1, 2021. ATEPS, founded in 2014, is a developer and manufacturer of modular energy storage systems.

“We continue under the name ATEPS but as an Exide Technologies company,”

the firm said.

“Our customer base has grown significantly in recent years and we have experienced enormous growth. By being part of a global leader like Exide, we have access to their resources, sales skills and distribution. We now consider what we do is more delivering a product rather than a project.”

44 • Batteries International • Autumn 2021

Li-Cycle receives $100 million funding for expansion Li-Cycle, the Canadian lithium battery recycling firm, announced on September 29 that Koch Strategic Platforms, a subsidiary of Koch Investments Group, will make a $100 million investment in Li-Cycle through the purchase of a convertible note.

The incremental capital being raised from KSP will be directed towards the accelerated expansion of the battery recycling footprint, both in North America and internationally, says Li-Cycle The company and several Koch Industries subsidiaries are also looking at ways to accelerate Li-Cycle’s global deployment of its ‘Spoke & Hub’ model, in which the batteries are collected regionally and processed into an inert material in Spokes before being transported to a centralized Hub and converted into battery-grade end products.

“With the pace of deployment of new battery megafactories far exceeding initial expectations [we] recognize the need to accelerate the company’s roll-out of Spoke & Hub capacity to capture the growing market opportunity,” says the company.

“Li-Cycle’s total addressable market estimate for the quantity of lithium-ion batteries available for recycling globally in 2025 has accelerated significantly in just the past five months.”

Estimates of the addressable market in 2025 in North America, Europe and China have all increased by at least

50%, based on sources that include Benchmark Mineral Intelligence, as well as Li-Cycle market intelligence and forecasting.

Among the key drivers of this growth are new battery mega-factory announcements exceeding original expectations. This drives additional battery manufacturing scrap available for recycling, in lockstep with battery manufacturing.

A June report from a White House task force on supply chains says demand for lithium could grow by more than 4,000% by 2040 because of the growth in battery use, with most manufacturing occurring in China.

Ajay Kochhar, co-founder and CEO of Li-Cycle, said: “Lithium-ion battery recycling and recovery is critical for the electrification of transportation.”

In May, International Energy Agency executive director Fatih Birol warned of a “looming mismatch between the world’s strengthened climate ambitions and the availability of critical minerals that are essential to realizing those ambitions”.

A new report from IHS Markit found that growth in electric vehicle adoption could constrain the supply of stationary lithium-ion batteries, even as the storage market grows substantially in the next decade. Recycling used batteries and materials, experts say, could help close that gap, even with the long lifespan of storage products.

Energy Vault to list on NYSE through merger with Novus Capital Corp 11 Novus Capital Corporation II and Energy Vault, an energy storage company, announced on September 9 that the two boards of directors had entered into a definitive agreement for a merger. The new company will be known as Energy Vault Holdings.

The transaction values the combined grid storage company at roughly $1.5 billion, the companies said. The transaction should close in the first quarter of 2022, subject to shareholder approval and regulatory conditions.

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MEGA DEAL NEWS Fluence and Ireland’s ESB sign deal for biggest storage portfolio in Europe

Southern California Edison agrees three grid-scale battery installations for 575MW

Fluence Energy, owned by Siemens and AES, and Irish electricity firm ESB will own a total storage portfolio of 308MWh, making it the largest in Europe when their most recent battery installations are completed, they said today.

Two new projects in Dublin have been announced — a 7MW/150MWh battery that will be the largest by energy capacity in the EU, and a second 30MW/60MWh battery.

When finished, the portfolio will have the capacity to power approximately 321,000 homes and businesses in Ireland at times of peak demand.

“These projects repre-

US technology firm Ameresco on October 21 confirmed it had signed a contract with Southern California Edison to build three grid-scale battery storage systems in California, increasing battery storage capacity in the state by a total of 573.5MW to 2,150MWh. The new substations, in San Joaquin Valley, Rancho Cucamonga and Long Beach, should be switched on next August. They will be charged up during periods of low demand for discharge when the grid needs support.

California suffers from drought and wildfires every year, which results in power blackouts.

“The battery storage sys-

sent a leap forward in terms of reliability for the electricity system and will quickly add much needed flexible capacity in the constrained Dublin area,” said Paul McCusker, president for Fluence Europe, Middle East and Africa.

The deal was announced two days after Fluence filed a registration statement with the US Securities and Exchange Commission for a proposed IPO, with the company applying to list its Class A common stock on the Nasdaq.

The number and price of shares has not yet been determined, according to the announcement.

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Batteries International • Autumn 2021 • 45

MEGA DEAL NEWS Another day, another world’s largest energy storage project Saudi firm ACWA Power on October 16 said it had hired Chinese firms Huawei and SEPCO3 to install what it says will be the largest energy storage system in the world, near a pilot ‘smart city’ that is due to be built in 2025.

The system, on the coast of the Red Sea in Saudi Arabia, will provide storage for renewable energy technologies powering Neom, a smart city conceived in 2017 by Saudi crown prince Mohammad

bin Salman.

He said the city of Neom, which means ‘new future’ in Arabic, would operate independently from the existing government framework, with its own laws and tourist services.

It would have robots performing services such as security, care and logistics, and would be powered entirely by wind and solar power, he said.

“It will lead a new way of life and drive new economic growth, as re-

sources such as oil are increasingly depleted,” a statement said.

The project was inspired by the government proposed ‘Saudi Vision 2030’, which included the city of Neom as one of its key projects to ‘embody the future of innovation in business, liveability and sustainability’, powered by 100% renewable energy.

Separately, ACWA Power on October 27 announced it had closed a $12 billion acquisition of

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46 • Batteries International • Autumn 2021

the first group of assets for the Jazan integrated gasification combined cycles project. The joint venture will operate the plant to supply power, steam, hydrogen and other utilities for Aramco’s Jazan oil refinery.

Malta and NB Power plan 1000MWh facility for eastern Canada by 2024 Malta, a developer of pumped heat energy storage, and NB Power, a utility in eastern Canada, announced at the end of October that they had signed a term sheet as part of establishing an agreement to create the first long-duration energy storage facility in New Brunswick. While still in the planning and development stage, the facility is targeted to be in-service in 2024.

Upon its completion, the 1,000MWh facility would be one of the largest energy storage systems of its kind in the world.

An additional benefit of the plant is that it will produce a large quantity of high-quality heat as a byproduct that can be used in a number of commercial, industrial, and district energy operations, with the potential to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and drive further economic growth.

The companies say they would be consulting and engaging with several partners and stakeholder groups throughout the province.

Construction and long-term operation of the Malta system would rely on contractors sourced directly from New Brunswick and Atlantic Canada, creating economic benefits in the region.

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MEGA DEAL NEWS

World’s largest utility-scale battery fails a month after installation completed The world’s biggest battery, Vistra Corp’s Moss Landing 300MW/1200MWh battery, suffered a major overheating incident on September 4, which resulted in sprinkler systems being deployed and firefighters called to the site.

“Vistra has begun its preliminary assessment of Phase I (300 megawatts) of its Moss Landing Energy Storage Facility following an overheating incident that impacted a limited number of battery modules and occurred on the evening of Sept. 4.” a company statement said.

“Teams from Vistra, battery manufacturer LG Energy Solution, engineering

and construction firm Fluence, and other external experts are conducting their initial walkthroughs of the building in order to gather information and begin their investigation into the root cause of the issue.

“The North County Fire Protection District of Monterey County is assisting with the investigation.”

The lithium battery, which was made by LG Energy and installed in partnership with Fluence and Vistra, was switched on this January.

It was hailed as a flagship project and celebrated with much fanfare when it was completed with the addition of a further 100MW

just a month ago, on August 19.

The added capacity brought the total storage capacity to 1600MWh. “We share a goal of facilitating a nationwide transition to zero-emission energy and, as more intermittent renewables come online, battery projects like this play a vital role in building a more reliable grid,” said Claudia Morrow, Vistra’s SVP of development and strategy, at the time.

The battery was intended to strengthen the reliability of California’s grid, which suffers blackouts every year during the state’s wildfire season.

“With safety as its No. 1 priority, the company is taking a conservative approach and keeping the entire facility offline as it investigates the root cause of the incident in partnership with its engineering contractor, Fluence, and battery manufacturer, LG Energy Solution,” said a Vistra statement.

“Vistra is uncertain on the timing of the return of the facility, pending an investigation and any needed repairs.”

The additional 100MW/400MWh battery was not affected by the overheating, the company said, and as yet the cause of the problem was not clear.

Neoen-run big battery project approved, post-fire, to resume battery testing French renewable energy firm Neoen on September 28 said Australian safety regulators had cleared it to resume battery testing at its ‘Big Battery’ energy storage project near Melbourne, two months after a fire with a Tesla battery unit, according to a Reuters news agency report.

At the end of July, a fire broke out in a megapack battery unit in Australia during testing of one of the world’s biggest energy storage projects run by Neoen after a coolant leak triggered a short circuit at two of its locations, causing the site to be disconnected from the grid. The fire was brought under control four days after it started.

Earlier in July, Neoen Australia’s managing director Louis de Sambucy announced the 300MW/450MWh project was midway through construction. Victorian transmission company AusNet Services said at the time that both transformers that con-

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nect the battery to the grid had been successfully energized.

Following the approval to resume energization and testing of batteries, Sambucy said: “We have taken

the time to understand the cause of the incident and we have implemented actions to ensure it will not happen again.”

The total cost of the project is not known. However,

Neoen won A$160 million ($116 million) from the Australian government earlier this year to help fund the big battery, which is designed to store 450MWh of electricity.

Gould Creek 450MWH BESS gets development approval Maoneng Australia’s 225MW Gould Creek Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) has been granted development approval by the South Australian government in early November and the company should power 40,000 homes during peak hour, when completed in 2023.

Located just 22 kilometres outside Adelaide and covering approximately 3.4 hectares of land, the project is expected to take 12 months to complete and will provide up to 160 construction jobs and two full-time maintenance positions after construction is complete.

The Gould Creek BESS will store approximately 450MWh of electricity and will embed electricity generation to supply into the Australian grid and support South Australia’s commitment to reducing greenhouse gas emissions to meet our clean energy transition.

The Gould Creek BESS project should be in operation in the second quarter of 2023.

The Gould Creek BESS site consists of private freehold land on which approximately 2.4 hectares of land will be used for the BESS units and an additional 1 hectare will be used

to house operational and maintenance equipment.

Below is a preliminary layout based on the technical assessment and consultation undertaken to date.

This preliminary layout provides for a 225MW/450MWh BESS; the capacity of the project is based on the available capacity at the Para 330kV transmission substation that the project will connect to. The project is a standalone BESS which will charge and discharge from the National Electricity Market and will not have a generation component like a solar or wind farm.

Batteries International • Autumn 2021 • 47

PRODUCT FOCUS: THE CHROMA 17040

High power charging is coming, but can battery testing keep up?

Improving battery life continues to be the key area for developing electric vehicles. With the recent breakthroughs on endurance, the next challenge is to improve the charging time for EV. To improve the charging efficiency of basic chargers, High Power Charging (HPC), which is supported by major European and American automakers, has rapidly become widely used to solve the problem of excessive charging.

Mass-produced passenger vehicles on the market have charging currents ranging 200-240A and voltage between 300-400V. The first of two ways to improve the EV charging speed is by increasing the current.

When it comes to the thermal problems caused by the tolerance of components and contact resistance, the charging current increases very quickly after more than 100kW, which poses a great challenge to the battery and charging devices. The current may even have to reach 800A to have a chance to match the future 350kW-400kW superchargers.

The second way is to increase the voltage.

Take the Porsche Taycan for example, which adopts a CCS highvoltage 800V charging system and can charge up to 80% in 15 minutes in its fast-charging mode, providing a driving distance of at least 400 kilometers.

As the voltage rises, the current increase is relatively small, and problems such as for heat treatments are less likely to occur.

Chroma 17040 raises bar for HPC battery testing In the face of HPC development, battery cell performance, battery pack structure, and battery management system design will become more challenging, and test requirements

48 • Batteries International • Autumn 2021

will be more complicated. To improve the efficiency of the HPC battery test process, testers must focus on power demand and test risk management.

Chroma 17040 can provide up to 600kW power, 1,500A current, and 1,000V voltage, answering the continuing increase of voltage and current in HPC applications.

The powerful test system uses current control synchronization technologies to achieve current switch time without delay in parallel channel mode. It can simulate charging stations under high-power fast charging, read the battery pack BMS data, evaluate the internal battery cell balance, and, most importantly, test the impact on the service life.

Alternatively, Chroma 17040 can also be set to battery simulator mode for testing the high-voltage and highcurrent charging of EVSE.

For test risk management, the 17040 system has multiple alarm and protection modes to ensure the safety of your personnel. The tester has passed the VDE-AR-N 4105 islanding detection requirements to ensure safety and reliability of the energy recovered to the grid.

Moreover, it acquired the CE certification by meeting the EU requirements of anti-EMI, EMS, and safety — a necessity for automakers with global production lines. Chroma 17040 can load the actual charging and discharging waveforms of the vehicle for use in EV endurance testing, product incoming and outgoing quality control, design verification research, battery pack production, and other purposes.

Altogether, Chroma 17040 is the best tool for testing a wide variety of HPC applications.

The powerful test system can simulate charging stations under high-power fast charging, read the battery pack BMS data, evaluate the internal battery cell balance, and, most importantly, test the impact on the service life

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COVER STORY: HYDROGEN

Long term duration energy storage

Turning water into power There’s a new challenge for the battery storage industry. Projected sales volumes of lead and lithium batteries in coming years for transport and grid storage could be threatened by a huge upsurge in substituting natural gas for hydrogen.

Hydrogen. It’s the most abundant atom in the universe, it’s colourless, odourless, non-toxic and highly combustible. It could also be the next rethink in the transition from burning fossil fuels to an economy based on renewables.

“The global energy trade is set to see its largest disruption since the 1970s and the rise of OPEC,” says Prakash Sharma, research director at

50 • Batteries International • Autumn 2021

Wood Mackenzie.

“Hydrogen could be the gamechanger. A key differentiator is hydrogen’s massive potential in traded energy markets. Low-carbon hydrogen and its derivatives could account for around a third of the seaborne energy trade in a net zero 2050 world.”

Hydrogen has various advantages over electrochemical storage…

• At the most basic, it’s almost per-

fect for long term storage, it can be switched on and off as long as there is hydrogen available, most particularly it beats the four hour barrier that limits lithium batteries’ usage • It can be stored almost indefinitely, unlike batteries which are always limited by their cycle life and continually have to be replaced and routinely tested;

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COVER STORY: HYDROGEN THE BASICS

Hydrogen comes in many colours — in theory, at least, depending on the amount of carbon emissions are produced in creating it.

Electrolysis of water splits water into hydrogen and oxygen. Pure water is not a good conductor, electrolysers use electrolytes that are able to conduct electricity when dissolved in water. There are different types of electrolysers depending on the electrolyte materials used and the temperature operated.

Low-temperature electrolysis technologies are the most developed. High-temperature electrolysis is not yet commercially available. The aim is to increase conversion efficiency — efficiency being measured as the amount of electricity required to produce a certain amount of hydrogen.

Environmentally neutral

Polluting

The hydrogen rainbow

Brown and black

The dirtiest form of hydrogen creation, made with coal or any other fossil fuel, such as gasification.

Grey

The most common form of production today by far. It uses natural gas or methane in a steam reformation without capturing gases emitted.

Blue

Also made from natural gas using the steam reforming process, but with carbon emissions and carbon capture.

Pink

Generated through electrolysis powered by nuclear energy. Also known as purple or red.

White

Naturally occurring hydrogen in underground deposits tapped by fracking. Not exploited currently.

Yellow

Made by powering the electrolysis with solar power. This is at a very early stage.

Turquoise

A new process in which methane pyrolysis produces hydrogen and solid carbon, which could be permanently stored or used.

Green

The holy grail, using renewable sources of energy only to power the electrolysis and producing no carbon emissions. Expensive.

“Hydrogen has also — at least for the past two years at the governmental level and certainly in the recent couple of months as the COPS26 chatter crescendoed — been recognized as the Next Big Thing.

• There are no recycling issues, a huge problem for the commerciality of lithium batteries and an inconvenience with lead ones when collection, smelting and slag are taken into account; • It can be transported via tanker or piped and, with suitable adaptions, can immediately replace natural gas, tapping into a huge potential infrastructure already in place.

Hydrogen has also — at least for the past few years and certainly in the recent couple of months as the COPS26 chatter crescendoed — been recognised as the Next Big Thing.

Governments and energy agencies across the world are investigating the benefits of hydrogen as a new, clean alternative to fossil fuels suitable in

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all areas of energy. The result has been a flood of strategy papers on how to develop production of the gas in a cost-effective and low-carbon way for future generations.

International classification agency DNV’s research report Hydrogen as an energy carrier forecasts demand for hydrogen will rise from about 1,000 tonnes today to up to an eyewatering 161 million tonnes a year by 2050, and says that of the 1,100 senior energy professionals it has surveyed, three quarters of them say it will be essential.

“By 2025, almost half of energy companies globally involved in hydrogen expect it to account for more than a tenth of their revenue, rising to 73% of companies by 2030 — from just 8% of companies today,” DNV says.

Alkaline electrolysis Low-temperature electrolysis that uses a solution composed of water and a liquid electrolyte. This method has been in commercial use since the middle of the 20th century. With a liquid electrolyte, more peripheral equipment such as pumps for the electrolyte, solution washing and preparation are required.

So, although it is the cheapest to purchase, it has relatively high maintenance costs.

Proton exchange membrane electrolysis Low-temperature electrolysis that uses a conductive solid membrane and requires no liquid electrolyte.

Compared to alkaline electrolysis, PEM electrolysis can react more quickly to fluctuations in generation.

It is often used for distributed systems because the equipment is low-maintenance and delivers high-quality gas. However, precious metals such as platinum are often required so it is expensive up front.

Anion exchange membrane electrolysis This is also known as alkaline PEM. It is a newer variant of lowtemperature electrolysis which does not use precious metals, currently only manufactured by a German firm called Enapter.

Solid oxide electrolysis Hydrogen production by high temperature steam electrolysis using SOEs has the potential to be competitive to hydrogen production from fossil fuels.

Source: Watson Farley & Williams

Batteries International • Autumn 2021 • 51

COVER STORY: HYDROGEN On paper it makes sense: what could be cleaner than an element found almost everywhere that when burned for energy, emits just water vapour?

The International Energy Agency says global capacity of electrolysers has doubled over the past five years, with 350 projects under development and 40 others in the early stages.

“Should all these projects be realized, global hydrogen supply from

electrolysers — which creates zero emissions provided the electricity used is clean — would reach eight million tonnes by 2030,” said IEA executive director Fatih Birol.

“This is a huge increase from today’s level of less than 50,000 tonnes, but remains well below the 80 million tonnes required in 2030 in the IEA pathway to net zero emissions by 2050.”

Some regions of the world will ben-

SG H2 ENERGY: GREEN HYDROGEN FROM BIOMASS Hydrogen company SG H2 Energy this September signed a deal with several partners, including ABB, to set up a hydrogen plant in Lancaster, California, to supply 90 refuelling stations in the state.

Claiming it is one of the largest purchase agreements ever signed in the sector, the plant is designed to produce 3,800 tonnes of hydrogen a year.

The company aims to get the cost of hydrogen down to $1/kg using its Solena Plasma Enhanced Gasification, which breaks down any kind of waste — paper, plastics, textiles, etc — to make hydrogen that qualifies as ‘green’ hydrogen.

“The alternative, to use electrolysis, would need economies of scale first, and renewable power would have to drop down to 1-1½ cents per kilowatt,” says CEO Robert Do. Electrolysis powered by renewable sources to create hydrogen and make it ‘green’ would cost around $10/kg.

And much of that would have to be made further away — in the desert, for instance, from where it would need to be transported to its place of use.

“But our hydrogen is coming 100% from biomass, here paper, breaking down hydrocarbons to their essentials – hydrogen, carbon and oxygen — and it’s 100% renewable,” says Do. The waste feedstock is disintegrated into molecular compounds at extremely high temperatures of up to 4,000°C generated by plasma torches.

It is a plasma-enhanced thermal catalytic conversion process enhanced with oxygen-enriched gas. Do says the result is a 99.99% pure hydrogen gas.

A small amount of biogenic carbon

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Robert Do, CEO, SG H2 Energy

dioxide is also produced, but it is not a greenhouse gas, Do says.

The plant his firm is building in Lancaster will use recycled paper only, and there is enough to provide 120 tonnes a day, which when processed will produce 11 tonnes of hydrogen.

The company has also hatched plans to build hydrogen modules in the ports of Rotterdam and Antwerp, with the idea of blending the hydrogen with natural gas to use it in the existing pipeline infrastructure.

“For us, as a hydrogen-producing company, we are not limited to providing hydrogen for one purpose.

We are talking to gas, power companies, storage, data centres cement makers, industrial heat — multiple different applications.

“The problem with the energy system is that it’s divided into three different sections: electrons going to electric utilities; natural gas going to home heating and industrial heating; and refineries and oil companies providing diesel and liquid fuel.

“The beauty about hydrogen is that it is one molecule that can replace electricity, liquid gas, diesel and natural gas.”

efit most from this. Australia and the Middle East sit in the top echelons for solar irradiance and offer massive green hydrogen potential.

“With conversion and transport costs making up as much as twothirds of the delivered cost of the interregional hydrogen seaborne trade, proximity to market will also be important. For supply to Northeast Asia, for instance, suppliers in Australia would appear to be ahead of the pack,” says Sharma.

“Northeast Asia, including China, and Europe will be the big importers of hydrogen; Australia, the Middle East and, possibly, Russia and the US have the greatest potential to be big exporters.”

The path to green hydrogen The huge sticking point is whether enough hydrogen can ever realistically be created with renewable energy.

Opinion here is divided.

“While current costs of green hydrogen production are typically more than three times higher than those of blue hydrogen, green hydrogen costs are expected to fall as electrolyser manufacturing technology improves and renewable electricity costs decline,” says Wood Mackenzie’s Sharma.

“An expected drop in costs will support a longer-term pivot from blue to green hydrogen.”

However, the International Energy Agency, in its Global Hydrogen Review 2021, published this October, says low-carbon hydrogen production is minimal in size, its cost is not competitive, and its use in promising sectors is limited. But it did qualify this saying, “but there are encouraging signs that it is on the cusp of significant cost declines and widespread global growth.”

“The green hydrogen market is non-existent — 0.0002% of all hydrogen is currently clean,” says Nadim Chaudhry, CEO of World Hydrogen Congress organizer Green Power Global.

“We talk to analysts and there is a broad spectrum of viewpoints, ranging from predictions that final energy demand by 2050 will be 8% hydrogen, to 34%.

“Even if it’s 8%, that would represent about a half a trillion US dollar annual market. To go green, from what it is now to 8% over the next 30 years, would mean considerable growth.

“If you wanted to replace the

Batteries International • Autumn 2021 • 53

COVER STORY: HYDROGEN existing hydrogen market with green hydrogen, you would have to build a huge electricity industry to be able to create it. If it were to be 34% of final energy demand it would require building out an electricity grid greater than three times the current one, just purely dedicated to producing electricity to then convert hydrogen via electrolysis.”

“The total expected hydrogen demand in Europe could potentially be met by green hydrogen produced

in the EU and UK, using renewable electricity,” says Gas for Climate, a consortium of European gas transport companies that have made plans to build a pan-European hydrogen network by 2040.

However, it warns: “Yet producing such quantities of green hydrogen domestically is subject to public acceptance of an accelerated expansion of renewable installed capacity, financing, regulation and quality standard setting.”

THE FIRST LARGE SCALE EUROPEAN PROJECTS APPEAR Two firms — a partnership between French petrochemical giant and Engie, and UK green hydrogen company Protium — are preparing ground-breaking hydrogen projects.

Total and Engie signed a cooperation agreement early in 2021 to design, develop, build and operate the Masshylia project, France’s largest renewable hydrogen production site at Châteauneuf-lesMartigues in the Provence-AlpesCôte d’Azur South region.

Located at the heart of Total’s La Mède biorefinery and powered by solar farms with a total capacity of more than 100 MW, the 40 MW electrolyser will produce five tonnes of green hydrogen per day to meet the needs of the biofuel production process at Total’s La Mède biorefinery, avoiding 15,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions per year.

“An innovative management solution for the production and storage of hydrogen will be implemented to manage the intermittent production of solar electricity and the biorefinery’s need for continuous hydrogen supply,” say the firms.

“The project thus integrates the implementation of five innovations that prefigure the industry’s decarbonation solutions, without any precedent in Europe.” These are: • A digital piloting system for the continuous supply of hydrogen with real-time management of solar electricity production, • Optimising the integration of several photovoltaic farms supplying the electrolyser to minimise energy losses and limit grid congestion, • Large-scale hydrogen storage to balance intermittent electricity

56 • Batteries International • Autumn 2021

production and continuous hydrogen consumption, • A direct current connection between a photovoltaic farm and the electrolyser to improve the energy balance, • Enhanced industrial safety thanks to the use of 3D digital models for each component of the installation Beyond this first phase, new renewable farms may be developed by the partners for the electrolyser, which has the capacity to produce up to 15 tonnes of green hydrogen per day.

The two partners aim to begin construction of the facilities in 2022, following the completion of the advanced engineering study, with a view to production in 2024, subject to the necessary financial support and public authorisations.

Meanwhile, Protium, a UK green hydrogen energy company, said in October it had secured a location in Teesside, in the north of England marking the area’s largest announced green hydrogen project to date.

Current plans are for the site to include up to 40MW of electrolysis capability, developed in two phases, including hydrogen storage. The building of a hydrogen production facility will provide Protium with the infrastructure necessary to generate renewable green hydrogen energy, with plans to supply local manufacturers once built.

The project will include the development of green hydrogen storage to support the largest PEM electrolyser in Teesside, thus enabling local manufacturing and logistics businesses to transition from natural gas and diesel energy sources.

Stepping stones Bill Ireland is the CEO of Logan Energy, which installs hydrogen systems across Europe.

These include Quadrant 3, where Logan has designed and installed a fuel cell CCHP system inside a 30,000sq² (2,800m²) retail, restaurant and office complex on London’s fashionable Regent Street.

“It’s expanding quickly, the growth is phenomenal, there’s a lot of hype and excitement and it’s reminiscent of the dot-com boom,” Ireland says.

“There are lots of people on the bandwagon that might not actually get there, promising things they can’t deliver. People are springing up from nowhere — some will fall by the wayside but a lot will make it.

“We are working with people trying to develop the carbon capture technology and people want to get into it but are making grey hydrogen at the moment. There’s a large requirement for hydrogen and part of the next thing is to do smaller scale storage.

“The growth is phenomenal, there’s a lot of hype and excitement and it’s reminiscent of the dot-com boom.

There are lots of people on the bandwagon that might not actually get there — some will fall by the wayside but a lot will make it” — Bill Ireland, CEO of Logan Energy

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                   ® 

            

www.advancedbatteryconcepts.com a proud member of the

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COVER STORY: HYDROGEN “We’re dealing with it all — our preference is green, but we recognize there are stepping stones to take so we’re pragmatic about that. Ideally it should be only green, but we don’t have the skills at the moment. We’re training people, and we’re getting them excited.”

Axel Haller, global segment manager for speciality chemical, pharma and hydrogen at ABB Automation Products, says although creating green hydrogen is the goal, so-called blue and yellow hydrogen will be essential in the short to mid-term, until renewable sources are more reliable.

“As we know, renewable energy is volatile — and not always available — so we need some intermediate energy storage,” he says. “The industry has

“One of the challenges with hydrogen is the energy intensity needed to produce it sustainably.”

— Axel Haller, global segment manager for speciality chemical, pharma and hydrogen at ABB Automation Products the technology readily available and in the market to keep us on track until 2030 and reduce emissions by 13 gigatonnes this decade.

“However, a full transition by 2050 will require more innovations, many of which are still at the demonstration and prototype stage, no-

FOCUS: GERMANY AT THE FOREFRONT OF RAMPING UP OF SUPPORT FOR HYDROGEN ST Germany’s National Hydrogen Strategy (NHS) was one of the first to be published in the European Union, in June 2020, even before the EU published its strategy for the bloc as a whole.

The German government followed up six months later with a Renewable Energies Sources Act, which contained specific provisions to support the production and industrial use of green hydrogen.

The NHS considers blue and turquoise hydrogen carbon neutral, with the caveat that they are likely to be short-term methods of production until green hydrogen can be commercially sustainable.

Hydrogen will play a major part in Germany’s plan to claim carbon emission neutrality by 2050, and with the government predicting H2 demand of 90TWh-110TWh by then, it is going to have to scale up the number of renewable energy plants it installs to avoid an increase in CO2 emissions produced from simply producing the gas.

“To accommodate this demand, electrolysers with a total capacity of up to 5GW are to be built in Germany by 2030 (including the offshore and onshore energy production required for providing electricity for the electrolysis),” says international law firm Watson, Farley and Williams, which advises industry on transactions and disputes across energy, transport and real estate.

“This corresponds to a green hy-

58 • Batteries International • Autumn 2021

drogen production of up to 14TWh and a required renewable electricity quantity of up to 20TWh.” Incentives and support measures include the German government’s promise to exempt companies from tax levies on all electricity consumed in producing green hydrogen.

“The NHS commits Germany to providing public funding amounting to €7 billion ($8.2 billion) for the market ramp-up of hydrogen technology in the country,” says Watson, Farley and Williams. “The actual programmes and requirements are currently being developed.”

100MW electrolyser pledge A letter of intent has been signed with industry giants Vattenfall, Shell, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and Hamburg’s municipal heat supplier Hamburg Wärme to install a 100MW electrolyser — one of the largest in the world — using just wind and solar energy to power it.

The electrolyser will be installed on the site of a former coal plant at the Port of Hamburg, a city the Hamburg’s Ministry of Economy and Innovation says is likely to become a ‘European hub for green hydrogen’.

“The region and the surrounding northern German states already score with a high share of renewable energies and are planning the rapid expansion of the green hydrogen economy along the entire value chain,” it says.

“In the coming years, Germany

will be investing €9 billion ($10.5 billion) in the development of a green hydrogen economy.”

Existing gas pipelines are being expanded for hydrogen use.

Kentaro Hosomi, president and CEO of Energy Systems for Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, said the installation would ‘show Europe and the world that the hydrogen economy is real’.

“Hydrogen has enormous potential not just as a means of power storage,” said Christian Heine, CEO of Wärme Hamburg.

“Wärme Hamburg has pledged to make available all sources of waste heat and to utilize this climateneutral heat.

“This is why we have decided to take part in the electrolyser project.

We also want to evaluate if we can use the existing infrastructure at the Moorburg site and use other additional forms of renewable energy.”

Green Hydrogen Systems A much smaller project intended to pave the way for larger scale hydrogen applications in the future has been agreed by hydrogen technology developer Wenger Engineering and agreed with Green Hydrogen Systems, which makes electrolysers for on-site hydrogen production based on renewable electricity.

The project consists of three electrolysers, with a combined capacity of around 1.3MW, to produce hydrogen using the electricity generated by wind turbines. They

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COVER STORY: HYDROGEN tably the storage, production and use of hydrogen.

“One of the challenges with hydrogen is the energy intensity needed to produce it sustainably. With the International Energy Agency calling for a push to improve energy efficiencies across the entire value chain, this has to be our top priority.”

ABB is looking into emerging technologies with a view to developing them, for example methane splitting, which it says is still in the R&D stage but if it could be replicated at scale, could yield hydrogen gas and solid carbon without CO2 emissions — and at the same time require less than five times the amount of energy than electrolysis.

TRATEGIES will be connected to an electricity network in a trial to determine what effect disparate generation units will have on the grid.

The test will also look at applications for the logistics, transport and food sectors.

“The insights from this project will not only have a significant scaling effect on the hydrogen economy in Germany, but the results can potentially be valuable for all of Europe’s green energy transition,” said Wenger Engineering CEO David Wenger.

Not everything in the German hydrogen garden is rosy.

One potentially huge electrolysis plant — up to 800MW in size — on the site of Bavaria’s biggest oil refinery, Bayernoil, has been hit with legal challenges about its sources of energy, which include gas produced from residual wood — in other words, biogenic material, as well as wind and solar.

Bayernoil processes 12 billion litres of crude oil a year, and has said it will convert its operations to produce green alternatives, such as green methanol.

However its plans to use up to four million tonnes of wood in the final stage have come under scrutiny, according to the news agency Clean Energy Wire.

The use of biogenic sources is a grey area, and lawmakers have advised the government to look into whether it should be classified as a green source.

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BLUE HYDROGEN: MYTH OR FUTURE? Today, the vast majority of hydrogen is made by steam reforming of methane in natural gas (grey hydrogen), which also produces carbon dioxide emissions.

One trending proposal is to capture the emissions and store them — perhaps underground — and rename the gas created ‘blue hydrogen’, as it does emit CO2 but then it is safely stored away.

Unfortunately a peer-reviewed paper published in August by Cornell and Stanford Universities, supported by a grant from the Park Foundation and published in the Energy Science & Engineering Journal, looked into the methods and processes being promoted and concluded: “We see no way that blue hydrogen can be considered ‘green’.”

“Far from being low carbon, greenhouse gas emissions from the production of blue hydrogen are quite high, particularly due to the release of fugitive methane,” the report says.

“For our default assumptions (3.5% emission rate of methane from natural gas and a 20-year global warming potential), total carbon dioxide equivalent emissions for blue hydrogen are only 9%-12% less than for grey hydrogen.

“While carbon dioxide emissions are lower, fugitive methane emissions for blue hydrogen are higher than for grey hydrogen because of an increased use of natural gas to power the carbon capture.

“Perhaps surprisingly, the greenhouse gas footprint of blue hydrogen is more than 20% greater than burning natural gas or coal for heat and some 60% greater than burning diesel oil for heat.

“In a sensitivity analysis in which the methane emission rate from natural gas is reduced to a low value of 1.54%, greenhouse gas emissions from blue hydrogen are still greater than from simply burning natural gas.”

The report also cautions that while the university’s analysis assumes captured CO2 can be stored indefinitely, this is ‘an optimistic and unproven assumption’.

“Even if true though, the use of blue hydrogen appears difficult to justify on climate grounds,” the report says.

Nadim Chaudhry, founder of Green Power Global, is also sceptical. “We see a lot of participation from the oil and gas industry in renewables and offshore wind – and in creating projects to produce green hydrogen,” he says. “This makes me believe that if they were so certain of the blue hydrogen route, why would they be investing so much in green hydrogen?

“Blue hydrogen has yet to be proven. As does green, but from an environmental perspective you have a huge renewable energy industry that is keen to be able to expand their electricity markets and opportunities to grow grids from their current size by a factor of two to three.”

Nadim Chaudhry, CEO of Green Power Global — “there is a broad spectrum of viewpoints ranging from 8% to 34% of final energy demand by 2050”

Batteries International • Autumn 2021 • 59

COVER STORY: HYDROGEN THE EU STRATEGIC ROADMAP In the summer of 2020 the European Commission drew up a hydrogen strategy for a climate neutral Europe. This suggested a three-phase approach.

In the first phase, from 2020 up to 2024, the strategic objective is to install at least 6 GW of renewable hydrogen electrolysers in the EU and the production of up to 1 million tonnes of renewable hydrogen, to decarbonise existing hydrogen production.

In a second phase, from 2025 to 2030, hydrogen needs to become an intrinsic part of an integrated energy system with a strategic objective to install at least 40GW of renewable hydrogen electrolysers by 2030 and the production of up to 10 million tonnes of renewable hydrogen in the EU. In a third phase, from 2030 onwards and towards 2050, renewable hydrogen technologies should reach maturity and be deployed at large scale to reach all hard-to-decarbonise sectors where other alternatives might not be feasible or have higher costs.

In this phase, renewable electricity production needs to massively increase as about a quarter of renewable electricity might be used for renewable hydrogen production by 2050.

Some 40,000km of pipelines are planned for the European Hydrogen Backbone

60 • Batteries International • Autumn 2021

Transport and distribution Because it has such a low boiling point and low energy density — three times less than methane — moving hydrogen to where it is required can add as much as three times the cost of producing it to the final delivery cost, says ABB. “It’s no wonder that almost all hydrogen today is used at the same location it is produced,” says the firm.

“Pipelines represent the most economical means of inland transport in bulk, but for longer distances and or overseas shipping, it will need to be either liquefied or converted into some other carrier to be economical.”

Green Power Global’s Chaudhry agrees as to why most hydrogen is consumed where it is produced. “It’s volumetrically by order of magnitude a lot bigger than methane, and to ship it you either need to compress it at 700 bar or freeze it down to minus 30 Kelvin — so you have those processes to put in place,” he says.

“But in terms of using it for residential gas, the existing network could be easily re-purposed for hydrogen. You could hydrogen-proof your network and some places in Germany are using town gas, which used to have a high content of hydrogen.

“Boilers can be converted from natural gas and take increasing percentages of hydrogen in a blend. Although a 20% blend doesn’t mean a 20% emissions reduction, but ultimately you could go to 100%.”

SG H2 has overcome the transport issue by developing modular systems that can be set up near to where the gas is then used.

“We see it as two large markets,” says CEO and president Robert Do. “The large utility scale, where you go offshore and build electrolysis and make it and bring it back, or you make smaller distributed units like ours, closer to the city.”

European Hydrogen Backbone Like most other countries and regions, the EU published its own ‘Hydrogen Strategy’, in July 2020.

In the same month, an even more ambitious plan was presented by the consortium Gas for Climate, made up of 11 European gas infrastructure companies: Enagás, Energinet, Fluxys Belgium, Gasunie, GRTgaz, NET4GAS, OGE, ONTRAS, Snam, Swedegas and Teréga This outlined a plan for a dedicated hydrogen infrastructure, a ‘European Hydrogen Backbone’, which set out

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COVER STORY: HYDROGEN “Clean hydrogen is a game changer. Achieving these targets will help America tackle the climate crisis, and more quickly reach the Biden-Harris administration’s goal of net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 while creating good-paying, union jobs and growing the economy,” Secretary of the US Department of Energy Jennifer Granholm details of a plan to use 23,000km of mostly converted natural gas pipelines to connect ‘hydrogen valleys’ in the 10 European countries of Germany, France, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Sweden and Switzerland to offshore wind and solar PV plants, where the hydrogen created would be classed as green.

Consumers a distance away from renewable electricity sources would gain access to the gas through existing gas grids, which would be modified to take hydrogen.

“Domestic hydrogen production can also be blue hydrogen produced at locations with good transport links to carbon storage locations,” the plan said, adding that the vision would cost up to €64 billion ($73.8 billion) “which is relatively limited in the overall context of the European energy transition”.

In April 2021, the plan was extended to 40,000km, costing up to another €17 billion ($19.6 billion) and now includes 21 European countries, including the UK and Switzerland as the only non-EU member states.

In June, an initial legislative framework and financing options was proposed so that the initiative could be kickstarted and completed in 2040, with further extensions also possible.

“The EU and the UK could see a hydrogen demand of around 2,300TWh (of which 2,000TWh in the EU) by 2050,” the proposal says. “This equals about 45% of EU+UK natural gas consumption in 2019.

US Hydrogen Earthshot On August 31, the US Department of Energy held its ‘Hydrogen Shot Summit’, featuring Microsoft’s Bill Gates and John Kerry, he first United States special presidential envoy for climate, as guest speakers.

It was held a couple of months after then new secretary of the US Department of Energy Jennifer Granholm launched a proposal for a ‘Hydrogen

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Energy Earthshot to Accelerate Breakthroughs Toward a Net Zero Economy’, with the stated aim of slashing the cost of clean hydrogen by 80% to just $1/kg within a decade: the so-called ‘111’ goal for $1, 1kg, one decade.

“Clean hydrogen is a game changer. Achieving these targets will help America tackle the climate crisis, and more quickly reach the Biden-Harris administration’s goal of net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 while creating good-paying, union jobs and growing the economy,” said Granholm.

The launch issued a Request for Information on hydrogen demonstrations on a range of topics, including hydrogen production, resources and infrastructure; end users according to region and cost; greenhouse gas and other emissions reduction potential; environmental justice; and science and innovation.

Most of the hydrogen produced in America is grey hydrogen, which is cheap to produce but emits around 10kg of CO2 per 1kg of H2 produced.

According to Robert Do, president and CEO of hydrogen production company SG H2 Energy, the hydrogen road is a one-way route, and by 2050 the energy landscape will have changed enormously.

“Solar and wind cannot replace every energy need that we have,” he says.

“Look at cement, steel plants — how are you going to use solar and wind to power them? They have to burn coal. Gas and oil companies are trying to sell natural gas and kerosene molecules but they will have to start selling green molecules and the only noncarbon fuel molecule, the only green molecule they can burn, is hydrogen.

“With grid storage, batteries to a certain size will work, but you need a very large battery to handle a megawatt size. We can put 340MW of liquid hydrogen in two tankers. We can replace diesel generators at data centres and for back-up power.

“The infrastructure is already there, the turbines are already there.”

THE ROAD AHEAD The current challenges faced by the hydrogen industry include: • A lack of regulatory certainty, and whether participating in the production, transportation and storage of hydrogen will require certain licensing.

• A lack of coherent and common technical standards, which would make skills and manufactured parts transferrable from one project to the next. Interoperability would unlock efficiencies and further development potential; • A skills gap in the work force, which cannot be filled until there is some certainty that the skills will be required — both in terms of investing in and developing training programmes, but also in terms of uptake of any programmes offered. There is potential here to also re-train workers from the oil and gas industry, which has recently seen significant job cuts with more expected over the coming years; and, • A lack of developed supply chains — both because much of the technology is new and rapidly evolving, but also because without interoperability standards, it is nearly impossible to guess which design or technology will be a winner.

Batteries International • Autumn 2021 • 61

OPINION: PALL CORPORATION Rigorous quality control has always played an essential role in lithium battery manufacturing but as the drive for yet better batteries emerges, its role will become yet more important, writes Pall Corporation’s Christophe Goasdoué.

Battery purity: the hidden driver for the next wave of EV advances The market for lithium-ion batteries has grown hugely in recent years due to their high energy and power density, long life, low self-discharge, and low maintenance costs.

But there remain concerns around performance, and especially around individual components of lithium-ion batteries for EVs. The materials used in battery manufacture directly affect the ultimate performance of the product in areas such as energy and power densities, cycle life and safety.

The challenge is often around purity and quality control: the ‘cleanliness’ of each individual component — often at a microscopic level — will have a significant impact on the final product. And, as components get exponentially smaller and more sensitive to contamination, robust quality control in this regard becomes increasingly difficult.

As this trend continues, battery manufacturers are having to become material scientists as well as engineers, able to deploy highly sophisticated filtration and separation technologies and techniques that can achieve the highest level of purity in their battery components.

This is where significant investment and innovation is needed if the battery manufacture sector is going to keep pace with the explosion of growth in the EV market.

Breaking down the challenge There are three components of lithium-ion batteries that are most at risk of contamination during manufacture: separators, cathode active materials, and liquid electrolyte.

Even the slightest impurities introduced to these components at this early stage will have a significant impact on the performance of the battery and could ultimately undermine the full lifecycle value of that product.

Separators are becoming much thinner as technologies improve, making production processes and quality assurance controls increasingly challenging to implement.

To ensure separators meet technical specifications in terms of cleanliness, quality and uniformity of the polymeric material, polymeric films must not contain any microscopic metal particles because contact with

Quality assurance controls are becoming more and more stringent for chemical companies as CAM quality impacts the overall performance of the battery and its cost per KWh 62 • Batteries International • Autumn 2021

other parts of the battery cell could cause electrical short circuits.

Figure 1: Typical separator fabrication process

The cathode or positive electrode is made of a very pure mix of metal oxides containing lithium. The more uniform its chemical composition and crystal structure, the better the performance and longevity of the battery.

The production process for cathode active materials (CAM) is complex and requires multi-chemical transformation stages involving solid, liquid and gaseous products to get a pure mix of active materials.

Unsurprisingly, quality assurance controls are also becoming more and more stringent for chemical companies as CAM quality impacts not only the overall performance of the battery itself, but also its cost per KWh.

Figure 2: Example of a CAM manufacturing process for nickel-manganese-obalt lithium batteries

Liquid electrolytes There has been impressive progress in the exploration of electrode materials for lithium-based batteries because the electrodes are the limiting factors in terms of overall capacity.

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OPINION: PALL CORPORATION. However, focus has shifted more and more in recent years to the electrolytes, which determine the current density, time stability and reliability of a battery.

Electrolytes can be viewed as the inert component of the battery, and as such they must demonstrate stability against both the cathode and anode surface. While different types of electrolytes are used today (solid vs liquid, aqueous vs non aqueous, etc), there is still a significant need for additional developments in this area to improve the performance of lithium-ion battery technology.

For each of these three critical components — separators, cathode active materials and electrolytes — extremely advanced filtration solutions are required to meet the exacting standards of EV battery manufacturers.

During the separation manufacturing process, one needs to look at products being used across each fabrication stage, including the process water, paraffin liquid, plasticizer, polymers and protection liquid — each of which will have different requirements.

With process water, for example, one is looking for 10µm to 90µm particulate depending on the water quality, which can be achieved with a particulate filter. With the paraffin liquid and plasticizer, the protection of an ultra-fine crossflow system is needed to ensure the quality of the final product.

Looking at cathode manufacture, the very narrow size distribution of the active material requires a complex multistage manufacturing process. There are dozens of processing lines that need an array of cleanliness and quality controls, from oxygen and nitrogen to solvents and pure/mixed solutions.

Sub-micron filter ratings may need to be as low as 0.3µm, which will require a combination of different filtration technologies including cross-flow, L/G coalescence and particulate filtration technologies — a challenging mix to get right.

With liquid electrolyte, it is before the filling phase that filtration is so crucial. This is particularly challenging because of the high degree of acidity of the electrolyte, which requires EFTE-coated stainless-steel vessels, and the high cleanliness levels requiring very fine particulate removal ratings (from 0.45µm to 2µm).

These fundamental challenges also change with each component and at each fabrication stage depending on the specific case and final product in question.

With one particularly innovative EV battery manufacturer, for example, Pall was contacted to validate the cleaning and filling process of its latest generation of high energy density Li-based power systems. These advanced batteries with larger energy densities usually exhibit thermal issues, reducing performance at higher operating conditions and potentially causing a fire or explosion related to the highly flammable electrolyte.

To avoid such catastrophic scenarios, a dielectric oil is used as insulating fluid and coolant. The challenge here is the extreme sensitivity of the dielectric oil to solid, gaseous and liquid contamination.

The main technical challenge was to not only develop the specific cleaning and filling equipment, but to also validate the overall cleaning and filling process to ensure a high cleanliness level of the dielectric oil before sealing the modular battery systems.

In this case, vacuum dehydration technology was used at the core of the cleaning and filling solution, because this was able to remove up to 90% of dissolved water and gases while cleaning-up the fluid, while a water sensor was also installed on-line to measure the water content of the dielectric oil throughout the cleaning and filling process.

Figure 3: Vacuum dehydration process

Collaboration is key These are complex technical challenges that push even filtration scientists to the limits of their expertise. Yet we are still seeing corners being cut and nowhere near enough focus being placed on ensuring the purity of these small but vital components.

Part of the challenge is the huge and complex supply chain that exists in this industry. It is a dynamic environment and the relationships between the battery manufacturers, the EV OEMs, their respective supply chains and technology providers like Pall are changing all the time, just as the technologies being used themselves are rapidly evolving and improving.

It is a hotbed of innovation which is a wonderful thing.

But this also means the small things — which incidentally can be the most important — can often be overlooked.

As the EV market finally comes of age, we need to collectively consider the entire value chain for EV batteries.

That is going to require better collaboration between different players in this value chain: if OEMs brought materials science experts such as Pall into the design process earlier, for example, we would be able to ensure the right filtration technologies are deployed in the right way, eliminating some of the key points of failure within EV battery components.

This collaboration is starting to happen more and more, but we still have some way to go. In any value chain, you are only as strong as your weakest link. We need to make sure that batteries and their constituent parts don’t become that weak link.

If we work together, we can minimize risk, improve performance and reduce total cost of ownership of EV batteries — powering one of the world’s most exciting industries into an extremely successful future.

Christophe Goasdoué is FTAP marketing manager for Asia Pacific at Pall Corporation. He has 30 years’ experience in filtration and separation technologies and is a former ISO Expert in the TC131/SC6 committee.

In any value chain, you are only as strong as your weakest link. We need to make sure that batteries and their constituent parts don’t become that weak link www.batteriesinternational.com

Batteries International • Autumn 2021 • 63

THE YEAR AHEAD Advanced Battery Concepts — Ed Shaffer, founder

Minimizing future disruptions Since Advanced Battery Concepts invented its GreenSeal bipolar batteries it has signed up at least seven large battery makers to its technology, including Clarios, Trojan Battery and, most recently, Monbat. Monbat in November announced it would go ahead with a new facility in Bulgaria that had been delayed because of the Covid-19 restrictions, and expects it to begin operating by 2024.

Ed Shaffer Advanced Battery Concepts Monbat’s plant is another sign of confidence in ABC’s technology — and while president and founder Ed Shaffer acknowledges the problems caused by the pandemic, he has no doubt that things are picking up and looking healthier than they were a year ago.

“Like most, the 2020/21 pandemic caused considerable slow-down of capital projects at ABC and with our licensees,” he says. “Uncertainty in the markets in early 2020 and now supply chain issues in 2021 demonstrate how easily our global economy can be tipped out of balance.

“One highlight for the lead battery industry is the global production and recycling capabilities of lead batteries. We see today for lithium batteries, sourced almost entirely from Japan, Korea and China, huge supply chain delays and issues.

“However, lead batteries are sourced domestically — regardless of geography — minimizing those issues.”

Shaffer says ABC has had to come up with strategies to help minimize any future disruptions to the company’s growth by developing direct-to-market products.

“The pandemic has caused delays with the commercialization

64 • Batteries International • Autumn 2021

of GreenSeal technology by our licensees,” he says. “At ABC, we completely understand the cause and caution taken by them, so we are developing direct-to-market products.

“At ABC, we have started installing a mid-volume production line and anticipate it to be fully operational by the fourth quarter of 2022. This production line will be used to produce batteries to support our licensees and ABC’s new energy storage businesses.

“With this production line, we can produce traditional lead products to see through current distribution partners, along with our energy storage lines. This also aids our licensees by easing the adoption risks of a new manufacturing process.”

Shaffer sees 2022 as a year of growth for ABC but also for the entire lead battery industry.

“Working with our licensees and GreenSeal Alliance members we also see the lead battery industry growing in 2022 to make up for the backlog in product orders in 2021 due to a

variety of supply chain issues,” he says.

“One dimension of the pandemic that shifted our growth was the lack of travel. Licensing technology requires direct interaction with potential licensees and their ability to visit our Clare, Michigan facility to truly understand the readiness and value of GreenSeal technology.

“Now that travel is resuming, ABC is positioned to increase the number of licensees in 2022. And we love to visit our customers and partners, especially GreenSeal Alliance members, and meet with them at the many great industry trade shows. It will be good to travel again.”

“At ABC, we have started installing a mid-volume production line and anticipate it to be fully operational by the fourth quarter of 2022”

Daramic — Dawn Heng, VP and managing director, global marke

“Battery market: still

Dawn Heng Daramic

Battery separator firm Daramic celebrated its 90th anniversary at the beginning of 2021, having been founded as a rubber separator plant by Dewey & Almy Corporation in the US. It now has plants across the globe — and it is the expansion of its global footprint that has enabled it to survive the pandemic with few major issues.

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THE YEAR AHEAD CAM-Srl — Francesco Marfisi, marketing director and electrical manager

‘Painstaking work’ bears fruit CAM-Srl makes ball mills and curing chambers for the lead-acid battery industry.

The company realizes the pandemic is far from over — but there is optimism, partly thanks to the work the company has done during the pause in operations.

Francesco Marfisi CAM-Srl “In a couple of months, we’ll be commemorating the second anniversary of the pandemic that hit Italy with full force before anyone else outside of China,” says Marfisi. “Initially, our country paid the first tremendous tribute in terms of lives lost, followed by the toughest lockdown in the world to try to keep it in check, all of which have taken a critical toll on our economy.

“Today, while we are fully aware

that the pandemic is far from over, there is optimism here at CAM, because the painstaking work done during the lull in activity is beginning to show its fruits.

“The restrictions gave us time to reorganize our work spaces and upgrade construction equipment, maintain connections with our historic customers and strengthen our marketing approach aimed at new, potential ones. This allowed us to chart our future with greater clarity.”

Like many others Batteries International spoke to, CAM believes the lead battery industry maintained a solid position within world economies, “due in part to the innate features of this battery chemistry that has provided a reliable power storage for all essential services during the pandemic”, Marfisi says.

And now, he reckons, market trends have taken an upturn and the company has been rewarded with a solid increase in sales contracts. But this is a forward-looking trend — “it’s not just a catch-up from the pandemic slowdown,” he says.

“Going beyond the pandemic, talk-

ing about emission reductions and energy transition in general, the advanced lead-acid battery may well be the fulcrum of this change, as we are talking about a battery that’s up to 98% recyclable,” he says.

“In addition to this we at CAM are studying innovative systems for the production of batteries where there are significant reductions in energy consumed and CO2 emissions.”

CAM did face supply chain issues at the beginning of the lockdowns, which caused unexpected delays.

“Now we have aligned ourselves by putting raw materials in stock for a production requirement of at least one year,” he says. “This is a plan we are already adopting, but we hope everything will return to normal as soon as possible.

“We feel that the lead-acid battery market is more than healthy. Our batteries were a key factor in keeping the world going during this emergency.

We are proud to be part of this industry and we strive to provide the most innovative and environmentally friendly systems to lead-acid battery manufacturers.”

eting

healthy with good momentum” “At Daramic, we’ve talked internally about how fortunate we are to have built a global footprint in the last decade in all strategic locations — the US, EU, China, India and southeast Asia,” says Heng.

“Being almost self sufficient we can meet our customer needs locally, which hugely offset the logistics chaos in 2021. In the meantime, we have kept pace in introducing more product solutions to customers so they can keep innovating the leadacid battery and move into a better

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position in the market and compete against different chemistries.”

One of the main problems to industry that Heng identifies is the shortage of microchips — but he says consultancies such as IHS Markit have predicted recovery in 2022, which should drive OEM growth, he says.

He also says the high cost of raw materials in 2021 and chaos in the global supply chains were the main hurdles that had to be overcome.

“There have been crazy high shipping costs and longer lead

times almost every day, which is definitely a big challenge for companies moving goods around,” says Heng.

“In general, I would say the leadacid battery market is still healthy and has a good momentum, with a solid basis of AGM demand in 2021. Although we are seeing fast penetration of xEVs compared with traditional combustion engine cars, low voltage is still a necessary category even for xEVs — where the lead-acid battery still dominates this application.”

Batteries International • Autumn 2021 • 65

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THE YEAR AHEAD Penox — Thorsten Peters, group sales director

“Supply chain affecting the availability of raw materials” Despite big uncertainties in the market, battery additives and lead oxides firm Penox Group is optimistic about 2022 because it sees many opportunities to grow its business by providing a wider range of products and by investing in people, equipment and R&D.

Thorsten Peters Penox “After two difficult years due to Covid, challenges for our industry in 2022 are of a different nature but still significant,” says Peters.

“Worldwide, the battery industry has recovered from Covid and the level of activity is almost back to pre-Covid, but we are now facing important issues in our supply chain affecting the availability of raw materials, sea containers, packaging materials or many other items.

“The last few months have been complex for our purchasing team, but we have managed to get all the materials required to supply all our customers around the world.”

Price uncertainties have been a problem for months, he says — and while hopeful that suppliers will be able to secure the firm’s needs, Penox has already diversified where it gets its materials from, using several suppliers as a back-up to make sure customers

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can be guaranteed delivery.

“Between subsequent increases of raw materials, energy cost, packaging materials and freight — both in and out-bound — we anticipate difficult contract negotiations for 2022. That said we believe in our ability to find good compromises with our long-term customers while being transparent and acting in good faith about market conditions,” Peters says.

Innovation in the lead battery industry is key, Peters believes, in maintaining battery quality and holding on to market share against non-lead alternatives.

“This implies more investment in R&D and developing new products that will enhance performance,” he says. “This is what Penox Group has been doing for many years from our R&D centre based in Ohrdruf, Germany, and we will increase our efforts in collaboration with our customers to achieve various targets.

“This is an essential point for the leadacid battery industry in the short and mid-term. Our new functional oxides and enhanced expander mixes will provide our customers with solutions to be more competitive in the market and to satisfy their challenging targets in terms of battery performance.”

Penox opened its latest factory in South Korea in 2015, and although its development was delayed by the pandemic, the company intends to make the most of spare capacity and claw back the growth it would have expected to see in the southeast Asia region.

“We keep on investing in additional capacity and the modernization of our expander production to reduce our manufacturing lead time,” says Peters.

ENTEK — Clint Beutelschies, VP global sales and marketing

Asian acquisition completed, poised for further growth The lead-acid and lithium battery separator giant has faced up to the logistical challenges of surging demand post-lockdowns, and is very upbeat on the prospects for 2022.

Clint Beutelschies ENTEK “2021 has been an amazing year for ENTEK,” says Beutelschies.

“We completed a major acquisition in Asia — the battery separator division of Japanese glass manufacturer NSG Group — in September.”

At the time, chief executive Larry Keith said the acquisition meant ENTEK became the only separator firm in the world to produce all three primary separator technologies — PE, AGM and lithium-ion.

“We also have a big expansion project underway in Indonesia, and there seems to be new Continued on page 68

Batteries International • Autumn 2021 • 67

THE YEAR AHEAD MAC Engineering — Doug Bornas, president

Exciting new product range being readied Battery equipment manufacturer MAC Engineering is still feeling the effects of the supply chain and logistics issues in 2021 — but while awaiting labour and essential parts it has spent its time developing new products. Next year, president Doug Bornas says, will be an exciting one for the company.

Doug Bornas MAC Engineering “We are testing a new cast-on strap machine in the plant now, and expect it to be fully tested by the end of the year,” says Bornas.

“We have another version of an AGM product with robotic loading and unloading, improvements in our pasting and cutting machines, the first industrial assembly line for the industry, leak testing — all new things that we plan to have ready by June 2022 at the latest.

“We’ve done such a lot of R&D in 2021, we are hoping it will pay off in 2022.”

One of the challenges Bornas hopes to address with his new equipment is the shortage of labour. With more automation, the staffing need is reduced.

“There haven’t been any staff cuts — they have been paid to be off work because of the pandemic, but this is ending now as they are starting to come back and the pay-outs are ending,” he says.

“We have had to farm staff out to companies who couldn’t get employees, which meant they couldn’t meet demand either. It’s a trickle effect.

“But the main problem has been the

68 • Batteries International • Autumn 2021

vendor delays, which we are being told will get worse before they get better. At the ports there are still up to 150 ships anchored that can’t get to the docks.

“Every company we deal with is having problems. We make our machines here but we still need to buy a lot of materials and parts.”

For customers it can mean a monthslong wait while essential parts are stalled in ship cargoes.

“We are told the supply chain issue won’t end until Covid ends — but when is that going to happen?”

Bornas says.

However, longer term the future is bright for the industry as well as for MAC, he believes.

“The lead battery industry has been attacked for years and years, and it’s still being attacked today with all these new technologies,” he says.

“They have been trying to come up with ways to eliminate them but the bottom line is the same: the one thing they’ve done a fantastic job with is improving the processes, the battery life, the cycle time. They’ve made it harder and harder for people to replace them and kept the cost

“We’ve another version of an AGM product with robotic loading and unloading, improvements to our pasting and cutting machines, the first industrial assembly line for the industry, leak testing — all new things that we plan to have ready by next June” relatively the same.

“I give a lot of credit to battery manufacturers.

Every major manufacturer will dabble in lithium and multiple technologies, but they all stay with lead batteries. Every battery manufacturer is working diligently.

They haven’t been complacent in any way and this is all kudos to the industry – when one helps the industry it helps the whole industry.

“It’s strong and will remain strong.”

ENTEK — continued from page 67

opportunity in every segment of our business,” says Beutelschies.

“Pent-up demand for our products surged as the world opened up from the pandemic, but shipping challenges and an unprecedented run-up in raw material costs have provided challenges for both ENTEK and our customers.”

The company has just had to announced its second price increase of the year and says it is working with customers to make plans for 2022 demands.

“Advanced batteries (such as EFB

and AGM) continue to provide excellent growth rates in lead-acid, and our lithium business is booming as well,” he says.

“ENTEK is clearly well positioned to capitalize on further opportunities in transportation for both lithium batteries and leadacid ones — as well as for industrial and sustainable energy storage applications.”

In October, the company spent more than $10 million on an engineering and manufacturing plant in Nevada, US.

www.batteriesinternational.com

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THE YEAR AHEAD ILA — Andy Bush, managing director

Lead battery improvements as R&D investment pays off In more than 25 years working in the lead industry, ILA managing director Andy Bush cannot remember seeing such interest in lead battery R&D — which can only help increase its share of markets like stationary storage, where it still plays second fiddle to other chemistries.

Andy Bush ILA “From where I sit there seems to be much more interest in research than ever before, whether that’s within companies, as in battery makers, or suppliers, or research institutes, or governments,” says Bush, who was instrumental in relaunching the former ALABC three years ago as the Consortium for Battery Innovation, which now works closely with ILA. “There seems to be a renewed interest in lead batteries and a recognition of something that we’ve been talking about for a while, which is there is genuinely so much more untapped potential in lead batteries, probably more, you could argue, than in lithium.

“The amount of investment that has been made in lithium has been enormous and whether it has the potential to improve performance even further by significant margins is being questioned. I would expect to see a big increase in lead battery

70 • Batteries International • Autumn 2021

R&D over the coming years, which will ultimately feed in to performance improvements as well.

Many say the lead-acid battery industry is unique in the way that even competitors within it work together for the benefit of the sector as a whole. This mutual leverage between various companies and associations has expanded to communicating and promoting the message, Bush believes.

“The amount of interest and excitement in the media was dominated by lithium battery stories and they still represent the majority of the press, along with other battery technologies. But now we’ve reached a point, over the last three years, almost from a standing start, whereby we now have some strong positive messages of our own that are getting out there.

“The relationship between ILA and CBI has been an important part of that story but I wouldn’t want to underplay the role of other important associations either, such as BCI, EUROBAT, ABR and so on. We are well coordinated across Europe and North America in our work and this is important.”

Collaboration will be vital in the year ahead, given the amount of legislative defence the industry is going to have to put in place to prevent stricter controls, such as exposure limits, being implemented that could severely damage the sector.

“In the US the legislative agenda is also ramping up,” says Bush. “We are likely to see a lot more there. It consumes a lot of resources and in the past we always found it a

challenge to do anything other than critical regulatory defence because we were small organizations and it was consuming almost all of our resources.

Now we can be a lot more proactive rather than reactive.”

The past couple of years did see a downturn across the board, not least within the lead battery industry, but it has rebounded ‘in spectacular style’, says Bush.

“It seems that everyone we speak to has order books that are full to overflowing,” he says. “I suspect a lot of it is catch-up but that must come to an end at some point in the developed economies. In Asia and so on there will be a lot of market growth as economies grow, but the level of demand in Europe and North America is surprisingly high and sustained, without an end seemingly in sight.”

Predictions for the growth of the EV are probably over optimistic, Bush believes, partly because of the affordability issue. And in fact where electrification is being pushed in places like India, it may happen more with E bikes and trikes rather than cars — which is a huge positive for lead batteries as the most popular choice for these applications.

CBI in the past year has made a string of appointments, including Begüm Bozkaya as technical manager in November, Carl Telford as research manager in June, and Clarios’s Christian Rosenkranz as chairman in January.

The association has also just welcomed car manufacturer Hyundai as a member.

“Collaboration will be vital in the year ahead, given the amount of legislative defence the industry is going to have to put in place” www.batteriesinternational.com

THE YEAR AHEAD Nanobase — Jae Hak Jeong, deputy head of international business

Optimism for steady growth Research by the journal ScienceDirect shows Korea’s industry has proven resilient throughout the pandemic, with industrial machinery stocks doubling in value. Jeong is optimistic for the country — and the battery industry.

Jae Hak Jeong Nanobase

“Working in South Korea, which is one of the global epicentres of the battery research frenzy, I keep an optimistic outlook on the steady growth of the industry for 2022,” says Jeong.

“There’s a strong sentiment in South Korea that the development of quality battery products is becoming a core strategy of growth among not just major battery research companies but also the South Korean government, which recently announced new investment of $40 billion by 2030 for battery development.”

As a manufacturer of battery research instruments, this is obviously good news for Nanobase, and with more pledges of investment being made in North America and Europe, Jeong sees inevitable

business opportunities ahead.

“Our worldwide distributors have a similar viewpoint, and their business appears to be only growing despite the crisis caused by Covid-19,” he says.

“It seems that the competition and the market growth of the battery research sector have actually overpowered the pandemic.”

“It seems that the competition and the market growth of the battery research sector have actually overpowered the pandemic.”

Monbat — Viktor Spiriev, CEO

Looking for further growth in 2022 Bulgarian lead and lithium battery maker Monbat says that despite the pandemic, financial figures for 2021 look like being the best ever — although there will be challenges.

Viktor Spiriev Monbat

“The pandemic waves and trends towards a faster economic recovery are affecting the worldwide supply chain and Monbat is not an exception,” says Spiriev. “Still, with unaffected demand from clients in both starter and industrial divisions, our financial results for 2021 are heading for a historic high.

“The greatest challenges seem to be the prices of electricity and gas and the disrupted supply chain.”

And the electricity markets are where Monbat sees huge potential.

“We are presuming there will be growth in two segments in 2022,” says Spiriev. “First, battery energy storage systems will start to play a greater role in business with renewables, and in the EU’s political efforts to reduce CO2 emissions.

“Second, the bulk of modern cars with start-stop systems on the roads are heading towards the end of life

“We are intensively working on several new projects at the Monbat Group level, including final testing and pre-production of bipolar batteries”

72 • Batteries International • Autumn 2021

www.batteriesinternational.com

THE YEAR AHEAD OM Impianti — Melissa Maggioni, manager

“Big challenges now are materials, shipment and energy costs” Italy-based battery equipment maker OM Impianti was in the thick of it when the pandemic first spread across the world, with Italy being the worst affected country outside China in the early days. But as other companies have pointed out, the battery industry was an essential one, and this will stand the sector in good stead for the future.

of their batteries, which is increasing demand for AGM batteries in all automotive market segments.”

Monbat has just announced a new plant for bipolar batteries has been planned to begin operations by 2024, but as well as manufacturing, the company believes research and development is vital.

“R&D is part of the sustainability of Monbat’s business,” says Spiriev.

“We are intensively working on several new projects at the Monbat Group level, including final testing and pre-production of bipolar batteries.

Also, in cooperation with our Li-ion company EAS Batteries in Germany, we are working on hybrid systems of lead-acid and lithium-ion for BESSs. “Our focus until 2025 will be on the development of various BESSs, answering the global efforts to reduce the carbon footprint and deepen the intensity of circular processes in the battery business.”

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Stryten Energy — Tim Vargo, CEO

“Unprecedented demand for all energy storage solutions” The pressure of increased labour and inflation costs could have an impact on the price of batteries going into next year, Stryten Energy has warned — though it is doing what it can to offset the pressures.

Melissa Maggioni OM Impianti “Our perception is that business is healthy and battery demand is increasing, especially in applications like energy storage, IT and solar storage,” says Maggioni.

“The big challenges now are materials, shipment and energy costs, which have increased a lot and are going to rise further: all investments should be re-evaluated in consideration of these higher prices compared with pre-Covid offers.

“We expect our customers to focus on investing in increasing production capacity to respond to updated demand, with special attention being paid to cost savings that can be made with new technologies.”

Because of batteries’ status as primary goods, Maggioni says she expects more local investment to make sure they can still be available in the event of international shipping problems such as the ones we are seeing now.

“As far as we were concerned, we have not been affected so much because we procure materials from Europe, mainly from Italy,” she says.

“We will continue to consolidate our relationship with our suppliers to assure we can give our customers acceptable delivery terms for new plants and replacement parts.”

“We are pleased with the progress Stryten Energy has made in the midst of these challenging times to ensure our customers are supplied with the batteries they need to keep their businesses running,” Vargo says.

“However, unprecedented demand for all energy storage solutions coupled with increased labour and inflation are ongoing concerns. We are working diligently to offset labour and inflation pressures but if it continues into next year we will see increased costs that will, unfortunately, be passed on to consumers.”

Demand for batteries in all applications is set to grow steadily, he believes, and Stryten is taking on more chemistries to help meet the need.

“Advanced lead, lithium and

“We are working diligently to offset labour and inflation pressures but if it continues into next year we will see increased costs” Continued on page 75

Batteries International • Autumn 2021 • 73

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THE YEAR AHEAD Continuus Properzi — Giulio Properzi, president

Globalization rethink necessary Italian engineering firm Continuus Properzi, which makes battery parts and machinery, is fortunate in having a short supply chain mainly localized in Lombardia, and to a lesser extent in Germany, president Giulio Properzi says. However, the past two years have exposed weaknesses in globalization.

Where Continuus Properzi has been fortunate with supply, Properzi has seen other companies suffering because of the weaknesses of their supply chains, both during and after lockdown.

“Today, a certain rethinking of globalization is necessary,” he says. “Globalization and the WTO opening to China were good ideas, if their intent was the creation of a global partnership. However, the implementation of these ideas has been tumultuous, resulting in the loss of much industry in our western countries, and in this century, China has become a worrisome and looming super giant.

“My hope is that the Covid crisis can also bring an intelligent revision of the global supply chain.”

Properzi believes the lead battery industry remains healthy, largely because of its post-Covid rebound, but the situation is mixed.

“The initial drop was severe as many plants were frozen and others limited their production for several months during the lockdown,” he says. “Today the situation is mixed.

“There is a shortage of raw materials

Stryten —continued from page 73

Giulio Properzi Properzi resulting in insufficient production of batteries for the automotive sector.

Automakers are also suffering from the short supply of microchips. Which also reduces the number of cars being produced and the demand for leadacid batteries.

“It is a complicated and intricate situation, where one factor affects several others.”

The next six to eight months will be a challenge, he says, but the good news is that demand remains strong.

“Globalization and the WTO opening to China were good ideas but their implementation has resulted in the loss of much industry in our western countries” www.batteriesinternational.com

emerging battery technologies are needed to meet the increased demand for reliable, clean energy storage solutions,” he says.

“As a leading US-based energy storage provider, Stryten Energy is committed to investing in our people, our operations and our capabilities to drive the innovation that is critical to strengthening America’s domestic supply chain.

“This includes acquiring and developing new energy storage technologies that our customers require now and in the future.”

Tim Vargo Stryten Energy

Batteries International • Autumn 2021 • 75

THE YEAR AHEAD Sorfin Yoshimura — Scott Fink, president

Supply chain disruption continues with difficult beginning for 2022 New York-based lead-acid battery equipment supplier Sorfin Yoshimura sees first hand the effects of supply chain disruptions and rising costs, and is being tested to the limit in finding solutions for its customers.

“Inflationary trends affecting goods and services are putting a lot of pressure on us all,” says Fink. “Battery prices are rising, but this is not proportional to the rise in manufacturingrelated cost and that is a big concern for margins and cash flow.

“Sorfin Yoshimura is putting our procurement talents to the test finding alternative supply sources with pricing and lead times suitable to the requirements of our customers.

“Historically high shipping costs catalyzed by post pandemic snap back demand has started a trend that has still not waned nearly a year and a half later. Getting product to our partners

on time is a constant battle and takes a lot of ingenuity and grit.”

The battle is far from over, Fink says, and he believes 2022 will be complicated to begin with ‘and feel a lot like a horrible hangover’.

“But we are optimistic that the trajectory is positively trending and that by the end of 2022, our lead battery industry will remain a critical part of a global ecosystem which will be stronger for having gone through this pandemic.”

Travel, he says, will resume and as it does, businesses will use it more ‘mindfully’, with the recent upturn in remote communications playing a more

important part and automation being fast tracked to aid efficiency and help to lower costs.

“The lead-acid battery industry has thrived for decades relatively unchallenged and now that we have competition from other chemistries, we have made incredible strides in the performance of our devices throughout all application segments.

“It is the same collaboration and resiliency the industry has shown to improve battery performance over the last decade that will propel us out of the doldrums of the pandemic and into 2022 with optimism for a bright future ahead.

Inbatec — Christian Papmahl, president

Prospects good following ‘terrible’ 2020, normal 2021

Scott Fink Sorfin Yoshimura

“Historically high shipping costs catalyzed by post pandemic snap back demand has started a trend that has still not waned nearly a year and a half later. Getting product to our partners on time is a constant battle and takes a lot of ingenuity and grit.”

76 • Batteries International • Autumn 2021

Battery manufacturing equipment maker Inbatec admits 2020 was a terrible year – but recovery has been strong, and after an almost normal 2021, next year could very well be a good one.

“The group of companies Inbatec/ Kustan came back to normal order volumes in 2021 after a terrible 2020,” says Papmahl.

“We expect even higher figures in 2022 because of our efforts in sales and business development and the huge opportunities we see with our clients for our products and services around the globe.

“Of course there are some concerns about ongoing restrictions because of the Coronavirus affecting travel and supply chains, and the related changes we are facing nearly every day.

“But we as a company group believe in our strengths creating value and benefits for our customers and

this we see as key to our continuous success.

“We will start with full power and enthusiasm into year 2022.”

Christian Papmahl Inbatec/Kustan

www.batteriesinternational.com

THE YEAR AHEAD Hammond — Terry Murphy, president

Changing balance of demand favours lead in some market sectors Although the threat of lithium is never far away, Hammond takes the view that demand for it from the auto sector will be so great that there simply may not be enough to fill demand in other sectors, such as stationary storage, where lead will see opportunities.

“Our vision for 2022 is that once the supply chain stabilizes itself the lead battery industry will embrace renewable energy storage as a nascent market with double-digit growth potential,” Murphy says.

“Today, this market is served by lithium-ion technology, but we believe the world automotive industry Terry Murphy will easily outbid stationary applications for scarce, lithiHammond um-ion raw materials.

“And this is economically justified because there is little purpose in the weight-saving advantage of lithium-ion if the battery is stationary.

“Our vision includes the idea that society’s environmental mindset will come to see lead batteries as a sustainable, cradle-to-cradle closed-loop resource.”

Murphy hopes that 2022 will bring together all the technical efforts that are constantly being made in the lead battery sector to make it a better option for renewable energy storage.

“From an operational view, Hammond Group’s hope for 2022 is for a cessation of the disrupted market conditions prevailing over the past 20-plus months,” says Murphy.

“The problem in 2020 was that business evaporated for a time until regulatory authorities understood batteries were an essential industry.

“Once these lockdown conditions eased, through 2021 the world has tried to transform its inventory philosophy from ‘just-in-time’ to ‘just-in-case’.

“Happily, as a private, ESOP-owned company with four manufacturing sites, Hammond Group has had the financial and operating flexibility to continue to manage under these conditions”

“The world has tried to transform its inventory philosophy from a ‘just-in-time’ approach for supplies to a ‘just-in-case’ way of thinking” www.batteriesinternational.com

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Batteries International • Autumn 2021 • 77

VEHICLE-TO-GRID With the arrival of more electric vehicles, grids will come under yet greater pressure; but EVs could also be part of the solution.

V2G technology still poised between hype and reality With restrictions on the sale of new ICE cars about to be implemented in countries and regions around the world — India by 2030; most European countries by 2030 to 2040; California by 2035 — the increasing use of EVs in the next couple of decades can only mean more pressure on national grids.

But it also means there will be thousands of batteries travelling around on wheels that sit doing nothing for

more than 95% of the time, providing a potential vast reservoir of power.

They could be a better bet than stationary storage, says George Hilton, senior analyst, batteries and energy storage, with the research firm IHS Markit.

“We see EV sales accelerating very rapidly. There will be a huge number of bi-directional enabled vehicles on the road in the coming years,” he says.

“They are perfectly placed to provide

“Now it is up to industry stakeholders to overcome the barriers of low customer value and concerns over battery degradation … and whether an effective commercial proposition can be made among the stakeholders in effectively unlocking the value of V2G” — George Hilton, senior analyst, IHS Markit 78 • Batteries International • Autumn 2021

long-duration balancing services at the intraday scale and play a large potential role in stabilizing wholesale markets under higher penetrations of renewable energy.

“Now it is up to industry stakeholders to overcome the barriers of low customer value and concerns over battery degradation.

“That said it remains to be seen whether an effective commercial proposition can be made among the stakeholders, including auto OEMs, energy suppliers and flexibility providers, in effectively unlocking the value of V2G.” Chris Rimmer is Infrastructure Strategy lead of the V2X initiative — V2X being a catch-all term for vehicle-to-home, vehicle-to-grid, vehicle-to-building, and so on — with the consultancy firm Cenex. Cenex is short for the Centre of Excellence and

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Cenex’s function is to help get university projects off the ground when they come out of the laboratory, and while no longer associated with the government in a formal way, it helps with projects such as Innovate UK, which has put £30 million ($41 million) into V2X. Rimmer says a standard EV battery could power an ordinary house for up to six days.

“Government electricity market regulator Ofgem says the average house uses 3,300kWh a year, so roughly 10kWh a day. Your classic EV gives you 40kWh-60kWh — so that’s four to six days,” he says.

“It’s the modern equivalent of the night storage heater. And the advantage over buying a stationary battery is the asset itself — it’s a car as well, that’s what it was bought for, but this is an added benefit.”

Europe front of the queue The European Union is keen to roll out V2G as widely as it can.

“V2G technology is one of the few viable flexibility assets that could support the grids, help avoid peak power plants usage, and at the same time benefit EV users financially,” says Johan Soederbom, thematic leader for smart grids and energy storage at EIT InnoEnergy.

“The deciding factor for its adoption would be the development of V2G enabling infrastructure, and its integration in flexibility markets in the foreseeable future.

“This certainly is a big challenge, but achievable with EV stakeholders’ collaboration and government-level involvement.”

He predicts that the cumulative combined battery capacity of the EV fleet in the EU, China, US and India by 2030, according to the International Energy Agency’s Sustainable Development Scenario, will amount to 16,000GWh. The EU is providing the finance to get a million electric and hydrogen charging stations installed by 2025.

“The challenge,” Soederbom says, “is whether some of this stored energy can be harnessed to help meet peak demand.”

Leading the charge in Europe are the Nordics, particularly Denmark, where for five years the owners of vehicle fleets have been generating an

80 • Batteries International • Autumn 2021

CASE STUDY: PROJECT SCIRIUS One of the projects that Cenex has been involved is the OVO Energy vehicle-to-grid ‘Project Scirius’, which has just finished after two years and is now being analyzed.

The project, claimed to be the world’s largest domestic vehicle-togrid endeavour, used 300 Nissan LEAF cars with a battery capacity of 30kWh each, and installed more than 300 V2G units comprising CHAdeMO charging cables capable of 6kW output, whether importing or exporting.

Seven parties collaborated in the project — Cenex, OVO Energy, software firm Kaluza, renewable technology firm Indra and Nissan; and funding bodies the Office for Low Emission Vehicles (OLEV), and Innovate UK, under the Department for Business Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS).

Customers were given the equipment and intelligent energy platform software by Kaluza, which allowed them to set charging times and energy levels as well as provide live information on the state of charge of their EV’s battery.

Any electricity that wasn’t taken up by the customer’s own household needs was sold to the grid.

“OVO customers have been moved on to the standard V2X tariff, and will continue as before,” says Cenex’s Rimmer. “If it looks as if people are continuing with it average of $2,000 a year per vehicle in revenue by providing grid support, says Paige Mullen, European programme manager with Californiabased Nuvve. Nuvve is one of the largest V2G firms offering charging and grid services in a way that optimizes the charging and discharging of vehicles on the grid.

“We are seeing a higher value with fleets than residential V2G in most markets,” she says, “and our deployment is greatest in the Nordics and

and OVO can make some money from it, it wouldn’t surprise me if a commercial offer starts to come to market.”

Kaluza says customers earned as much as £725 ($990) a year, and with people at home so much during the lockdown months the project only emphasized the potential for extra grid support.

“By 2030, the UK could have almost 11 million EVs on the road.

If 50% of these vehicles were V2G enabled, this would open up 22TWh of flexible EV discharging capacity per year, and could provide around 16GW of daily flexible capacity to the grid,” says Kaluza.

“Collaboration between these industry players has never been achieved at such an enormous scale before,” says IHS Markit’s Hilton. “But it is likely to be the determining factor in whether V2G can be an effective enabler for grid storage and decarbonization in the years to come.” the US. “Denmark has lots of EVs, lots of clean energy, and it’s been using it commercially for five years. Fleet vehicles are more reliable for bidding into the market because you know when they’re going to be there, whereas with residential vehicles it’s not so certain.

“But each market is different, across the world. Different countries have different technical qualification structures with energy suppliers,

“It’s the modern equivalent of the night storage heater.

And the advantage over buying a stationary battery is the asset itself — it’s a car as well, that’s what it was bought for, but this is an added benefit” — Chris Rimmer, Infrastructure Strategy lead with consultancy firm Cenex www.batteriesinternational.com

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VEHICLE-TO-GRID there’s a different market access depending on what energy market we are allowed to participate in — some have a minimum charger/battery requirement — the technology is here.

That said we need the regulations and standards to improve, and for more EVs to be on the road to capture the full potential of V2G.” Scott Edy is the UK and Ireland business development manager with EV charging platform firm Virta, which makes charging stations and the cloud-based software that manages them.

The company operates in 32 countries, and says it records a charging session in at least one of those countries every four seconds. The company’s product is aimed across the V2X board, which means it could be a row of charging points outside a supermarket or a single point for an individual household.

Edy says there is still an immense amount to do with standardization, pricing, charging infrastructure and so on before there can be a full-scale roll-out, and he believes that in 2030 there will still be 60% ICE cars on the roads.

The destination, though, is not in doubt, he says.

China: EV frontrunner, V2G laggard China would be an obvious place to start a large-scale roll-out of vehicleto-grid infrastructure given that it has more electric vehicles on its roads than any other country.

Indeed, this is where the World Resources Institute, a global research organization set up in 1982, has done most of its research on V2G, or as it

terms it, VGI — vehicle-grid integration.

“This presents an imperative case to build smart, reliable and future-proof charging infrastructure that can accelerate EV adoption while providing grid services,” says the WRI. “Through evidence-based research, introducing international perspectives, organizing stakeholder engagement and promoting vehicle-grid integration, WRI is providing strategic guidance to national and local governments on the adoption of smart charging and vehicle-to-grid in China’s major infrastructure plans.”

However, despite leading the world in terms of units in the global plugin market, China has not made much progress in vehicle-grid integration, and the WRI says that while the country recognizes the potential for the grid, pilot projects are a recent phenomenon, with technical feasibility being tested first.

In a ‘high-impact scenario’ set out in the WRI report Quantifying the grid impacts from large adoption of electric vehicles in China, EV charging could, it says, result in an increased peak load of more than 12%, possibly overstressing the generation and transmission systems.

“On the distribution scale, the impact of unmanaged charging is even greater,” says the report. “When electrification of private vehicles exceeds 50%, the majority of transformers in residential neighbourhoods risk being overloaded.”

It advises caution short term, until proper planning has been carried out to control charge and discharge times, and possibly beginning with smallscale V2G pilots providing peak shav-

ing or frequency regulation.

A second report, Action plans and policy recommendations on vehicle grid integration in China, sets out a raft of recommendations for China in rolling out VGI. They include collaboration between parties, subsidies, allowing access to the wholesale market and upgrading bidirectional charging and interconnection capability.

Barriers to roll-out Rimmer, from Cenex, identifies three key problems that are holding up wide-scale V2G take-up — and these don’t include the charging protocols.

“The first problem is there just isn’t the pool of cars to make it a widespread proposition that customers can access,” he says.

“The second is that the hardware is expensive. A unit you would use at home would cost you at best say $2,500-$4,000). If you’re only going to earn $400 a year from selling it to the grid, the business model doesn’t stack up.

“If you have a business and want a fleet, you’re going to need to upgrade from the standard 7kW charger to at least a 10kW one — and that’s going to cost you at least $13,000).

“Then there’s the technical standard issue, and the commercial cost issue.

Costs are coming down, but the market can’t work out how to receive the energy. Although it’s set up well for stationary batteries, wind and solar, the idea that a collection of vehicles distributed across an area might work together to yield power to the grid would cut across regulatory categories.

“You have to aggregate a certain amount of load, which is already a

BI-DIRECTIONAL CHARGING CAPABILITIES: NOT UNIVERSAL AS YET There are two competing charging connectors on the market: the CHAdeMO (Charge de Move) version, which has bi-directional capability and is favoured by the Asian manufacturers, ie Nissan and Mitsubishi; and the CCS version, which is favoured in Europe and is a few years behind. It does not have standardized bi-directional charging yet, although this is being developed.

“It will be two or three years before they can deploy that,” says Cenex’s Rimmer.

Tesla has yet another kind of

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charger, but it has developed an adapter so either of the other protocols can be used.

“It’s complex,” says Hilton, from IHS Markit. “V2G with DC chargers can only be done with cars with CHAdeMO chargers, however CCS will enable bi-directional charging in 2025. Also, V2G can be done with any EV with an AC charger that is bi-directional enabled (but there are few of these currently).

“As we see EV sales accelerating very rapidly, there will be a huge number of bi-directional enabled vehicles on the road in the coming

year.”

“We experienced some delays to the V2G hardware gaining the necessary CHAdeMO certification, and there were challenges around costs and processes associated with connecting V2G chargers to various distribution networks,” says the Project Scirius software platform designer Kaluza (see separate box).

“And as the only type of compatible EV in the trial was a Nissan LEAF, the pool of customers eligible and willing to have V2G hardware installed was relatively small.”

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VEHICLE-TO-GRID problem because there aren’t the vehicles and they’re expensive, and it needs to have a certain responsiveness to fit in to the products that the likes of the National Grid are offering.”

“It is difficult to set up the mechanisms,” says Virta’s Edy. “It’s almost like a currency exchange

— buying and selling with a middle man — an entity in the middle that is suggesting only they can handle this transaction, whether it’s financial or goods, services, or anything else.

“That’s our job, as a platform, to manage that rather than rely on another person to do it. We’re struggling

to work out how the different stakeholders are going to make money from it. You have the DNOs and the DSOs, who make money selling electricity.

If you’ve got your own bi-directional charger you don’t need them — you can do it yourself. But these companies have still got to make money and

THE BIGGER THE BETTER — BUS BATTERIES World’s first bus-to-grid project in London UK utility SSE Enterprise is about to launch what is believed to be the first bus to-grid project in the world, in Northumberland Park, London.

Twenty-eight double-decker buses have been supplied by Chinese battery giant BYD, which also provides the charging technology.

They will be capable of sending 1MW back to the grid when not being used at night and will be trialled for three years under the partnership of transport firm Go Ahead London, BYD, Innovate UK, UK Power Networks, and the University of Leeds.

Had it not been for lockdown restrictions, forcing a delay in bringing Chinese engineers over to install the technology, the trial would already be under way.

Charlie Barnes, EV project development manager for SSE, says buses are ideal because of the time they spend at the depot not being driven, and the size of the batteries they contain — up to 382kWh on a double decker, she says.

“We are looking to optimize the resources we have when they are there,” she says. “The whole project is about balancing the benefits you can get by using these batteries out of bus service hours without affecting our service.

“The typical peak energy time is between 6pm and 6am, and that’s when the buses are parked up, with most of them there by 8pm. What we’re targeting isn’t just helping the grid, but energy trading and flexibility services such as demand side response.

“We have had to develop a lot of bespoke materials, from modifying the vehicles and chargers to the software and then allowing the charger software to integrate with other grid connection management software; it would be silly if the busto-grid vehicles were discharging their

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load and it was going straight into another vehicle, for instance.

“We’ve had to set the whole system up so that when there’s a request from the grid we can meet those services, that all the buses in the depot stop charging, those that can then discharge to the grid as long as needed and once that’s finished, start re-charging on the site.

“None of the systems can be overwhelmed at any point – they must be in sync.”

There is still a mountain to climb in the project, with just 28 out of a fleet of 250 buses B2G capable, and only 119 bus chargers, not all of them capable of bi-directional charging.

But with at least 7,000 buses in the UK capital, it could be a mountain worth climbing.

US sees potential in going back to school The generic American yellow school bus could be coming into its own if an initiative to electrify the entire country’s fleet is successful, and with 480,000 of them on America’s roads they could make a positive impact on powering the grid.

However, the initiative is coming up against a wall of problems that need to be addressed first.

“The idea just isn’t as complicated as the reality,” says Erika Myers, acting director for global eMobility with the World Resources Institute.

One tangible barrier is the lack of cohesion between certification

protocols: automobiles are checked through SAE standards, whereas utilities are done through UL. The two are not compatible.

“Rialto, the electric school bus firm, had funding for buses that could connect to the grid, but they still don’t have a working demo because the utilities wouldn’t connect the charger equipment until the charger equipment received UL certification,” she says.

“These chargers all had SAE certification but it wasn’t recognized

by UL, and that’s the only one the utilities recognize as acceptable for interconnection.”

But it will happen within 10 years, Myers says.

“We all think that all the things that went in to making that vehicle and that battery can have more uses,” she says. “It’s sunk energy — whereas we could be using it for both transport and electric grid support.”

Charlie Barnes, EV project development manager, bus & coach lead, with SSE

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VEHICLE-TO-GRID keep their investors happy.”

“It’s so early for V2G, it’s difficult to tell how this will develop,” says Hilton, from IHS Markit. “One way that vehicle owners could be paid for V2G is through reduced electricity bills, but there are others – reduced vehicle lease costs, for instance.”

“Even I am wondering how we are going to make this work. It’s still a problem,” says Edy. “It’s easy to describe the practicalities and benefits of vehicle-togrid, but it gets difficult when you try to come up with how you commercialize it. That’s the problem.

“It’s coming, though. It’s coming quicker than you think.”

Jury out on battery degradation Whether V2X will degrade EV batteries more than the conventional daily charging is still open to question, but looks likely to be dependent on how they are charged.

Cenex’s Rimmer says the University of Hawaii conducted a study in 2017 that discovered unequivocally that it

wrecked them.

“Later that year, the University of Warwick did a study — which deduced that V2X could extend battery life,” he says.

“Then they did a collaborative study where they said to be honest — it depends!”

The European Commission backed this up in a report looking at the study produced in collaboration, and concluded the same thing.

“The study shows that, while current V2G models would be detrimental to the lifetime of an EV battery, optimized, or smart V2G systems — designed to work more responsively and efficiently, and which rely on prognostic battery degradation models to limit the amount of energy that could be traded — would be viable, profitable, and capable of extending battery life even beyond the case in which there is no V2G.” Rimmer is leading a project with the University of Warwick that is looking at battery degradation. He says pre-

liminary results show that when the battery is charged intelligently, using smart technology and getting the timing right as well as blending in V2X function, the life of the battery could be extended by 10%-15%.

“Specific details will probably come out next year, after a peer review, but it’s looking like V2G may help battery life,” he says.

“There are two types of ageing in a battery. One is just the passing of time, which occurs in all batteries.

The other is cyclic ageing, the amount of energy you put in and out. If you thrash the battery, it isn’t going to last.

If you hold the state of charge really high, you accelerate the calendar ageing.

“You need a charging profile that’s mindful of all of this.”

For the present, charging platforms such as Virta or Kaluza are not considering battery degradation — they focus on optimizing the times and costs of electricity being used or sold to the grid.

AUSTRALIA’S ‘GLOBAL LAGGARD’ APPROACH TO EVS WILL HOLD V2G BACK With just 0.6% of new vehicles sold in Australia plug-in electric cars, there is a long way to go before there can be enough resources to accomplish a meaningful vehicle-togrid society.

There is no government mandate that all new cars should be electric, as exists in many other countries; however, of the new EVs that are sold, they will all be V2G capable by 2025, the government has said.

Laura Jones is a senior analyst in the Battery Storage and Grid Integration Program in the Research School of Electrical, Energy and Materials Engineering at the Australia National University’s College of Engineering and Computer Science in Canberra.

Jones and her team have been carrying out a ‘Realizing Electric Vehicle-to-grid Services’ trial in which a fleet of 51 Nissan Leaf cars is being used for various purposes.

It is partly funded by ARENA, the government’s renewable energy agency. An interim report published in May was not optimistic about the results from the trial: end-users were anxious about maintaining business continuity while vehicles and chargers were deployed; and concerned about drivers having to

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change parking arrangements and work routines.

When it came to private EV users, the report found they believed V2G would only work for them under specific conditions. “Their perceptions are mediated by a [lack of] trust that energy providers and the technology align with their own interests and expectations,” the report said.

Practical and mental barriers Mindsets, says Jones, will have to be changed before V2G will work. “Everyone we speak to tells you what V2G is good for — but somehow, it’s never good for them,” she says.

Barriers to participation include distrust of V2G providers and software, battery degradation concerns, flexibility and practicality.

“Australia is a global laggard in EV adoption with ownership in 2020 accounting for only 0.6% of market share compared to a global average of 2.5%,” the ARENA report says.

“That said, DER could be considered a national strength, with some of the highest rates of home solar power systems in the world and increasing installation

of commercial solar and home batteries.”

The only kind of charger that is approved in Australia, which has its own unique standards, is expensive — about the same price as the battery — and with so few people owning an EV there’s not much demand for them anyway.

Most of the people pushing V2G are energy retailers, says Jones, because they see the risks of peak demand resulting in them having to build more networks.

“They’ve been trying to push the reform agenda for a long time to get people to pick up time-of-use pricing, other forms of dynamic prices — people haven’t been interested but if you can give them something like an EV that has a real benefit it might get people to pick up on these new sorts of pricing.”

The team at Australia National University is looking at how to move from a 51-car trial to a real-world roll-out, but it won’t be overnight.

“EVs are gaining momentum, even though they’re just at 0.6% market penetration now,” says Jones. “It’s about reframing people’s minds to show that their car can be just as much an energy thing as a transport thing.”

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LEAD BATTERY RECYCLING Recycling focuses on the recovery of lead, but little is mentioned of the other materials inside it — separators, additives and other metals contained in the battery and how they are treated. It’s time to look at all the products making up a battery, just not a selected segment, writes Mark Stevenson, chair of the International Secondary Lead Conference.

Battery recycling — it’s not just about the lead

Many of the processes and methods for lead production and refining are over 100 years old. The Harris process, for example, was first patented in 1919 and is still the most widely used refining process today, along with the Betts electrolytic process, which was proposed back in 1908.

The halcyon days of research into other methods of recovering the element were the 1950s and 1960s, driven by the International Lead Zinc Research Organisation (ILZRO), but signs are these times could be returning.

It is exciting to see a renaissance of R&D into treating lead compounds sourced from spent batteries as alternatives to smelting, now being explored using hydrometallurgical and novel chemistry routes.

But any new process must consider the whole picture of recycling the battery, understanding that other elements

and compounds can influence or affect processes.

It’s easy to take a simplistic route and say the lead battery contains lead sulphate, lead oxides and pure lead and an assortment of plastics in the casing. The reality is many other components make up the battery, from small amounts of alloying components, such as antimony, arsenic, copper and selenium, to additives and expanders such as carbon, various lignosulfonates and barium sulphate.

While the battery producer takes care and effort to build the energy storage device, it is the opposite at the smelter, where the whole battery is fragmented through a hammermill or similar device into several fractions.

One of the main fractions is lead paste, a fine mixture of the Positive and Negative Active Materials (PAM/ NAM) along with the expanders and

Whether recycling is through a hydro- or pyro-metallurgical process, consideration must be made on the treatment, recovery and disposal of all elements and compounds contained in a battery.

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other components. All these components and elements should be treated in any process, whether new or existing.

Carbon black has been an essential addition to batteries for many years and added to the NAM. In recent years, there is also a move to add more specialty carbon and graphite to the battery to improve areas such as reduced sulphation under partial state of charge with around 1.5% to 3% carbon in the battery paste.

Lignosulphonates are also added to help promote the formation of the crystal sponge structure and prevent lead sulphate crystal growth.

From a pyro-metallurgical point of view, carbonaceous products such as anthracite and coke are essential additives in the smelting process as they are the critical reducing agent.

Fortunately, any carbon-containing material in the paste, such as the lignosulphonates, can be considered another source of the element, aiding in reduction and smelting.

Another expander compound added to the NAM is barium sulphate, BaSO4.

It plays a crucial role in providing sites for precipitation of lead sulphate formed during the discharge reaction of

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LEAD BATTERY RECYCLING the battery. It aids the NAM to remain spongy, but it cannot be added to the PAM due to this property as it will result in shedding.

Notably, the compound is added to almost every battery as it is a key ingredient.

The barium compound deports to the lead paste once the battery passes through the breaker along with the active materials. It plays no part in smelting reactions as it’s quite stable with a high melting of 1350°C. There is no reduction to the compound’s elemental form and reports to the slag at the end of the smelt.

For hydrometallurgical methods, the compound will remain in the residue upon leaching of the paste as the compound is insoluble in nearly all acids.

Any new process that examines producing a direct oxide has to ensure that barium or its sulphate is not in oxide used for PAM. The remaining leach residues having a high barium content will be a serious challenge for lead smelters to handle, particularly regarding the final barium content in the slag.

Along with the expanders, other materials such as floc and fibres are added to the NAM and PAM as mechanical reinforcement, holding the material together and reducing shedding.

The fibres, which report to the paste, are made from numerous polymers, ranging from nylon to polyethylene and are resistant to acids, alkalis, and heat in a battery. There is currently no process to remove the fibres from the paste.

In pyrometallurgical processing, they are decomposed upon heating, aiding in reducing the lead compounds to metallic lead, but they remain untouched and report to the leach residue in hydrometallurgical flowsheets.

Other elements Other elements make their way into the lead paste, entering the battery system via several routes. At least 10 alloying or trace elements can be found in lead components of a battery; many of these come from the decomposition of the positive plate. Depending on the alloys used, elements

Depending on the alloys used, elements such as antimony, arsenic, tin, copper, and silver, for example, can be present alongside the lead in the paste

There will also be nylon and more polyesters in the floc and fibres.

They are resistant to acids, alkalis and heat in a battery making them a problem

such as antimony, arsenic, tin, copper, and silver, for example, can be present alongside the lead in the paste.

Other routes include impurities in the active material (bismuth, copper, silver, nickel), poor quality acid (iron) and external additives. Some of these additives include battery rejuvenation liquids which are often simply a cadmium sulphate solution. Unlike BaSO4 and fibres, these elements are all open to dissolution in leach mediums, then plated out, remaining soluble in the leachate or report to the residue.

Whether recovery is through a hydro or pyrometallurgical process, consideration should be made on the treatment, recovery or disposal of all elements,

DEALING WITH SULPHUR The most significant element to consider in any recycling process is sulphur. In non-ferrous metallurgical operations worldwide, sulphur is the element that drives much of the technology and methodology we utilise.

There are two points to remember: Very few processes directly convert a metal sulphide to metal, and even rarer is the direct conversion of metal sulphate to metal.

Whether taking a hydrometallurgical or pyrometallurgical route, intermediate processes are employed to convert or remove the sulphur compounds so the metal can be “accessed”.

For hydrometallurgical routes, this “accessing” is critical in formulating a new process and is very much dependent on the leachate or method used. Reactions are limited to the solubility of the metal compounds — and lead is no different.

While many of lead’s inorganic

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All hydrometallurgical systems require predesulphurization of the feed — it’s unavoidable compounds are either slightly soluble or totally insoluble, they are much more amenable by organic acids such as acetic and citric.

But, the conversion from a sulphate/sulphide still has to take place to allow the element to be open to the lixiviant — the liquid medium used in hydrometallurgy to extract the desired metal selectively.

In most processes, oxides and carbonates are the preferred species, although in some cases, the PbO2 (the species present in paste) has to be converted to PbO. Desulphurisation For hydrometallurgical systems, pre-desulphurisation of the feed is

necessary. There are three areas in secondary smelting where sulphur can be removed from the process.

Pre-desulphurization. Removal of sulphur from the feed before it enters the furnace, ie pretreatment of feed.

The most common method to desulphurize lead paste is by the use of sodium carbonate. This is via the aqueous reaction: PbSO4 + Na2CO3 → PbCO3 + Na2SO4

Other compounds such as NaOH and ammoniacal-based products can be used, but it is important to note that each is an equilibrium reaction. Therefore some level of sulphur bearing compounds remain in the paste.

Furnace desulphurisation. The capture of sulphur in a slag or matte matrix.

Post-desulphurization. The capture of sulphurous-rich fume, generally sulphur dioxide, in scrubber/air cleaning systems, with the sulphur removed in the form of gypsum.

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LEAD BATTERY RECYCLING compounds and components in the battery, not only the lead paste as outlined above.

Along with the valuable polypropylene cases, which become chips after passing through the breaker, the other products that do not have any commercial value must be treated.

One group are the separators, which are made up of silica/polyethylene, polyvinyl chloride, glass mat and polyesters.

There are internal circuits and processes used to handle these products in current secondary lead operations, some often unbeknown to the operator, such as slag formation.

The newer processes designed to treat only one portion of the dismantled

battery, such as the lead compounds, should not only consider the residues and by-products produced from the method but the whole battery.

Importantly, electrolytic refining of lead is not new, as the Betts process that refines more than three million tonnes per year of primary lead was first developed in 1908.

The process uses hexafluorosilicic acid (H2SiF6) as the lixiviant producing a soluble lead fluorosilicate (PbSiF6) for electrorefining. Taking the lead to its soluble form may pose new challenges around the handling and health, safety and environmental handling of the leachate, as in the case of Betts process.

The current situation The secondary lead industry across the world still faces technical challenges, as with all smelting industries. Environment performance in many countries requires research and solutions to problems, so improving sections of recycling operations with new technology, whether hydro or pyro, is always sought after.

These challenges vary from country to country, region to region, such as informal backyard recycling. This is a real problem in developing countries and undermines all the excellent work undertaken by the responsible players in the industry.

But it is also worth remembering that the current operations deal with just more than lead: recovering, treating and capturing the numerous components, compounds and elements that make up the battery.

The whole battery needs to be treated — you just can’t pick and choose.

RESIDUES — POTENTIAL ‘POISON’ OR GOLD MINE

Lead ingots: the final goal for a circular battery industry

The big task for new hydrometallurgical operations is taking the chemistry out of the laboratory and on to a working line

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Residues are a standard product in refining metals and are often formed to remove valuable and waste elements from a process.

An excellent example of a hydrometallurgical process recovering metal and producing various residues is the refining of zinc. (Electrolytic methods produce the vast majority of world zinc production.)

The first significant stage at primary operations is converting zinc sulphate (sphalerite) concentrate to zinc oxide by roasting. In this form, the element is available to the lixiviant, which in this case is sulphuric acid.

Through a series of processes, valuable and deleterious elements are removed until the zinc sulphate is purified and ready for electrolysis. An example is the removal of soluble iron and other elements via the formation of jarosite or paragoethite depending on the process adopted.

This will be similar to any lead process looking into recovering the element from “impure” lead compounds. Elements in the compounds will have to be removed and processing methods devised to treat these materials.

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SNAPSHOT: POLAND Political tensions aside in the recent migrant tussle with Belarus, the country is attracting international battery producers hoping to benefit from the country’s stable economic climate, government incentives for new manufacturing and proximity to major western European markets.

Poland moves to re-invent its battery industry A 2018 paper released by representatives of Polish power generation equipment manufacturer ZPUE, Prospects for energy storage in the world and in Poland in the 2030 horizon, estimated that by 2030, the world’s energy storage capacity would exceed 50GW. Poland, it said, would account for some 410.6MW of that.

“Global mega-trends in the development of electric energy storage are becoming noticeable in Poland,” the paper said. “While pumped storage hydroelectricity is the dominant technology … it is worth noting that some Polish distribution network operators already operate Li-ion battery energy storage systems … which can be considered pioneer installations.”

Just three years after the paper was published, some are estimating that not only will global storage far exceed the prediction, but the capacity in Poland will also be double the

paper’s present predictions.

Wood Mackenzie, for example, in its Global Energy Storage Outlook in September 2020, predicted the global sector would grow at a CAGR of 31% to reach 741GWh of cumulative capacity by then.

“By 2030, we plan to build at least 800MW of new energy storage facilities,” said state-run energy firm PGE president Wojciech Dabrowski.

PGE launched Poland’s first modular electricity storage facility in Rzepedz, in the country’s southern region, last December.

The 2.1MW facility has a 4.2MWh storage capacity and was the first in Poland to use Tesla Powerpack modules.

“The investment in Rzepedz is the first step towards achieving this 800MW goal,” said Dabrowski. “Further projects are already in the planning phase. In the coming days, we will be applying for the definition of the con-

ENERGY LAW CHANGES COULD BOOST BATTERIES In April, the Polish parliament voted with 443 out of 460 ballots to amend a number of provisions of the Polish energy law.

Measures included getting rid of the requirement to get a licence for plants less than 10MW; allowing distribution system operators and transmission system operators to include energy storage facilities in their investment plans, enabling them to invest in such facilities instead of grid expansion projects; and, eliminating tariff obligations that had meant storage facilities were double charged for grid connections.

Before the law caught up with changes in the industry, energy storage facilities had been considered both consumers and generators, and thus required to pay network and distribution charges —

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when in reality, they were neither.

Barbara Adamska, the president of the Polish Energy Storage Association, welcomed the changes, which she said opened up the possibilities of using energy storage facilities in different areas.

A number of foreign investments under way in Poland’s 14 special economic zones operate under a framework that provides the company with various benefits for manufacturing projects.

Under the special economic zone scheme, investors pledge a minimum number of jobs they plan to create at their factories, along with a determined number of years and minimum investment.

In return, they benefit from preferential tax treatment for their investments, and can acquire state support for their projects.

ditions for connection to the grid of a 200MW electricity storage facility in Zarnowiec in northern Poland.”

Dabrowski said the major challenges facing energy storage projects were profitability and funding sources.

“Therefore, we place great hopes on changes in the regulatory area, which may be an investment incentive for energy storage projects and, at the same time, will allow for better use of EU funds in the energy transformation,” Dabrowski said.

Swedish lithium-ion battery producer Northvolt is aiming to invest about $200 million to open a plant with an accompanying research and development centre in Gdansk, in Poland’s northern Pomerania region.

Under the plan, the facility will launch manufacturing activities next year, according to senior company representatives.

“Responding to the rapidly growing demand for energy storage solutions, Northvolt is investing $200 million into a greenfield battery systems factory project in Gdansk,” Jesper Wigardt, the vice president for communications and public affairs at Northvolt, told Energy Storage Journal.

“The first stage of the project will provide 5GWh per year, and is expected to start production in 2022. Northvolt is also establishing an engineering R&D centre to serve as a platform for exploring and developing the next generation of technologies in the energy storage space.”

In the long term, the Polish factory’s output could be increased to some 12GWh, the company says.

The production facility will cover an area of 50,000m2, and the greenfield project and R&D centre could create 500 new jobs in Poland’s north.

Wigardt said the plant is being built to expand Northvolt’s battery module and system manufacturing capacity, which will fill the contracts Northvolt has secured from its customers in the grid and industrial markets.

Batteries International • Autumn 2021 • 93

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SNAPSHOT: POLAND “The factory will not produce battery cells but instead receive cells from the Northvolt Ett gigafactory in northern Sweden, a set-up that enables us to leverage the clean energy mix of northern Sweden for the most energy-intensive part of the battery production process and thereby ensure Northvolt’s commitment to producing the world’s greenest battery solutions,” said Wigardt.

In June, the Swedish business announced that to lock in enough equity to deploy further battery cell capacity and expand its Swedish gigafactory to 60GWh, it had raised private equity of $2.75 billion.

“The additional capacity is designed to accommodate increased demand from key customers, including a $14 billion order from Volkswagen announced earlier this year,” said Northvolt. “The factory will start production later this year.”

Northvolt has to date secured in excess of $27 billion of contracts from key customers, that include BMW, Fluence, Scania and Volkswagen.

“Europe is Northvolt’s primary edmarket for cells and energy storage solutions, and we are already delivering cells to customers based in several European countries,” said Wigardt.

Set up in 2016, Northvolt now employs more than 1,500 staff. It aims to reach a total annual cell output capacity of about 15GWh by 2030, according to the company.

The EV battery sector Poland’s location is attracting EV battery makers who recognize the advantages of market accessibility.

In November 2019, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) approved a €250 million ($297 million) loan to support the building of an EV battery gigafactory in Wroclaw by LG Chem.

The bank said it was the only fully integrated plant in Europe producing all battery parts, from the electrodes to the cells and modules.

By 2022, when the factory is completed, €2.8 billion ($3.3 billion) will have been spent, and it should have a manufacturing capacity of up to 70GWh of batteries a year, making it one of the largest EV battery plants in the world.

“Becoming part of LG Chem’s ambitious venture in Poland illustrates that the EBRD is up for it,” said EBRD global head of industries Frederic Lucenet.

In March, Korean firm SK Innovation’s subsidiary SK IE Technology said it would expand its battery separator manufacturing in Poland from 860m2

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to 2.73 billion m2 by 2024, adding another two plants to its existing two.

“SK IE Technology is making the largest investment in the history of their EV battery separator business to build new plants in Poland,” the company said. “We will increase the supply of safe separators and wipe out the concerns on safety to contribute to the growing EV industry.”

Poland is positioning itself as a key player on a continent driving more and more quickly towards EV rollout with an eye on moving away from import reliance. “I am confident that by 2025, the EU will be able to produce enough battery cells to meet the needs of the European automotive industry — and even to build export capacity,” said European Commission vice president Maroš Šefcovic.

Polish state-run energy business PGE launched Poland’s first modular electricity storage facility in Rzepedz, in the country’s southern part, last December. The 2.1 MW facility has a 4.2 MWh storage capacity. Photo by PGE.

ENERGA LEADS THE POLISH DRIVE FOR STORAGE There’s a way to go before Poland achieves its goal of 800MW storage by 2030.

The largest project in Poland to date is just 6MW, a hybrid battery energy storage system in Bystra, in the country’s northern Pomerania region, which was developed by state-owned energy company Energa.

The 1,200m2 facility, a lead-acid and lithium-ion battery hybrid, stores electricity generated by the adjacent wind farm and has a maximum storage capacity of 27MWh. “Energy storage facilities of this type could soon provide us with an excellent solution for renewable energy generation which, by its nature, is unstable,” said Piotr Meler, the president of the group’s renewable energy subsidiary Energa OZE. “Locating an energy storage facility at the wind farm will allow us to better use the farm’s potential and increase the reliability of the electricity supply.”

The battery project was carried out by the company’s subsidiary, Energa Wytwarzanie, and was implemented as a Polish-Japanese partnership involving Energa, Polish electricity grid operator PSE, Japan’s state agency New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO), Hitachi, and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation.

Building began in 2017 under an

agreement signed by the NEDO and Poland’s then Ministry of Energy.

The initiative builds on an earlier project by Energa, which opened its first and much smaller 0.75MW/1.5MWh battery energy storage facility in Puck, on the country’s Baltic Sea shore.

The Bystra and Puck installations are part of Energa’s efforts to diversify its energy generation sources.

While its core business focuses on the distribution, generation and sale of electricity in Poland’s north, where the business has about 2.9 million customers, battery storage will be a good complement to its subsidiaries, which operate a portfolio of renewable energy facilities in northern Poland.

In total, the group owns 46 hydropower plants, six wind farms, and two photovoltaic plants.

In 2020, Energa generated 3.2TWh of electricity, from total installed capacity of 1.4GW. Of this, 0.5GW was from renewable energy sources, according to the company.

Earlier this year, the company was granted permission to expand its factory in Biskupice Podgórne, a small town in Poland’s south-west, potentially increasing its investments in Poland to €3.1 billion ($3.7 billion).

The plant in Biskupice Podgórne is being developed by LG Energy Solution Wrocław, a subsidiary of LG Chem, and will have a production capacity of 100GWh.

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CHEMISTRY UP CLOSE A new generation of battery storage chemistries is emerging. Probably the key question is whether they can make the transition from the research lab to the manufacturing line.

Disruptive energy storage Zinc-manganese oxide battery The zinc-manganese oxide battery has a real potential to be an alternative to lithium-ion and lead acid batteries, say scientists at the US Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL).

They have picked up on an unexpected chemical conversion reaction in zincmanganese oxide batteries which, if controlled, could increase energy density in conventional batteries at no extra cost.

The energy density of the rechargeable alkaline zinc battery then makes it a good fit for large-scale stationary energy storage.

Safety concerns are assuaged to some degree by the use of a non-flammable aqueous electrolyte, and costs can be kept low because of the availability and abundance of raw materials.

There is one drawback: commercial viability is not guaranteed due to the poor reversibility of zinc anodes in alkaline electrolytes.

“The material cost of Zn-MnO2 battery potentially can be substantially cheaper than rechargeable Li-ion batteries,” says Xiaolin Li, the scientist representing the electrochemical materials and systems group in the Energy Processes and Materials Division at PNNL. As the alkaline battery is the primary single-use Zn-MnO2 battery on the market, a rechargeable Zn-MnO2 one will extend battery life many times through periodic recharging.

Li says the technology can be categorized into rechargeable alkaline batteries, aqueous Zn-MnO2 batteries, or non-aqueous rechargeable Zn-MnO2 batteries — depending on whether the electrolyte is water based or organic solvent based, and whether it is acidic or base pH. “The reaction mechanisms are different for systems with different electrolyte,” says Li. “In a rechargeable alkaline battery, the charge carrier is a proton; the aqueous Zn-MnO2 battery has a proton and Zn2+ as the charge carrier; the non-aqueous rechargeable Zn-MnO2 battery uses Zn2+, like the Li battery.”

However, there are challenges. The Zn battery has a long pedigree, dating

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back to the mid-1950s, and scientists have tried several times to make it rechargeable.

“Many fundamentals are still not clear,” says Li. “The challenges come from many aspects including Zn dendrite, gas generation, Mn2+ dissolution from the cathode, low-cost electrolyte, salt precipitation. All these challenges need to be resolved before scale-up is needed.

“It is easy to demonstrate a concept academically, but it is a challenge to demonstrate at a scale that will interest industry. Many academic systems use materials in a very small amounts and other materials in excess amounts. This is similar in many ways to other early innovative battery research.”

The battery can be used for largescale energy storage, for peak shifting, frequency regulation, backup power and, thinks Li, possibly for long duration storage.

Organosilicon electrolyte batteries Chemistry professors Robert Hamers and Robert West at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have developed organosilicon electrolyte batteries as a safer alternative to the carbonatebased solvent system in Li-ion batteries. One result of this would be to solve the problem of thermal runaway.

Kyle Fenton, manager, power sources R&D at Sandia National Laboratories, says that electrolyte research has the potential to offer increased performance in battery applications.

“This can be electrochemical performance, material properties, safety performance and more. There is some flexibility in the synthesis of these materials that could provide interesting performance benefits,” he says.

“Electrolyte development always has the challenge of the trade-offs between conductivity and electrochemical performance versus other properties, including safety, SEI (solid electrolyte interphase) stability and toxicity.”

A Sandia report, OrganosiliconBased Electrolytes for Long-Life Lithium Primary Batteries, describes how electrolytes have been synthesized that utilize organosilane materials that include an ion binding agent functional-

ity.

The report says numerous materials were synthesized and tested in lithium carbon monofluoride battery systems for conductivity, impedance, and capacity.

“The resulting electrolytes proved non-flammable and indicated promise as co-solvents for electrolyte systems, due to low dielectric strength,” he says.

Conventional electrolytes suffer from uncontrolled interfacial reactions and irreversible decomposition, it states, leading to a deterioration of performance and potential safety issues.

Organosilicon compounds are a promising line of research in electrolytes — chemical modifications are relatively easy, they have low glass transition temperatures (the ability to change from a solid state to a viscous one) as well as superior chemical and thermal stabilities.

The report describes the research progress of organosilicon-based functional electrolytes for the development of liquid, gel and solid-state electrolytes in Li-ion and Li-metal batteries.

Silatronix, co-founded by Hamers and West, has developed a product, OS3, to enhance the performance of organosilicon electrolyte material. The company claims that OS3 improves lithium-ion cell performance when added to the electrolyte formulation in concentrations of 1%-5%. It works by stabilizing lithium salt in solution and helping to prevent the decomposition that normally occurs in high voltage and high temperature battery operation.

In May 2018 the company signed a $2 million contract with the US Navy Office of Naval Research: Organosilicon Electrolytes to Enable Safe, High Energy Li-ion Batteries with Advanced Silicon Anodes focused on improving the cycling stability of Li-ion cells using NMC622 cathode in combination with silicon-graphite composite anodes.

Gold nanowire gel electrolyte batteries While experimenting with relatively non-combustible gels, researchers at the University of California, Irvine,

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CHEMISTRY UP CLOSE coated gold nanowires with manganese dioxide, then covered them with electrolyte gel. When the electrode was charged researchers discovered it went through 200,000 cycles without losing charge as compared with 6,000 cycles in a conventional battery.

MnO2/gold nanowires consist of linear gold nanowires coated with a hemicylindrical layer of MnO2, an electrical energy storage material, that is several hundred of nanometers in thickness.

MnO2 can serve either as a cathode material in lithium-ion batteries, or as a capacitor positive electrode material in lithium-ion capacitors, opposite a carbon negative electrode.

“In either case, these systems reversibly intercalate lithium ions, and deintercalate lithium as discharging and charging occurs, respectively,” says Reginald Penner, chair and a professor of UC Irvine’s chemistry department.

MnO2/gold nanowires consistently fail after 6,000 lithiation/delithiation cycles.

“Looking at the cause of failure, we learned that the MnO2 coating was falling off the gold nanowire current collector, which occurs as a consequence of strain-induced embrittlement of this oxide material, caused by the volume change associated with lithium insertion/deinsertion.

“My student Mya Le Thai found that when these nanowires were embedded in a poly(methyl methacrylate)-based gel electrolyte, this failure mode was completely eliminated. Cycle stability increased from 6,000 cycles, to 100,000 cycles with zero capacity fade.”

Nanowires have enormous potential for use in batteries due to their being highly conductive, thousands of times thinner than a human hair, and having a large surface area for the storage and transfer of electrons. However, up until now their extreme fragility has prevented their use.

The study, which was published in the American Chemical Society’s Energy Letters, was conducted in coordination with the Nanostructures for Electrical Energy Storage Energy Frontier Research Center at the University of Maryland, and with funding from the Basic Energy Sciences division of the US Department of Energy.

Penner says the systems were patented and research on related systems has proceeded.

“However, it is not being commercially developed at this time. A key limitation of these systems with respect

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to commercialization is low volumetric capacity because the lithographically patterned nanowires are not space filling. Three-dimensional versions of these nanowire-base systems are necessary to solve this problem.

“Other, higher energy storage compounds are now under investigation,” says Penner, including Nb2O5 and MnS (a conversion material).

TankTwo string cell batteries

TankTwo has developed a string cell battery that speeds up the process of recharging. The battery contains a collection of small independent selforganizing lithium cells and consists of a plastic enclosure covered with a conductive material enabling it to form contacts with others quickly and easily.

Connections in the electrochemical cell are controlled by an internal processing unit.

To recharge at a service station, the balls contained in an EV battery are extracted and swapped with charged cells. The extracted cells can then be recharged separately during off-peak hours.

But this is more than a battery swap idea. String cells are independent, modular units that fill up a string tank. Each individual cell consists of an integrated cell management system, a unique ID, encryption technology, communication capability, and a plastic enclosure.

Through the conductive material on the surface of the enclosure, string cells form contact points with one another that are then used to determine the most efficient cell usage by a separate algorithm. So, the cells can work independently and are not dependent on all the other cells working as a whole.

Bert Holtappels, company CEO and founder, says: “We treat each individual cell as an energy containing unit like anything that contains something of value, such as a shipping container.

So, each individual cell is stacked, has its own ID, history and characteristics.”

Some cells age better than others, some deal with higher temperatures than others, some might go below what is considered acceptable performance. By managing the cells as different units, much more control can be applied.

“The ability to hold energy is expensive,” says Holtappels. “The energy itself is not expensive. That is why you want to maximize the utilization rate of your most expensive asset, which is the battery. Some of our customers are

in the critical high reliabilities sphere in medical and certain industrial sectors and defence. They use the same principle of algorithms where each of the cells can make different connections.”

Being able to re-route within the battery pack means extremely high rates of resilience. Holtappels gives an example that if someone shoots a bullet through a battery pack, usually that would cause catastrophic failure, but with his system all the cells are operational units, so when one string fails from physical damage then the remaining cells find a route around the damaged cells.

“Here, if 20% of the cells are damaged, you lose 20% of the capacity, but in a traditional battery if 20% of the cells are damaged, you’re done for.”

It means it is not like in a traditional battery pack where the weakest link determines the strength of the chain.

“In our case it is the aggregate performance of each individual cell that determines the capacity.”

NanoBolt lithium tungsten batteries In a NanoBolt lithium tungsten battery, tungsten and carbon nanotubes are added to the anode materials to create a larger surface area for the attachment and storage of ions during recharge and discharge cycles. The larger surface area means improvements to energy storage capacity and recharging rates of the battery.

The nano matrix added to the anode provides a broader and denser area to which electrons can attach, which increases usability.

Meanwhile, scientists at the University of Brisbane have been reviewing the doping/coating of tungsten and related elements to improve the electrochemical performance of cathodes in batteries, especially the cycle stability.

A recent white paper, The role of tungsten-related elements for improving the electrochemical performances of cathode materials in lithium ion batteries, says the selection of tungsten and related elements is based on their special properties including the high valence state, strong bonding with oxygen and the large ionic radius.

It says: “The improvement of cycle stability mainly results from two features: first, the enhancement of bulk structure stability upon doping and second the resistance of side reactions of electrode/electrolyte by the surficial layer induced by direct coating or bulk doping.”

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EVENT REVIEW: 26ICBR This year’s International Congress for Battery Recycling was held in Geneva, Switzerland this September. The presentations were strong, the networking useful.

But best of all, we could meet face-to-face again. Michael Halls reports.

Plus ça change ... plus c’est la même chose The more things change, the more they remain the same. And this year’s ICBR — the International Congress for Battery Recycling, now in its 26th year — seemed to bear out the logic behind this 19th century epigram.

The issues that have attracted some of the finest brains in the recycling industry — particularly, how to deal with end-of-life lithium batteries — over the past five to 10 years have simply not gone away.

From the conference it was clear that the underlying technologies continue to race ahead — presentation after presentation showed again and again what advances were being made and rapidly so — but the essential component, the commerciality of recycling, was still in question.

The issue is complicated by the

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fact that all lithium batteries are not created equal. Of the six basic types of lithium cells being used by OEMs, only those with cobalt, manganese and nickel have any intrinsic value after recycling.

Recycling LiFePO4 (lithium iron phosphate) batteries — which in a couple of years may account for half of the feedstock; they account for a quarter now — gives little of any monetary use but are simply a pyrometallurgical or hydrometallurgical expense.

This was pointed out in the first presentation by Christoph Pillot, in an excellent talk showing the scope of growth expected in EV markets and the related demand for lithium batteries.

Pillot, who has a reputation for realistic and conservative forecasting

of the rechargeable battery market, said that reductions in scale manufacturing now meant that the cost of the raw materials would dominate lithium battery production.

Raw materials account for some 60% of lithium batteries, he said.

He reckoned that the variability of prices in cobalt and nickel in particular could even push the price per kilowatt hour up if supply shortages were to occur — a topical reference to the extreme pressures all battery manufacturers are facing.

He also said that the gradual replacement of cobalt with nickel in some lithium battery types would make recycling these batteries less financially attractive.

Overall Pillot foresaw a compound annual growth rate for lithium batteries between 2020 to 2030 of around 20%, but warned that the metal needs for cobalt, nickel and lithium would soar — cobalt for example could soar from just over 30% of world production in 2020 to 70% by 2030. Similar huge lurches in production would have to be seen for nickel and lithium.

So, in one sense this is all good news for recyclers.

The rapid growth in lithium battery demand, in particular for EVs and which was creating a network of gigafactories across Europe, would eventually lead to huge volumes of battery scrap. And the ability to recycle the more expensive materials would act as a form of buffer against price hikes.

Although Pillot predicted that recycling of the more valuable metals would continue to be profitable, as yet he didn’t foresee that recycling LiFePO4 was commercially viable.

The quantities of lithium in the batteries were so small and who wanted the iron and phosphorous anyway?

Well, some thought there was a case to be made. Nils Steinbrecher, managing director of TES Sustainable Battery Solutions, said it was

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EVENT REVIEW: 26ICBR

clear that hydro-metallurgical processes could recycle LiFePO4 but were unavailable at scale, while pyro processes only recover copper and lithium.

In China, LiFePO4 recycling is subsidized by the government, but who will be the first in Europe?

A fair question given the economics of the situation.

Leading on from this were discussions on the growing sophistication of hydrometallurgical processes. This was again a major conference theme.

Jean-Christophe Lambert, business development manager at Lithion Recycling — a firm that has been rapidly expanding its operations across North America this year — said the company uses a mechanical separation followed by a hydrometallurgical process capable of recycling 95% of lithium-ion battery components.

Certainly the alternative, smelting, may be the way that lead batteries can be recycled, but blast furnaces were not seen (or cosmetically at least by some delegates) as the way lithium batteries would be recycled in the future.

One delegate pointed out that the race to commerciality for lithium recycling was still wide open: “There are many firms out there doing parts of the recycling chain but no clear commercial leader — despite what they say.”

But as several speakers pointed out — some of them ad nauseam — the European Union was committed to the circular economy and the EU Green Deal should present itself as an opportunity.

At ICBR, held just a month ahead of the COP26 climate change talks in Glasgow and in the middle of the media chatter around the event, there was naturally a focus on the EU’s ambition in terms of climate change.

Kamila Slupek, sustainability director at Eurometaux, showed what the draft EU Battery Regulation being considered by the European Commission was going to look like. Slupek said batteries are key enablers for the 2050 EU Green Deal ambition for a climate neutral economy

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and the transformation of the mobility and energy sectors.

Whether they are achievable or just fanciful is a moot point.

One delegate said that the EU legislating for a completely new way of doing business — “a new world order” — was a bit like believing in six impossible things before breakfast.

Not that the ideas were so bad, simply their execution looked impossible.

The fact is that EU bungling, bureaucracy or perhaps just plain bad luck has meant that Europe is about 10 years behind its Asian rivals in terms of lithium cell manufacturing with an inevitable spill over to the recycling industry.

This will put the new generation of gigafactories at a severe disadvantage when competition is engaged.

“Firms such as CATL have had a decade of experience in refining their manufacturing processes, for most of these gigafactory developers they’re at year one,” said one commentator.

This year’s congress was yet again full of lively discussions on recycling techniques.

The elusive mixture of lithium battery waste known as the black mass — a term the origins of which no one knows — was discussed at length (and usefully so) as were the discussions about getting there: collection, dismantling and shredding.

It’s hard to judge the value of any conference on the merits of the presentations alone as there are too many other factors involved, networking clearly being one of the most valuable.

That said, the video-recorded workshop on recycling the black mass was probably worth every euro of delegates’ admission price. The two and a half hour master class by experts explaining the process was worthy of an MIT seminar. The fact that this was the only part of the conference that was fully virtual meant that this could be played and replayed to those unable to attend.

Other themes were well represented in the conference.

Sorting scrap batteries into differ-

ent waste has long been a persistent challenge for recyclers and conference themes for some 15 years. Getting it wrong — mixing lead batteries with lithium ones has caused explosions in the past — can be dangerous but also commercially wasteful.

In the last 10 years huge advances have been made with a combination of battery recognition by intelligent camera software. This year Belarus firm Linev Adani displayed an automated X-ray sorting system that increases the successful recognition of battery types — batteries whose labels have fallen off or are corroded can be identified.

Advances have been made too in identifying the state of health of batteries. When an automated system is complete, the result could be a rethink of how the recycling industry is structured.

If this happens fewer batteries will be recycled but more will be repurposed.

Attendance was high for what is a specialized conference. There were around 250 physical delegates and around 70 attended as a virtual conference. Almost certainly the virtual aspect to the meetings will continue in the future even when the era of lockdowns and masks is over.

Outside the main hall in the coffee area there were around a dozen exhibitors. There was an abundance of networking opportunities including an evening dinner by the hotel pool.

Geneva being Geneva and Geneva being in Switzerland, mask wearing was obligatory in most public areas in town and included the hotel. However, apart from a one-off check on one’s vaccination/Covid status at the conference reception to collect your delegate pass, inside it was possible — and extraordinarily pleasant — to talk normally. For most of us this was the first for some time!

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EVENT REVIEW: 19ABC This year’s Asian Battery Conference had to be a virtual one — the first in more than three decades of its existence — because of the pandemic. Delegates and exhibitors praised the virtual platform but longed for the return of the physical one. As did the organizers.

Excellent! But it’s time to hit the road again...

Despite the success of this November’s Asia Battery Conference, one thing came out clearly from all quarters — now is the time for the battery industry to get together and meet face to face rather than virtually.

Mark Stevenson, conference chair and organizer, introduced the meetings with the anticipation that all delegates would be satisfied with a lively and informed series of presentations — which they were — but, he said, it was time that we all could meet.

“Virtual meetings have their place in this period of national lockdowns caused by the pandemic but we’re all tired of them,” he said. “We need to be able to network together effectively and that means being able to talk with each other over a coffee, a beer or an exhibition stand.”

The 19th Asian Battery Conference opened with the positive message that lead was ‘no longer the forgotten battery metal’, and that there were plenty of opportunities for the industry in the future.

Its message was backed up by opening remarks from Daramic president Chad Schuchmann — see facing page — emphasizing the extraordinary ability of the lead industry to invent and re-invent itself.

This was the first virtual ABC in its history but nevertheless continued to attract loyal support from its regular delegates and supporting firms.

The last ABC was held in September 2019 in Bali, Indonesia and was widely regarded as a huge success for its networking opportunities and live presentations.

Mark Stevenson, co-organizer of the event and director of Global Lead Technologies, said, there were some advantages with online events.

“One of the positives is pre-recording presentations, which is less daunting, and the quality remains high,” he said.

“We can also reach a much broader audience, and reach out to people who may never have come to a

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physical conference. We need to concentrate on bringing newer, younger blood into this industry and this format gives us a chance to do that.

“That said, I hope the ABC marks the end of virtual events. We really all need to get back face to face, open up the business and enjoy each other’s friendship again.”

Most of the key highlights of the conference are reflected in the news section of this magazine but there were many, very positive, overall impressions of the conference.

“The variety and standards of the presentations were high,” one delegate told Batteries International, “but the new feature where we were able to hear informal talks at the end of the session was fascinating.

“The conversation between lead analysts Neil Hawkes [CRU] and Farid Ahmed [Wood Mackenzie] proved gripping in that they were able to voice dispassionately — they didn’t have to put a positive spin on anything as they were analysts not OEM suppliers — some of their own perceptions of problems with suppliers, the supply chain and much more was enlightening.”

The informal talks at the end of each day’s session included a detailed conversation with the CBI figures and last of all with several industry veterans.

While the organizers said that they had deliberately not chosen a theme, preferring instead to cover the issues that mattered, there were clearly underlying issues that had to be dealt with across the sessions.

Here, in some shape or form, the prevailing topic was fighting off the challenge of lithium by improving lead batteries. From that premise came solid discussions about improving PSoC, DCA, cutting water loss, increasing cycle life, to name a few.

While few delegates would disagree with the increasing presence of lithium-ion batteries into the battery industry — largely because of the dif-

ferent country mandates to ban the sale of new ICE cars by various dates — most were confident that other areas would offset declines in the auto industry.

“The decline for ICE is slow and long — it will take decades rather than years,” said Hawkes. “It won’t fall off a cliff — it will be more like death by a thousand cuts.

“There are also many reasons why lead could well perform better than investors are expecting. There is a longer tail in the replacement side of lead batteries in all parts of the world, and it will have auxiliary functions for years to come.

“The lead battery is also going to improve. There is always room for improvement and it happens — it’s not going to stand still, it will fight back. And gradual market share loss that we do see through time on the automotive side of the industry could easily be offset by gains in the non-automotive of industrial such as ESS.” In India, for one example, as R&D president of Exide Industries Dipak Chaudhury explained in his presentation, home and small office backup batteries were almost entirely lead-acid batteries, and given that billions of dollars of government incentives had been rolled out to encourage manufacture, this could only go up.

Farid Ahmed, principal analyst, lead markets with Wood Mackenzie, said the fact that auxiliary lead batteries needed in EVs were smaller than the SLIs in ICE vehicles would be more than offset by the fact that so many more would be required.

He said new technologies, such as bipolar batteries, meant the lead battery was fighting back and had the potential to close the gap with lithium-ion in terms of performance and certainly cost.

The three-day online event was well attended, with networking opportunities and virtual booths running

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EVENT REVIEW: 19ABC alongside the presentations.

“In terms of the technology supplied for networking in the virtual meeting room and at exhibitor booths it was easy to operate but, however much you can chat freely even by the virtual video system in place, it’s still never the same as sitting down face to face over a beer,” said one delegate.

One presentation that received widespread interest came from GS Yuasa.

This showed a real-world example of how a dual chemistry energy storage system could offer the lead battery industry a new path forward. Put simply it combined the virtues of lead batteries with the strengths of lithium ones.

Effectively, the hybrid system is designed to fit the energy storage requirements of the grid — from im-

mediate demands such as frequency response to longer term needs such as are found with UPS systems.

“We looked for the lowest cost solution and showed how lead and lithium with different operational characteristics can obtain an overall improved storage performance by combining the best points of both,” said Peter Stevenson, senior technical co-ordinator at GS Yuasa, who pioneered the project.

He said lithium-ion battery strengths — cycle life, high discharge rate, high charging rate, partial SOC operation, high efficiency and high energy density — fitted well with leadacid strengths, which are its price, simple control mechanisms, the fact it is abuse tolerant, its abundant raw materials and low embodied energy.

The first live demonstration of the

project called ADEPT went live at the end of 2018. Since then, Stevenson said they had been working on three projects — two in Wales and one in Portsmouth, in southern England.

ADEPT is a 100kW grid-connected hybrid connected directly to the DC bus. The general operational pattern has been charging the system overnight at around 20kW and discharging it at 100kW, maximum inverter power, during evening peak hours.

The second half of the presentation, given by Southampton University PhD candidate Andrei Dascalu, described how the testing — such as pulse discharge and constant current charge/discharge, at different C rates — was used to extract the parameter of equivalent circuit models for both battery cell types and hence validate the model.

Daramic’s perspective of the Asian region Chad Schuchmann, president of Daramic, kicked off this year’s ABC with a brief overview of the firm’s perspective on the rapidly changing lead battery world.

Keeping the world in motion — the Daramic mission statement and key to understanding the company — is going to be the theme of the next 10 years, said Schuchmann.

The main trend is going to be greater electrification of everything in the world’s transition from fossil fuels.

He saw climate change as both a challenge and an opportunity for the lead acid business: an opportunity because of the new and recharged business atmosphere following the pandemic.

For decarbonization to happen, the shift to renewable energies has to succeed: and the role of battery storage will be, he said, vital in allowing renewables to power the future.

The electricity of the future will have to come from renewables backed up by hundreds of thousands of gigawatt hours of storage.

Schuchmann said he’d been impressed by the technology advances of recent years but the need for lead acid batteries to innovate and improve would be a constant push in the years ahead. His goal and hopes were to see the lead battery achieve levels of performance similar to

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that now found in lithium.

Some of the themes of his opening address reflected on the changing pattern and growing importance of Asia’s battery and OEM business.

In an interview earlier this year with Batteries International he said: “There’s a new automotive world emerging. In the past, battery development has mostly been driven by the US, which has then diffused into Europe and then into Asia. Now it’s the other way about — Asia is setting the direction in electric vehicles and electrification, which is then diffusing into Europe and then to North America.”

The developments of a lot of Daramic’s latest product range, such as RickLife, HiCharge and XCharge, have been done in a way that’s specific to Asian driving requirements. Much of the development has come from its Asian research centre, which is now located in Gujarat, India.

The developments include a reversal of imposing the standard west-

“At Daramic we see there’s the need for a global profile ... while keeping a local presence”

ern template on an Indian battery.

So, for example, one key product in this range — known as DuraLife — followed the unusual pattern of being launched in the Asian market first and then two years later, in 2016, released worldwide.

Daramic’s confidence in the future of lead batteries is evidenced by its commitment across Asia. Its global footprint means that it has five local manufacturing sites — in Thailand, China and India.

Schuchmann said Daramic’s success in the region is because it locally based.

This gave it a clear understanding of the types of demands that batteries are put through — think heat, humidity and demanding cycling routines — and so can provide tailored separator solutions for its customers.

Schuchmann left until after ABC the news that Daramic’s new manufacturing lines in Gujarat, India would soon be running. The lines double Daramic’s PE capacity in India, which serves both increasing regional battery separator demand and also global customer demand.

Schuchmann said its policy of being a global company with a local presence will help customers suffering the present logistics and supply chain chaos and reinforce the company’s advantage in serving locally as a global firm.

Batteries International • Autumn 2021 • 103

FORTHCOMING EVENTS

Disruption to the events programme As we come to the end of the 2021 events season for the battery and energy storage industry, hosts and organizers are still struggling to decide whether to go ahead with events that have been in the diary for months, if not years.

When this issue was released, and with the situation still changing on an hourly basis, a variety of energy conferences and meetings have been postponed or hosted online. While we have taken every effort to ensure these details are correct, please contact the conference organisers with any queries, or check websites below and throughout the listings.

The Battery Show Europe November 30–December 2 Messe Stuttgart, Germany Join the Advanced Battery Community.

Meet manufacturers, suppliers, engineers, thought leaders and purchasers for a conference and trade fair focused on the latest developments in the advanced battery and automotive industries.

This free trade fair is an opportunity to source the latest energy storage solutions to reduce costs and improve the performance of battery applications.

Contact Informa Markets Robin Shelton Tel: +44 779 6941 621 Email: robin.shelton@informa.com www.thebatteryshow.eu

The Smarter E India — ees India NEW DATE December 2-4 Mumbai, India The market potential for electrical energy storage in India is expected to be tremendous in the future–especially driven by incoming policies for the emobility industry.

With the great success and support of ees Europe, Europe’s largest exhibition for batteries and energy storage, ees India becomes the most powerful energy storage exhibition in India.

The exhibition is the industry hotspot for suppliers, manufacturers, distributors and users of stationary electrical energy storage solutions. Covering the entire value chain of innovative battery and energy storage technologies–from components and production to specific user application.

Contact Solar Promotion www.intersolar.in/en/for-visitors/about-intersolar-india/focus-energy-storage.html

Advanced Automotive Battery Conference USA — AABC USA December 7–9 Onsite + V Virtual Connect in-person and virtually with a global audience of battery technologists from leading automotive OEMs and their key suppliers for a must-attend, three days exploring development trends and breakthrough technologies.

Contact Cambridge Enertech Tel: +1 781 972 5400 Email: ce@cambridgeenertech.com www.advancedautobat.com/us

Shanghai International Lithium Battery Fair December 22–24 Shanghai, China

Shanghai International Lithium Battery Fair will be held at the Shanghai New International Expo Center, China.

The exhibitions of new energy vehicles, super capacitors, charging equipment and energy storage will be held at the same time.

Contact CNIBF www.cnibf.net

Intersolar North America January 13–15, 2022 Long Beach, California, USA As the first major solar + storage event of the year in North America, Intersolar North America highlights the latest energy technologies, services, companies, and organizations striving to create positive impact on climate change and support our planet’s transition into a more sustainable energy future.

Attendees get in-depth technical training, hands-on product workshops, trends, and education from top experts.

Experience the solar industry’s best practices for the design, installation, and maintenance of code-compliant PV and storage systems. Tour the expo floor to review the best-in-class companies and the top solutions, services, and products for the year ahead.

Contact Diversified Communications Email: ISNAInfo@divcom.com www.intersolar.us

India: Gujarat hosts The Smarter E India — ees India in December 2021…

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FORTHCOMING EVENTS India Energy Storage Week — IESW

International Electronics Recycling Congress — IERC

January 17–21 Mumbai, India

January 18–21 Salzburg, Austria

IESW is a flagship international conference & expo by India Energy Storage Alliance (IESA) incorporated in 2019, which was earlier Energy Storage India (ESI).

It is India’s premier B2B networking & business event focussed on renewable energy, advanced batteries, alternate energy storage solutions, electric vehicles, charging infrastructure and microgrids ecosystem creation. The annual conference and expo includes following tracks and parallel events The forthcoming edition of IESW is expected to attract global participation with an intent to facilitate bi-lateral trade, which will invite 20+ countries, 50+ regulators & policy makers, 200+ industry leaders, 100+ partners & exhibitors and 1000+ delegates.

IERC 2022 is the international platform for reviewing the challenges faced by the Electronics Recycling Industry on a global basis. For the 20th consecutive year IERC will bring together the international community of experts and decision makers of the entire Electronics Recycling value chain, including electronics recyclers and producers, collection organizations, OEM’s, policymakers, materials and services providers and many more...

Contact India Energy Storage Alliance — IESA Email: contact@indiaesa.info www.indiaesa.info/events/india-energy-storage-week-iesw-international-conferenceexpo

Contact ICM AG Susann Schmid E: info@icm.ch www.icm.ch/en/ierc-2022

World Future Energy Summit — WFES 2022 January 17–19 Abu Dhabi, UAE WFES (World Future Energy Summit) is a global industry platform connecting business and innovation in energy,

clean technology and efficiency for a sustainable future.

WFES Expo hosts over 850 exhibiting companies from more than 40 countries; The Future Summit; the unique WFES Forums, covering everything from disruptive technologies to future cities; a set of ground-breaking WFES Initiatives; and WFES Hosted Events, where individual growth markets come under the spotlight.

Contact Reed Exhibitions Global www.worldfutureenergysummit.com

NAATBaat Annual Conference February 7–10 Arizona NAATBatt 2022 will be the top networking and market intelligence event in the North American advanced battery industry in 2022. Top executives, scientists and investors use the NAATBatt annual meeting to renew acquaintances, see new companies and technologies and hear about the latest developments in the industry.

If you are interested in the business of advanced battery technology, there is no better place to meet the people and companies making a difference than at NAATBatt 2022.

Contact NAATBatt International www.naatbatt.org

ACI Battery Recycling Europe February 16–17 London, UK The two day event will give you an insight on the newest recycling technologies, latest updates in policy and regulations, and commercial benefits of recycling spent power batteries.

ACI’s Battery Recycling Europe will also showcase future opportunities in the Battery Recycling Market and blend together inspirational keynotes, informative sessions, and wonderful networking opportunities.

Contact ACI London, UK E: steph@acieu.net www.wplgroup.com/aci/event/battery-recycling-europe/

… and Delhi host India Energy Storage Week — IESW in January 2022

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Batteries International • Autumn 2021 • 105

FORTHCOMING EVENTS Intersolar Middle East March 7–9 Dubai, UAE Middle East Energy (MEE), Intersolar, and ees, the leading energy exhibitions are joining hands to co-deliver an outstanding renewables and energy storage event at Middle East Energy 2022.

Contact Solar Prommotion GmbH www.intersolar.ae/en/home.html

INTERBAT March 16–18 Moscow, Russia

China International Battery Fair — CIBF

International Advanced Battery Conference

March 19–21 Shenzhen, China

March 28–30 Munster, Germany

China International Battery Fair (CIBF) is an international exhibition for battery industry, organized every two years. This international meeting and exhibition was first held in Tiajin in 1992. For the last five consecutive terms, CIBF has been held successfully in Shenzhen.

For the 14th international symposium “Kraftwerk Batterie–Advanced Battery Power”, representatives from industry and academia discuss the latest findings along the entire value chain of batteries: the current state of research on lithium-ion batteries, novel battery systems and innovative materials, battery cell production and fields of application as well as second life and recycling.

The latest first-hand information and cross-sector content on all aspects of battery development and battery use make up the claim and appeal of the Advanced Battery Power Conference with the preceding Battery Day NRW.

Contact CIBF http://en.cibf.org.cn

For the 30th consecutive year, Russia’s battery storage association — better known as INTERBAT — has brought together Russian and international battery manufacturers and suppliers to meet in this, the most prestigious specialized exhibition and trade fair.

Contact International Association Interbat www.interbat.ru

Interbattery March 17–19 Seoul, Korea InterBattery 2022 first launched in 2013 in Seoul, Korea, is Korea’s leading battery exhibition showcasing various new products and technologies related to battery industry. Running concurrently as a part of ‘Energy Plus’, it attracts over 900 domestic and overseas exhibitors and 1,500 booths!

Contact COEX Interbattery Secretariat E: jenn@coex.co.kr http://interbattery.or.kr/en/

Contact Haus Der Technik E: hdt@hdt.de www.battery-power.eu/en/

International Battery Seminar and Exhibit March 28–31 Orlando, Florida. USA As the longest-running annual battery industry event in the world, this meeting has always been the preferred venue to announce significant developments, new products, and showcase the most advanced battery technology.

Contact Cambridge Enertech www.internationalbatteryseminar.com

The Battery Technology Show — USA April 5–7 Novi, Detroit, Michigan, USA The Battery Technology Show brings together thousands of delegates to discover the latest developments. The event’s two conference tracks will also allow visitors to hear from some of the leading companies and individuals shaping the forthcoming revolution.

Contact Evolve Media Group https://www.batterytechnologyusa.com

Seoul, Korea hosts Interbattery in March 2022

106 • Batteries International • Autumn 2021

TCF Center, Detroit

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FORTHCOMING EVENTS BCI Convention + Power Mart Expo May 1–4 Naples, Florida, USA The most complete display of new technology, products and services awaits you in the Power Mart Expo! View product demonstrations, pose questions to exhibiting experts and learn about what is new in the lead battery industry.

Contact Battery Council International E: info@batterycouncil.org www.convention.batterycouncil.org

Battery Experts Forum May 3–5 Frankfurt, Germany Discover the hottest trends in battery and charging technology live and up close. Exchange with experts. And bring your knowledge up to date at our BATTERY EXPERTS FORUM. Expect high class speakers and top topics. This event is an absolute must for those involved in battery technologies.

The exhibition will be accompanied by a two-day energy storage conference where leading experts delve into current questions of this industry.

Contact Solar Promotion GmbH www.ees-europe.com/home

Battery Tech Expo May 12 Silverstone, UK The Battery industry is on the cusp of a power revolution with big technology companies investing heavily in the next generation of battery development and energy storage.

The event will provide a unique opportunity to showcase the latest products, technologies and services covering the battery management systems, EV battery, battery storage, battery development/ discovery, commercial and mobile power device sectors.

FENIBAT May 22–24 Paraná, Brazil The 5th FENIBAT will gather in Londrina, Paraná, Brazil, from May 22 - 24, the Brazilian and Latin American battery and lead recycling industry and its suppliers. Its objective is to disseminate new products, services and technologies from all countries of the world to the South American market, as well as the exchange of information and knowledge.

Contact FENIBAT Jayme Gusmao E:gusmao@fenibat.com www.fenibat.com/en

Contact 10fourmedia David Reeks www.batterytechexpo.co.uk

Contact Battery Experts Forum E: info@battery-experts-forum.com www.battery-experts-forum.com

Energy Storage World Forum May 10–12 Berlin, Germany Exploring new and innovative regulatory frameworks have long been a topic of discussion in the energy storage world — it’s a programme topic in this year’s Energy Storage World Forum.

But while regulations fail to keep pace with new advances in the sector, how much is this holding back the adoption of energy storage technologies?

Contact Dufresne www.energystorageforum.com

Germany: Berlin hosts Energy Storage World Forum on May 10-12…

ees Europe May 11–13 Munich, Germany Discover future-ready solutions for renewable energy storage and advanced battery technology at ees Europe! Europe’s largest, most international and most visited exhibition for batteries and energy storage systems is the industry hotspot for suppliers, manufacturers, distributors, and users of stationary electrical energy storage solutions as well as battery systems.

In 2022, more than 450 suppliers of products for energy storage technology and systems will be present at ees Europe and the parallel exhibitions of The smarter E Europe taking place in Munich.

108 • Batteries International • Autumn 2021

… closely followed by ees Europe on May 11-13 in Munich

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d r o w t s a l The THE CBI WINNER IS… Once a winner, always a winner.

That was the thinking behind Hammond’s Steve Barnes guesswork — correctly for the second time ever — of where the next ELBC would be held.

The regular Challenge Batteries International competition — in popular legend best known as the CBI — started ignominiously in a late night bar in Edinburgh 2012 as disgruntled delegates drank to the duplicity of the ILA. The challenge was a simple one — guess where the next ELBC would held. Could one read behind the misdirections, and sometimes downright lies, of ILA, the organizers?

This year’s CBI competition attracted a flurry of entrants hoping to win the prize. The furore over the announcement — ELBC will be held in Lyon, France between September 6-9 next year — caused much disappointment among the competitors.

The range of guesses had been impressive if quirky. Why should ILA pick Helsinki just because nobody ever goes there? Or Andorra just to prove it exists?

Or Athens because you thought Andy has always wanted another holiday in Greece?

But there could only be one winner for the CBI prize of $20 in used singles. Steve Barnes, who correctly guessed Vienna four years ago, came the closest geographically, a mere 900km away.

“Austria has always been a great capital city for me,” says the Barnes. “The best strategy is always stick with a winner. I knew it’d come up again.

“I’ll probably use it next time too.”

L’amitie des nations Puzzlement from the other side of the Atlantic (aka the American end).

“Why are those Limey ELBC organizers mis-spelling next year’s conference venue?” asked one grizzled battery veteran.

“On our good-ole-apple-pieMerkin-map Lyons is spelt with an ‘s’, not ending with a camembert chewing, olive oil swigging, Frenchie ‘n’?

“In fact, I don’t care how you spell it, but where are the golf courses? What’s a battery conference without 18 holes?”

‘Put the win into our winter collection’ Forget the catwalks of Milan or Paris for the latest fashion news. The top models are now heading for UK garages and workshops after GS Yuasa’s magnificent launch of its winter collection.

“Following on from our popular Summer of Sport snack pack collection and Sporting Autumn theme, we are now offering our Winter Warmer collection,” says the firm.

“Put the win into winter with one of our snack packs — they’re crammed full of tasty treats.”

The packs are available for free with Yuasa purchases from distributors in the British Isles. Contents include a tomato and herb pasta or chicken and sweetcorn noodle Mugshot, two sachets of Nescafé Gold, a sachet of Galaxy hot chocolate, a four finger KitKat and a packet of luxury Border biscuits.

As ever the UK leads the way in fashions and fine dining.