Batteries International, Issue 129 — Autumn, 2023

Issue 129

Autumn 2023

The mix and match conundrum Why lead and lithium hybrids struggle ABC full coverage of the year's biggest conference

Dynamic initiative as forum created to investigate slag

How to solve the price puzzle for batteries, EVs

Kubis and the way forward for battery transportation

Bringing the industry together

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T AS L E TH

LD O T E OR F ESS N K AR D OF S E L : TA D R WO

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CI R C

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STER IN MA

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CONTENTS COVER STORY: HYBRID BATTERY COMBINATIONS

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It’s the ultimate mix and match. Combine the strengths of two battery technologies and perhaps, just perhaps, you’ll get something better than either of them.

The secret is in the blend EDITORIAL

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The dilemma of the replacement battery — why the economics of EVs is proving challenging PEOPLE

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David Rand awarded International Lead Medal at 20ABC • Brian Wilson announces retirement after lifetime of humanitarian work • Ecobat looks for new CCO as Soule departs • Doe Run appoints Henriques as sales and marketing director • Metair names new COO, posts ‘robust’ H1 results • Chiang appointed CEO of Leoch• Moeller becomes Remy Battery CEO, Peters is president • It’s official Batteries International ranked world’s no.1 magazine • Masashi becomes ENTEK’s Asia Pacific sales director • Crown joins annual US focus on health and safety •BCI strikes gold with website award… • Zogby to retire from EnerSys, O’Connell named as successor • Ritzert takes over as BMZ Germany CEO • ABC’s Shaffer picks up innovation award for bipolar lead BESS • Gupta appointed human resources chief for Luminous• Hammond promotes Derico, Loosemore to VP positions •ECS award for Argonne Lab scientist • Former Microsoft exec Steen named CEO of Freyr • Rataj steps down as non-exec Cabot chair •Zodl to join Clarios as CFO •Føreid moves on to Morrow •Ecobat promotion for sustainability champion • CRU appoints Nikolic to new North America VP post • Cabot commercial director position for Atanassova • Kinsella to manage new energy in Ireland for Schneider • Reiche to head up lithium recycling for Neometals • Manfred Gelbke appointed as 30th Alpha-Beta member Schneider NEWS

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EU on collision course with China over claims of unfair subsidies •ENTEK to supply separators to KORE from new Indiana plant • Lead more environmentally friendly than lithium, says lifecycle assessment • US Battery pledge on blood lead levels after OSHA probe • Leoch to open Mexico battery plant in Monterrey by year end • Battery enterprise zone earmarked as US-Korea battery/EV axis form •EnerSys, Stryten each secure US submarine lead supply battery deals •Exide Industries set to become $2bn battery giant, CEO says •Amara Raja commits to lead acid as group gets new name •EV batteries to dominate 3.4TWh demand by 2030 — Wood Mackenzie •India launches ‘watershed’ program to fund 4,000MWh of new BESS projects by 2030-31 • Leoch to acquire GS Yuasa lead battery firms in China • Sunlight hits the acquisition trail takes control ofA Müller, Triathlon Holding •Clarios to acquire Paragon battery unit •Investment firm Coronation ups stake on South African battery and auto group Metair • Yuasa provides bespoke hybrid lead-lithium BESS for UK’s Royal Mint • Stellantis and Samsung SDI plan second joint battery plant for US •China’s Gotion secures incentives deal for $2bn Illinois gigafactory •Freyr gets €199m from EU to support Giga Arctic project • GM pushes $60m funding round • Mitras’ iron-based cathodes • Tata to invest £4bn for UK gigafactory • China, Australia in lithium mining spat • Sumitomo Metal Mining invests in Nano One • Northvolt backs deep-sea diving ban • ‘More battery materials mining is needed’ to reach net zero, says study • NGK sodium sulfur, zinc batteries chosen for Hungary ESS demo • Morrow Batteries teams with Gamma in virtual cell R&D • Echion formalizes Inobat anode R&D plan • Proposal for new EU chemicals ban to create a threat to flow batteries • US DoE analysis puts redox batteries as one of many future ESS technologies • AVL appoints Primero Group to build Australia vanadium plant RECYCLING NEWS

Australian watchdog ACCC calls for urgent lithium safety rules • Genex probes fire at modified Australian megapack BESS • NY governor Hochul launches ESS fire safety task force • Firedamaged EV cargo ship analysis underway www.batteriesinternational.com

Promotions at Hammond

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New EU Battery Regulation recycling targets ‘challenging and timeline fanciful’•Taiwan’s ACME Metals testing lead recycling rivals Aqua Metals, ACE Green • STC on track to build first ‘Lead3’ recycling system in Romania • Exide’s Chloride starts up fourth lead recycling plant • Gravita India looks to trading boost for refined lead products • European lithium recycling viable by 2035 with more investment • Portovesme study starts as Li-Cycle • launches Germany recycling plant • UK urged to ramp up training, collaboration for battery recycling •ABB partners Altilium on battery processing • Redwood acquires Redux to move into EU recycling market LITHIUM SAFETY

Masashi becomes ENTEK’s Asia Pacific sales director 14

The much-loved Monahov and the joys of WaveTech 23

43 EU on collision course with China over alleged subsidies 24

Batteries International • Autumn 2023 • 1

CONTENTS FINANCE NEWS

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HSBC pledges $1bn for ESS, in climate tech start-ups • Ford still under pressure over volumes of EV sales, batteries • Gore Street fund picks LSES for California BESS •KKR, Infracapital in $1bn deal for joint control of Zenobe • Ford, Korean firms, Quebec CAMproject wins Canada funding • LGES in $3bn Michigan investment boost in Toyota batteries deal • LGES to invest $1bn green bond proceeds in global battery network • Morrow launches €70m fresh capital to spur production • Questions over Savannah sale of Portugal’s Barosso lithium project

The negative pricing advantage 62

FEATURES NMR offers gateway to better lithium battery understanding

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Battery opportunities for businesses from negative energy pricing

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Drivers for tomorrow’s battery energy world Ray Kubis, battery industry veteran and chairman of bipolar lead developer Gridtential. offers his thoughts on the direction and shape of our future battery transportation needs as per part of this abbrieviated presentation given at ABC in Siem Reap.

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The ever-remarkable ABC

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20ABC — AN EVENT TO REMEMBER Triumph amid the temples 65 The great and the good of the lead battery industry convened on September 8-10 at Siem Reap in Cambodia for the 20th Asia Battery Conference for what proved to be one of the most successful lead conferences in recent years.

The hospital angels of Angkor The ONE Minute Giveback returned for 20ABC and delegates pulled out all the stops to provide for Cambodian children in need and to support the medical teams working in a local hospital. John Shepherd saw at first hand the work being done by…

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EVENT REVIEWS

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Success for the ONE Minute GIveback at Angkor Hospital 72

The 8th International Secondary Lead & Battery Recycling Conference — Recycle 100, Siem Reap, Cambodia resulted in a new forum to research recyclers’ biggest problem, the slag.

News from one of the largest energy storage conferences and exhibitions in the world, The Battery Show, Novi, Michigan, US EVENTS

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Battery Show draws yet biggers crowds to Novi

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Hustler gets hustled!

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Our definitive guide to the global conferences and exhibitions in the months ahead THE LAST WORD 104 The rum smugglers of Siem Reap • Billabong blues in Pub Street • Is that a tight belt you’re wearing, or are you just pleased to see me? • Dreams of the everyday conference attendee

Publisher Karen Hampton karen@batteriesinternational.com +44 7792 852 337

Editor-in-chief Michael Halls editor@batteriesinternational.com +44 7977 016 918

Advertising director Jade Beevor jade@batteriesinternational.com

Digital editor John Shepherd john@batteriesinternational.com +44 7470 046 601 Researcher, journalist Frances Jones frances@batteriesinternational.com

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 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 2023

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EDITORIAL Mike Halls • editor@batteriesinternational.com

The dilemma of the replacement battery Caveat Emptor! Buyer beware! That’s as true now as when the ancient Romans first coined the Latin phrase.

But first a personal case study from the early 2000s. The warranty on the electrics of my new Fiat Multipla ran out after two years. Almost exactly a week after the expiry my electrics went wrong. I went to a garage to fix them.

That’s life. And, to be frank, it was expensive — it was a garage after all — but not hugely so.

But things get much more complicated, and much more expensive, when things go wrong with the battery powering your EV. As the image, courtesy of visualcapitalist.com shows, an EV battery costs approximately 16% to 31% of the value of the car.

Given that the typical warranty on the battery of an EV expires after eight years or 100,000 miles (whichever is first) one should expect that, once the warranty date has been breached, the owner is going to have to be prepared to fork out for a new battery — after all, no battery equals no car.

By kind permission: www.visualcapitalist.com 4 • Batteries International • Autumn 2023

The trouble is that as the EV battery nears the end of its warranty period, the value of the car — and the typical cost of the replacement — start to www.batteriesinternational.com

EDITORIAL make the logic of buying the EV in the first place just a little ridiculous.

The reality is that, for the moment, depreciation of EVs is something that the secondhand car market hasn’t come to grips with. Or not yet it seems.

Here’s one example.

The so-called “breakthrough” Chevrolet Bolt — it had a range of 240 miles on one charge — retailed in 2017 at a basic entry level of $36,000.

To buy a second-hand Bolt in October 2023 from a US dealership, you’d expect to pay around $17,000.

That’s about average for a six-year old car and, for some strange reason, EVs hold their value slightly better than ICE vehicles.

But is this a realistic secondhand price, because in two years’ time a new battery may need to be fitted?

So what is the cost of replacing it? The price of an uncomplicated battery replacement, including parts and labour, is currently around $18,500.

That’s more than the value of the car as it stands.

And, here’s the rub. A new — and far better — Chevrolet Bolt is now retailing at $27,500.

This should send a warning shiver down the spines of prospective EV buyers.

Unfortunately, this message isn’t getting through at all.

Motoring journalists are keen to talk about exciting advances in electric cars rather than the prosaic, and more complicated, story of second-hand values. www.batteriesinternational.com

From the moment the EV nears the end of its warranty period the present value of the car and the value of any replacement battery start to look ridiculous Politicians have an agenda to promote, stories about why EV sales aren’t all positive are simply an inconvenient truth.

In a world that is starting to wake up to the threat of climate change, for them, green credentials are positive for their image.

At the same time, a positive story about EVs and decarbonization will help the political push to achieve enforcement of arbitrary draconic measures — complete with arbitrarily set dates — to end sales of ICE vehicles.

The OEMs are equally inevitably caught up in this deceit too.

As soon as the EV transition comes into effect, for the first time in history the second-hand value of cars will go up rather than down Oddly enough they are ambivalent about this. Car manufacturing representatives have told Batteries International on many occasions — and totally offthe-record — that though they want to sell as many of their EVs that they can, they also hate the fact that governmental interference that has forced them from selling profitable brands to marketing largely unprofitable EVs. One recent estimate reckoned that Ford had lost $72,762 for every EV it sold in Q2 of

this year. But thank heavens for the IRA and government subsidies!

There’s a difficult line in balancing budgets too. The automotive business has, according to some estimates, budgeted at least half-a-trillion dollars — $500,000,000,000 — in the next six years into bringing EVs to a general public that are more concerned about price than the environment.

At a time when most people on medium-sized incomes are squeezed for cash — they have to pay more for, say a family car, than before and its performance won’t be so good as its ICE price equivalent.

There’s one final twist to the dilemma of the replacement battery.

Irrespective of whether there is truth in claims that China has been subsidizing its EV sales, a wave of cheaper cars is poised to come to market. One recent estimate reckoned that there would be close to 700 different models available by 2030.

There is also one utterly unintended consequence of our transition to EVs. Automakers the world over are trying to cut costs with the car to compensate for the high price of the battery.

This means that the last generation of ICE vehicles are probably going to be of a better standard than their EV priced counterparts. And for the first time in history the second-hand value of cars will go up rather than down.

Batteries International • Autumn 2023 • 5

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PEOPLE NEWS

Rand awarded International Lead Medal at 20ABC David Rand, who has spent a lifetime in batteries and energy storage, was awarded the International Lead Award at a special ceremony on the first day of the 20th Asian Battery Conference held at Siem Reap in Cambodia on September 6.

David, 80, has been at the heart of the energy storage world for the past 50 years. His academic achievements — he is the co-inventor of the UltraBattery and one of the electrochemists that solved the early 1990s puzzle of PCL — have been matched by a lively presence in the life of the industry.

David was head of the battery research group at CSIRO in Australia and during his time there made it a policy that all avenues of research were valid if battery performance could be enhanced as a result of this.

The group expanded its activities to alternative battery chemistries and supercapacitors, together with their integration into hybrid energy storagedelivery systems for stationary, mobile and portable applications.

David became a household name in the lead battery industry as being part of a select group charged with solving the seemingly intractable problem facing manufacturers and users alike of VRLA batteries.

The shorthand for the problem was

PCL — premature capacity loss. PCL drastically shortens the life of lead batteries under deep cycling. It was particularly prevalent in batteries with positive plates that were either antimony free and had low-calcium alloys to reduce water loss. Moreover, it was independent of plate design or how the paste was applied.

The problem occurred with flooded batteries and the then new wave of VRLA batteries which had taken the telecoms world by storm in the early 1980s.

David took the chair of the World Study Group into Premature Capacity Loss of Lead Acid Batteries in 1993.

This was formalized in an ALABC programme when David took over as temporary head of the consortium in 1994.

David has been a key figure in the technical assessment of papers presented at the major lead battery conferences run in Asia and Europe. He continues to vet presentations to the ABC — he was there at the first conference in Bangkok in 1987 — as well as its later European counterpart the ELBC. David retired from full-time work at CSIRO in December 2008 but remains as an Honorary Research Fellow.

David has also been one of the key

David Rand, center, with 20ABC conference chair Mark Stevenson and the executive director of the India Lead Zinc Development Association L Pugazhenthy

www.batteriesinternational.com

figures of the World Solar Challenge — one of the more unusual ways of testing battery development — where a solar-powered vehicle has to cross 3,000km from the north of Australia to the south and use battery storage as an essential part of the journey.

In 1987, David formulated the battery regulations for the challenge — strictly speaking it shouldn’t be called a race as it’s a testing ground for EV cars — and continues to promote and participate.

David’s research has been recognized both nationally and internationally.

1991: The Faraday Medal of the Royal Society of Chemistry (UK) 1996: The UNESCO Gaston Planté Medal 2000: The CSIRO Chairman’s Medal 2003 The Australian Centenary Medal 2006 The R.H. Stokes Medal of the Royal Australian Chemical Institute 2008: The International Energy Agency Hydrogen Implementing Agreement Angel Award 2008: The CSIRO Medal for Research Achievement 2013: Member of the Order of Australia 2023: The International Lead Medal.

In 1998, he was elected a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering and in 2000, the University of Cambridge awarded him a Doctor of Science (ScD).

Perhaps one of the nicest tributes to David came many years ago at the Faraday Medal award ceremony.

Speaker at the award, Brian McNicol said, that: “Quite apart from his scientific findings that have had such influence, David has over the years been a persuasive advocate of the role of alternative power sources in society. In many respects he has been an inspiration to us all, never fearing to be controversial when the need rose.

“His energetic participation in, and the leadership of, scientific meetings has been greatly appreciated by the electrochemical community.”

Batteries International • Autumn 2023 • 9

PEOPLE NEWS

Brian Wilson announces retirement after lifetime of humanitarian work Brian Wilson, the lead recycling expert who has advised the ILA, Pure Earth and international agencies around the world, announced at the 8th International Secondary Lead & Battery Recycling Conference in Cambodia in September that he was retiring after having spent a lifetime working in various aspects of the lead industry.

Brian, 75, said “It’s going to be a wrench to leave — but it’s time to step back. In the past 25 years I’ve thoroughly enjoyed working with the industry, NGOs and governments around the world and I wish you all well.”

Brian, a hugely popular figure in the industry, helped set up the International Lead Management Center (ILMC), which charged itself with using lead in a sustainable and environmentally safe manner.

He has led a full and interesting career. After spending 15 years in the oil business he moved to Britannia Refined Metals — part of MIM Holdings, the Australian mining firm which in turn is now a Glencore company — where over the next 15 years his work spanned smelters operation, industrial relations and human resource management.

His experience there allowed him to deal first hand with the issues that the lead industry faces, and the way it tackles them. He was seconded to the ILMC in 1996 from Britannia as program head where he led a team charged with the broad remit to promote the sound environmental management of lead. The ILMC was later absorbed into the International Lead Association.

Over time his remit expanded to include work for the United Nations, various NGOs and in particular his work with Pure Earth which was specifically focused as the safe management of lead, “It would be fair to say that the world is a better place for Brian’s work in it,” says Michael Halls, editor of Batteries International. “Tens of thousands of people in the developing world are alive and well thanks to him and his enormous dedication to showing how lead can be used safely.

“There are battery recycling and

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Wilson after receiving the International Lead Award at the ABC meetings in Singapore in September 2013

manufacturing facilities across the planet — quite literally from Fiji in the Pacific to plants across the Indian subcontinent and Asia and on to West Africa and South America that are grateful for his wise and kindly advice.”

Brian’s work has taken him around for extended periods across the globe spending months at a time and required intensive work at a local level involving liaison with governments, local communities, NGOs among the many that are involved in resolving lead-related issues.

Brian says he intends to enjoy his

retirement and spend more time with his wife Angela. He plans to do more local community work, in particular with doing more teaching disabled children how to swim. (He is a formidable swimmer and swims two to three kilometres, six days a week.)

“I can only pay tribute to his unflagging and tireless work for the Association and the countless people he has helped, the relationships he has cultivated and the vast knowledge of this industry,” says Andy Bush, managing director of the ILA. “He will be sorely missed.”

Over time his remit expanded to include work for the United Nations, various NGOs and in particular his work with Pure Earth which was specifically focused on the safe management of lead Batteries International • Autumn 2023 • 11

PEOPLE NEWS

Ecobat looks for new CCO as Soule departs Ecobat chief commercial officer Thea Soule left the company in August, Batteries International has learned.

Soule, who joined Ecobat in 2020, said on August 15 that she had recently left her post — but she did not give details.

Asked whether she would remain in the battery-related world, Soule said there would be “more news to come on my next endeavour”.

An Ecobat spokesperson told Batteries International: “We can confirm Thea’s departure and express our gratitude for her contributions. The search for a chief commercial officer successor is underway, and updates on the CCO appointment will follow.”

Thea Soule

Soule was a key speaker at June’s Pb2023 International Lead Conference in Athens, where she told delegates that, after spending much of her career in Bra-

zil’s agricultural industry, she had spent the last three years learning and integrating outside-industry experience into the world of battery recycling.

Doe Run appoints Henriques as sales and marketing director The Doe Run Company has appointed Carlos Henriques as director of sales and marketing, the firm announced on July 13.

Doe Run said Henriques brings nearly three decades of sales, marketing, business development and supply chain experience to the company, which is focused

primarily on the metals, mining, automotive, and manufacturing industries in the US, Latin America and Europe.

Before joining Doe Run, Henriques held a number of management posts working with the metals trading sector and related businesses with multinationals such as

Carlos Henriques

12 • Batteries International • Autumn 2023

Johnson & Johnson, Arcelor, Votorantim and most recently Metals Consulting.

Doe Run VP of sales and marketing Lou Magdits said: “With his understanding of the mining and metals industry and experience in the automotive market, Carlos will enable us to capitalize on new opportunities and strengthen our existing relationships.”

Henriques said Doe Run’s access to critical minerals including cobalt, nickel, tin and antimony in resources it owns will enable a whole new generation of electrification.

Around 85% of the lead Doe Run produces is used in lead batteries for cars, including EVs and the company recycles about 8 million lead batteries annually.

Metair names new COO, posts ‘robust’ H1 results Battery and auto components group Metair Investments has appointed Johan Mouton as COO with effect from October 1.

Mouton was most recently technical and logistics director at the BMW Group’s plant in Rosslyn, South Africa. He is also a former VP of the body and press plant at BMW’s Tiexi facility in China.

Metair said Mouton was joining the company on a fixed term contact — but did not disclose details.

Nondumiso Medupe has been appointed as a member of the investment committee, with effect from September 13, Metair said. Medupe serves on the boards of a number of South Africalisted companies and is also CEO of professional services firm Indyebo.

Meanwhile, Metair posted “robust results” for the six months ended June 30 on September 14.

The group reported a 124% increase in operating profit to ZAR324 million ($17 million) compared to the corresponding period last year. Ebitda for the group increased to ZAR536 million.

Metair said its results were buoyed by stronger OEM vehicle production in South Africa and higher profitability from its Turkish lead battery manufacturer, Mutlu Akü.

Johan Mouton

www.batteriesinternational.com

PEOPLE NEWS

Chiang appointed CEO of Leoch Jianwei Chang has been promoted to the post of CEO of Leoch as of August 10. The lead and lithium battery manufacturing group said Chiang, who joined Leoch as CFO in January 2022, will serve a three-year term.

Before Leoch, Chiang was deputy general manager of the finance department of international trade and development firm Shanghai Pengxin Group and CFO of the Shanghai Pengxin Agricultural Investment Group.

He succeeds Haiyan Yin — who has been appointed director of the group’s PRC marketing department and who will continue as an ex-

ecutive director.

Yin became CEO in July 2018, having joined Leoch in 2004 as manager of the finance department. She subsequently held a number of other posts, including finance department VP, before becoming CEO. Singapore-headquartered Leoch signed an agreement last month to acquire a 70% stake in Tianjin GS Battery and Yuasa Battery Shunde, as well as forming a joint venture entity with Japan-based Yuasa.

The group also plans to build a manufacturing plant in Mexico to ramp up its market presence in the Americas.

Jianwei Chang

Moeller becomes Remy Battery CEO, Peters is president

Mike Moeller (pictured above) has taken up the newly created position of CEO at US company Remy Battery. Moeller, who has been president of the Milwaukee-based family business since 1992, confirmed the structural change in the business to Batteries International on July 14.

Moeller said he had appointed John Peters to succeed him as president.

While he has been involved in the battery industry most his life, after graduating from the University of Wisconsin–Whitewater, Moeller cut his teeth in the field working as a salesman for Johnson Controls.

Moeller’s lifelong passion

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for batteries has seen him become one of the most proficient and knowledgeable battery experts in the industry.

He has been the secretary and treasurer of the North American Battery Electrical Specialist Association since 1999 and a member of Battery Council International’s Data Book Committee.

New president Peters has worked his way up at the company since being hired as a delivery driver in 1989.

He has held senior posts including purchasing manager, director of operations and cyber security coordinator.

Remy was established in 1931 and specializes in predominantly lead batteries, cables, and battery accessories.

Batteries International reported last year that Remy had acquired family-run peer Challenger Battery Service in a deal signed in May. Moeller said then that the firms had always been friendly competitors,

“working together in time of need and respecting each other’s business”.

In July 2022, Remy said it had been awarded ISO 9001:2015 certification.

ISO 9001:2015 is a globally recognized quality

management standard developed and published by the ISO Organization.

Remy has two locations in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, one in Wisconsin and Milwaukee, plus the Challenger site.

IT’S OFFICIAL Batteries International ranked world’s No.1 It’s official! Batteries International is the world’s leading battery magazine according to global social media analytics firm Feedspot, released at the end of September.

Feedspot recently ranked Batteries International No.1 of the top 25 battery-related magazines and publications to follow in 2023 — based on the firm’s analysis of thousands of publications on the web after

The first. And still the best A celebration of 25 years of the battery business Quarter century heroes Who've been the movers and shakers of the industry

The VRLA revolution The challenging route from Devitt to mass adoption

A life in energy storage David Rand and the road towards the UltraBattery

Virtual power plants Energy storage moves into the utility business

IDE KS AR ED TH M RO F LES TA Bringing the industry try together D: OR www.batteriesinternational.com national.com TW AS $50/€40 $50/€ / 40 EL TH

evaluating traffic, social media followers and freshness.

Batteries International • Autumn 2023 • 13

PEOPLE NEWS

Masashi becomes ENTEK’s Asia Pacific sales director

Kaneko Masashi (pictured above) has been promoted to the newly created post of director of sales Asia Pacific for ENTEK, the company announced on September 5.

ENTEK said Masashi will draw on his expertise in products and market understanding of PE and AGM separators for the lead battery industry.

He and his team will also support ENTEK’s expanding lithium separator business across the region.

Masashi has a long history with NSG’s battery separator division, which was acquired by ENTEK in September 2021.

Clint Beutelschies, VP of global sales and marketing for ENTEK, said Masashi’s leadership and market knowledge had been invaluable during the integration of the firm’s businesses.

Crown joins annual US focus on health and safety

Crown Battery joined peers and companies from all sectors of US industry taking part in this year’s nationwide Safe + Sound Week, which ended on August 13.

During the week, organized annually by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, the lead battery manufacturer highlights three key initiatives including finding and fixing potential workplace hazards, promoting well-being

and mental health support and encouraging communication and feedback about safety awareness.

Crown Battery president and CEO Hal Hawk said the company had an allyear-round commitment to a zero-harm culture that protects the firm’s most valuable assets — its employees.

“Employees are our most important mission-critical asset,” Hawk said.

BCI strikes gold with website award…

Battery Council International has won a gold ‘dotCOMM’ award for its recently relaunched website.

BCI secured victory in the website redesign category of the awards — an international competition honouring excellence in web creativity and digital communication — run and judged by the Association of Marketing and Communication Professionals.

BCI’s overhauled website went live earlier this year, ahead of next year’s centenary of the trade association for battery manufacturers and recyclers in North America.

BCI merged the content of its two previous sites — one general for consumers and BCI members and its ‘Essential Energy Every-

day’ site, which had been devoted to lead battery thought leadership and education.

Roger Miksad, president and executive director of BCI, said the new website “reaffirms the association’s commitment to be the definitive authority on credible, timely information related to sustainable energy storage.”

In June, BCI announced it had also launched an updated and improved website for Source BCI, its data base for vehicle battery fitment.

… and then platinum for ALBCI program BCI announced on September 6 it had won a platinum ‘dotCOMM’ team achievement award for one of the organization’s key communication

14 • Batteries International • Autumn 2023

programs.

The 2023 award — for the Advancing Lead Battery Communications Initiative (ALBCI) — comes from an international competition recognizing excellence in web creativity and digital communications, which is run and judged by the Association of Marketing and Communication Professionals.

Platinum is the highest level of award and is for the newly-created team achievement category.

In addition to BCI and its strategic marketing partner, Activated Growth, team companies receiving the platinum recognition are Clarios, East Penn Manufacturing, Ecobat, EnerSys, Interstate Batteries, Redland Energy Group, Stryten Energy, The Doe Run Company

and Teck Resources.

BCI’s VP of strategic communications, Lisa Dry, has managed the ALBCI program since its launch in 2017.

Dry said: “Receiving the Team Achievement Award for our collective body of work is an honour that resonates both professionally and personally.

“Professionally, it signifies the remarkable power of collaboration, where diverse talents unite with a shared purpose to drive meaningful change.”

Personally, Dry said the award reflects the dedication and passion of each team member.

“Together, we’ve harnessed innovation and perseverance to illuminate how a brighter, sustainable future is possible with lead batteries.”

www.batteriesinternational.com

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PEOPLE NEWS

Zogby to retire from EnerSys, O’Connell named as successor

Andrew Zogby (pictured), president of energy systems global for EnerSys, is to retire on March 31 next

year, the battery maker said on September 20.

Zogby will be succeeded by motive power global president Shawn O’Connell.

Zogby, known to his colleagues as ‘Drew’, has spent the past 15 years at EnerSys and Alpha Technologies, which was acquired by EnerSys in 2018.

He also spent 30 years in broadband, telecoms, renewable energy and tech industries.

EnerSys president and CEO David Shaffer said: “Drew’s dedication, pas-

sion and commitment have played a pivotal role in the successful integration of Alpha Technologies, while managing the business through the unprecedented impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic, resulting in significant revenue growth and positioning our company as an industry leader.”

O’Connell, who joined EnerSys in 2011, has held

a number of posts in the company including VP of advanced systems and VP of reserve power sales and service for the Americas.

Shaffer said O’Connell’s prior experience and proven track record make him the ideal successor to build, inspire, and motivate teams.

EnerSys said it is launching a search for a successor to O’Connell.

ABC’s Shaffer picks up innovation award for bipolar lead BESS

Ritzert takes over as BMZ Germany CEO Germany’s BMZ lithium battery systems group said on July 26 it had appointed Volker Ritzert as CEO of BMZ Germany, effective August 1.

Ritzert will succeed Sven Bauer, BMZ’s founder and main shareholder, who becomes CEO of the entire BMZ group.

Ritzert has held senior management posts with international firms including Brose, Valeo, Faurecia and Gerresheimer.

Volker Ritzert

www.batteriesinternational.com

Bauer will focus on steering the group’s global fortunes amid “exponential growth” of the business, which has a number of international subsidiaries, BMZ said.

Bauer said BMZ is forming a permanent global management team as current estimates predict annual growth of 30% for the global battery market until 2030.

“Our market monitoring already indicates that these estimates are still far too low,” Bauer said.

In May, BMZ Germany appointed Oliver Makko as CFO and Andreas Krist as chief purchasing officer and M&A manager.

Also in May Visatronic, the newly acquired electronic flat modules producer subsidiary of BMZ, said it would invest nearly €4 million ($4.3 million) to expand production capacity.

Business leaders in the US state of Michigan have named Advanced Battery Concepts’ innovative bipolar lead BESS as their project of the year.

ABC picked up the award for its BOX-BE energy storage system on September 30 from the Michigan Energy Innovation Business Council (EBIC).

ABC’s CEO Ed Shaffer (right) was presented with the award at the annual Michigan Energy Innovators Gala in Detroit.

The EBIC also presented a business of the year award to Our Next

Energy, which started production of its Aries LFP battery pack earlier this year.

A partnership aimed at building and selling bipolar lead battery technology energy storage systems in India was announced

by ABC and Exide Industries last November.

The companies signed a non-binding letter of intent agreeing to “scope-out and define a program” for jointly commercializing BOX-BE systems, comprising the firm’s proprietary EverGreenSeal bipolar battery technology, for the Indian market.

Batteries International • Autumn 2023 • 17

PEOPLE NEWS

Gupta appointed human resources chief for Luminous Shikha Gupta has been appointed chief human resources officer by Luminous Power Technologies in India, the company said on September 4.

Gupta joins Luminous from the firm’s parent group, Schneider Electric.

She will report to Luminous CEO and MD Preeti

Bajaj and also head up CSR and administration.

At Schneider, Gupta was director of HR and diversity, equity and inclusion for India and South Asia.

Before joining Schneider in 2011 Gupta, an electrical engineer, worked with international companies including JP Morgan Chase,

Wipro and Infosys Tech.

Bajaj said: “As we continue to grow and innovate in the fast-moving energy sector, Shikha’s expertise will play a pivotal role in shaping our organizational culture and building cross collaboration among the Schneider Electric companies.”

Hammond promotes Derico, Loosemore to VP positions Hammond Group has announced the promotion of two long-term employees, Dan Loosemore and Lisa Derico, to key VP roles.

The company told Batteries International today that Loosemore had recently been appointed VP of Hammond’s North American operations with responsibility for both the Pottstown, Pennsylvania and Hammond, Indiana Oxide plants, in addition to the group’s expander plant.

Loosemore has been with Hammond for over 19 years and has more than 30 years of industry experience.

Derico has been appointed VP of human resources and has responsibility for employee health and safety.

She has been with Hammond for 17 years.

Hammond last December announced mid two senior fellows to guide its Innovation Leadership Council. They are John Miller, recently senior director of engineering for Stryten Energy, and Francisco Trinidad, recently the director of battery technology for Exide Europe.

Hammond president and CEO Terry Murphy said: “Lisa and Dan represent the depth and quality of our management team and our

desire to mentor and grow our internal workforce.”

Murphy said Loosemore had shown exceptional management ability in overseeing operations of the expander facility and was ready to take on additional responsibilities.

Derico helped to develop and execute key Hammond goals such as the company’s benefit programs, including 401(k) and employee stock ownership plans, Murphy said.

Lisa Derico

Dan Loosemore

ECS award for Argonne Lab scientist

Senior Argonne National Laboratory scientist Shirley Meng has been honoured by The Electrochemical Society for her work on battery tech innovations.

Argonne said on July 10 Meng will be presented with the ECS 2023 battery division research award in October, in recognition of her work on interfacial

18 • Batteries International • Autumn 2023

science, which has led to improved battery technologies, Meng is chief scientist at the Argonne Collaborative Center for Energy Storage Science and is a professor at the Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering at The University of Chicago.

Her research focuses primarily on energy storage materials and systems, specifically rechargeable batteries for EVs and trucks, power sources for the internet of things and grid-scale storage integration with renewables.

ECS highlighted two

papers published last year

by Meng in the Journal of The Electrochemical Society, one exploring the use of external mechanical pressure to regulate the growth of dendrites that form at the interfaces in batteries and lead to an electrical short.

The second paper looked at the process of lithium plating and stripping in rechargeable lithium batteries.

The battery division research award was established in 1958 to encourage excellence in battery and fuel cell research.

www.batteriesinternational.com

PEOPLE NEWS

Former Microsoft exec Steen named CEO of Freyr Former Microsoft executive Birger Steen has been appointed CEO of Freyr Battery, as part of a leadership shake-up announced by the company on August 10.

Steen, is a former worldwide VP of distribution and small-medium business at Microsoft in Seattle, VP and GM at Microsoft Russia and GM at Microsoft Norge.

He chairs the boards of Nordic Semiconductor and Pagero and succeeds Freyr co-founder Tom Einar Jensen — who has been appointed executive chair of the Norway-based battery developer’s board.

Both appointments, ef-

Birger Steen (left) with Tom Einar Jensen

fective August 21, follow the retirement on August 9 of founder and executive

chair Torstein Dale Sjøtveit.

Sjøtveit said Freyr would

“continue to push the frontiers of innovation and apply new technologies to next-generation battery manufacturing”.

Freyr plans to develop up to 43GWh of battery cell production capacity by 2025, with an ambition of up to 83GWh in total capacity by 2028.

Last month, Freyr said it had been awarded €100 million ($112 million) from the European Union to support its Giga Arctic project in Norway.

Last November, Freyr announced it had bought a site in the US state of Georgia to build its planned Giga America battery cells manufacturing plant.

Rataj steps down as non-exec Cabot chair Cabot’s non-executive chair Sue Rataj (above, left) is to step down effective October 1, ahead of her retirement next May, the battery materials company has announced.

Rataj has been a director of Cabot since 2011 and became non-executive chair in 2018. She is also chair of the governance and nominating and executive committees — posts she will continue to hold until her retirement.

www.batteriesinternational.com

Cabot president and CEO Sean Keohane, said: “We have benefited greatly from Sue’s substantial leadership and strategic planning experience, her business acumen, and her deep knowledge of the chemicals industry and industrial manufacturing operations. We will miss her insight and leadership, and we wish her the best in her retirement.”

Rataj will be succeeded by audit committee chair Michael Morrow and Frank Wilson will become audit committee chair.

Wilson will also join the company’s governance and nominating committee.

Meanwhile, Michelle Williams (above, right) was elected to the board of Cabot effective September 13.

Williams, who also joins the board’s audit committee, was global group president of Altuglas In-

ternational — a subsidiary of chemicals and materials group Arkema — until her retirement in 2021.

She is also a director of

US technical equipment manufacturer the Brady Corporation, where she chairs the technology committee.

Zodl to join Clarios as CFO Clarios said on August 21 it had appointed Helmut Zodl as its new CFO effective September 1.

Zodl joins Clarios from GE Healthcare where he was also CFO and led the spin-off of the company from its parent, listing GE Healthcare on the NASDAQ. A native Austrian, Zodl

is also a former group CFO for air conditioning, white goods and industrial automation firm Midea in China.

Clarios president and CEO Mark Wallace said Zodl’s international expertise in the automotive industry made him an outstanding choice for his new post.

Zodl succeeds John DiBert, who left Clarios in April to become CFO at Air Canada in his hometown of Montreal.

Batteries International • Autumn 2023 • 19

PEOPLE NEWS

Føreid moves on to Morrow Steffen Føreid has joined Norway’s Morrow Batteries as CFO as of October 9, the company has announced. Føreid was most recently interim CFO at Norwegian hydrogen power developer Gen2 Energy and is a former CFO of other companies including battery developer rival Freyr.

Morrow CEO Lars Christian Bacher said Føreid’s 15 years’ CFO experience across energy and

maritime sectors — and his involvement with battery manufacturing, hydrogen and oil and gas industries — would be invaluable as the company expands its business.

Morrow stands poised to tap into a number of promising opportunities, Bacher said.

In July, Morrow announced it had achieved an 86% yield of battery cells production at its customer qualification in South Ko-

Ecobat promotion for sustainability champion

Ecobat has promoted Stefanie Scruggs (pictured) to chief sustainability and health, safety and environmental officer, the company said on August 1. Ecobat praised Scruggs for the critical role she has played

since joining the company last summer.

From improving blood lead levels to releasing the Ecobat Sustainability Report, her leadership has pushed our organization to the forefront of sustainability and safety standards, Ecobat said.

Under Scruggs’ guidance, Ecobat said it had adopted improved HSE initiatives and increased accountability for meeting safety goals.

In her new role, Scruggs will continue to lead efforts that ensure our safety and sustainability practices set the gold standard for the entire industry, the company said.

BMZ appoints Jelica Ivanovska as new GM for North Macedonian production site BMZ Group announced plans on September 5 to build a new production plant in North Macedonia.

Jelica Ivanovska has been appointed its general manager.

BMZ said Ivanovska’s 20 years in the business management sector, includes working for companies

such as Johnson Controls, as well as experience launching greenfield operations in the North Macedonian market, mergers and acquisitions.

The group said it had targeted the country for expansion because of a shortage of skilled workers in Germany and Poland.

20 • Batteries International • Autumn 2023

rea just four months after opening.

Morrow started test production at Chungju-si in February and had produced more than 600 prismatic cells with NMC battery chemistry as of July.

On September 22, Morrow said it was raising up to €70 million ($74 million) in new capital as it moves toward commercial production.

The firm’s first gigawatthour LNMO battery cells

Steffen Føreid

factory in Arendal in the south of Norway should start up early next year.

CRU appoints Nikolic to new North America VP post CRU, the research consultancy, has appointed Frank Nikolic as North America VP for base and battery metals, the company said on September 14.

In this newly created post, Nikolic will have a particular focus on the energy transition and how firms should make the most of opportunities, CRU said.

Before joining the data and intelligence firm Nikolic was head of commercial operations for Vale.

CRU head of base metals Simon Morris said Nikolic was joining at a critical time for the sector, as decarbonization, economic volatility and geopolitical tensions redefine the future for mined commodities.

Cabot commercial director position for Atanassova Cabot Corporation has promoted Paolina Atanassova to commercial director for EMEA battery materials.

Atanassova, whose appointment was announced on LinkedIn in August, is based in Germany.

She was previously senior business development manager and is a former senior technical market development manager for the battery materials group.

Cabot told Batteries International in March it was opening a new lab in Germany to help boost lithium ion battery tech for EVs — but said the

firm remained committed to also supporting development of next-generation lead batteries.

However, over the past two years Cabot has been noticeably absent or had a low profile at the major lead battery conferences.

www.batteriesinternational.com

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PEOPLE NEWS

Kinsella to manage Manfred Gelbke new energy in Ireland appointed as 30th for Schneider Alpha-Beta member Schneider Electric said on August 22 it had appointed Darren Kinsella to the newly created post of business development manager, new energy landscapes.

Kinsella, who has more than 20 years’ experience in the electrical industry, started on June 19 and reports to Mark Keogh, sales director of Schneider Electric Ireland.

Schneider said Kinsella will guide the company’s customers and partners through the energy transition including the rollout of EVs in Ireland and setting up microgrid systems.

Before Schneider, Kinsella was CEO of charging tech company Darkin EV. He is also VP of the Association of Electrical Contractors in Ireland and a founding member of the Electric Vehicle Charger Installers Association of Ire-

Darren Kinsella

land, which sets standards for EV chargers and infrastructure in Ireland.

Since joining Schneider, Kinsella has been appointed to the board of Smart Grid Ireland, an independent network of industry stakeholders, academia, and government representatives working to promote the adoption of smart grid technologies and sustainable solutions.

The Schneider group includes Indian backup power and solar tech firm Luminous Power Technologies.

Reiche to head up lithium recycling for Neometals Battery materials producer Neometals said on October 6 it had appointed Christian Reiche to lead the Australia-based firm’s lithium ion battery recycling activities.

Over a 20-year career he has headed MercedesBenz’s first EV project and was responsible for Volkswagen lithium battery recycling work.

Neometals’ MD Chris Reed said Reiche was a key addition to the team.

“Given the nascent nature of integrated lithium ion battery recycling, there is understandably a small pool of executives with deep OEM experience in and around the

battery recycling sector.”

In March, Primobius — a joint venture of Neometals and German mechanical engineering firm SMS — held a ground-breaking ceremony for an EV battery recycling factory in Germany being built with Mercedes-Benz.

Christian Reiche

22 • Batteries International • Autumn 2023

The Alpha-Beta Society, an informal group of scientists who have made outstanding contributions to the development of the lead acid battery industry, has appointed Manfred Gelbke as its 30th member.

Gelbke, who has a doctorate in chemistry from Humboldt University, started his career in the lead battery industry in 1985.

He has worked as head of R&D and in several other positions at industrial battery producer BAE in Germany up to 1999.

In 2000, he moved to Akkumulatorenfabrik MOLL as head of R&D and technical customer support.

He then took on responsibility for development of automotive batteries (PbCa-flooded, AGM, EFB) and battery monitoring systems.

At the 14th European lead Battery Conference in 2014, on behalf of several other researchers and academics, Gelbke presented a paper entitled the Influence of the Interactions Between Carbon and Organic Expander on the Crystallization Behaviour of Lead in Lead Acid Battery Electrodes.

He ‘retired’ from the industry in 2015 — when he launched a lead battery technology consultancy for Europe and Asia.

Gelbke’s expertise includes the development and introduction to market of enhanced flooded batteries for micro-hybrid cars.

He has also worked on acid stratification, impedance-based battery diagnostics, interaction between carbon and organic expanders and authored, with Christian Mondoloni, the chapter Flooded starting-lighting-ignition and enhanced flooded batteries for the textbook Lead-Acid Batteries for Future Automobiles.

The Alpha-Beta Society was co-founded by Ernst Voss (Varta) and David Rand (CSIRO) in 1989.

The objective was for lead battery scientists to collaborate — and socialize — while grappling with the ever-emerging demands that new applications place upon the science of lead batteries.

The society appoints one new member every year — last year’s appointee was Mark Stevenson.

Alpha-Beta grand master Juergen Garche told Batteries International the society would formally celebrate Gelbke’s election in November.

The Alpha-Beta Society was cofounded by Ernst Voss (Varta) and David Rand (CSIRO) in 1989. www.batteriesinternational.com

POINT OF VIEW: BORIS MONAHOV Boris Monahov provides a personal perspective on joining the WaveTech Group and the excitement of being its chief science officer.

When heart and head come together Soon after retiring from the ALABC, I joined a battery innovation company, WaveTech Group, as its chief science officer. So, what attracted me to this relatively small company? This start-up (created in 2003 by two Norwegians — the late Ove Aanensen and Dag Valand) used to be a long-term member of the Consortium. That put me in a good position to understand more fully their approach, targets and results.

In field tests the company achieved a doubling of service life — that was a wow for me! The plans of WTG looked attractive to me as a scientific challenge and having the potential to improve battery operation in a specific and inexpensive way.

I liked the goals of the team for batteries in energy storage systems, which are in complete accordance with those formulated as key performance indicators in the CBI’s R&D pathway for energy storage: helping customers in delivering reliable and sustainable energy, increasing cycle life and roundtrip efficiency, and reducing operating costs.

These goals are achieved in an interesting fashion — effectively from outside the battery, so this is done without changing materials and technology but by applying of specific charge profiles based on electrochemistry. These allow optimizing the processes inside the battery by increasing its power performance, extending its service life, and enhancing its energy throughput while reducing operating costs.

This approach utilizes the benefits of the group’s patented crystal control technology (CCT) for providing green energy storage in lead batteries in a world with circular battery industry.

So, some quick facts about WaveTech Group.

First, it’s a global company with its headquarters in Germany but has facilities in the US, Turkey and Bulgaria.

We’re an enthusiastic international team of about 60 people. The headquarters are in Rheinbach, near Bonn; the sales center is in Istanbul and a new R&D center of WaveTech was built in

www.batteriesinternational.com

The combination of all these technologies allows us to squeeze out much more of the battery without changing cell design and material — ie at minimal cost 2020 in Sofia and a technical center for battery testing and analyses is in Extron, Pennsylvania.

We have three professors and four PhD battery electrochemists that are progressing our technology, along with a group of engineers and technicians with long experience in lead batteries.

Most of them come from my previous alma mater, the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, bringing about 300 years of battery research and development experience. CCT is being developed further here and is upgraded by new ideas and technologies So what distinguishes WTG from other battery start-ups? And why is it attractive to me after having known, over the years, so many research labs and leading battery companies?

The R&D team of the group is focused on further development of the BEAT devices created two decades ago.

These generate a specifically modulated electric signal (the base of CCT),

which is supplied to charging batteries for modifying the mobility of ions and crystallization inside the battery, and for keeping the optimal porous microstructure and homogeneous phase composition of the active materials.

In addition, innovative technologies are created for fast, in-situ evaluation of the state of charge of VRLA batteries, for recovering of battery condition in case of early capacity loss, for monitoring the operational parameters of the battery 24/7 and analyzing the results.

The combination of all these technologies allows us to squeeze out much more of the battery without changing cell design and materials — ie at minimal cost.

This gives me the optimism to expect that we can make lead batteries last and perform well as long as other advanced chemistries but at more competitive costs — that’s just what the customers of energy storage need.

Batteries International • Autumn 2023 • 23

NEWS

EU on collision course with China over claims of unfair subsidies The EU formally opened an investigation into Chinese subsidies for EVs on October 4, amid fears Beijing could steer Europe’s green energy transition off course.

European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen pre-announced the move in her state of the union speech on September 13, accusing Beijing of “flooding global markets with cheaper Chinese electric cars” and using huge state subsidies to keep prices artificially low.

“This is distorting our market. We do not accept this from the inside and do not accept this from the outside.”

The Commission said it has evidence that prices of Chinese imports are subsidized and significantly lower compared to the prices of Europe’s EV industry — which could quickly face unsustainable losses if the situation goes unchecked.

Von der Leyen said the EV sector was crucial for the clean economy with huge potential for Europe, which is “open for competition not for a race to the bottom”.

There has also been a “recent surge in low-priced and subsidized imports of electric vehicles from China into the EU”, the Commission said.

Von der Leyen said the investigation will be “thorough, fair, and fact-based” and the Chinese government could comment and give evidence.

The investigation, details of which are on line, should last just over a year.

The probe comes eight months after von der Lyen threatened tough action against China and other countries — such as the US and its Inflation Reduction Act — over “aggressive”

Von der Leyen — the investigation will be “thorough, fair, and fact-based”

moves to lure industrial projects including battery manufacturing away from the EU. And in June, European Commission VP and batteries czar, Maroš Šefcovic, said the bloc was monitoring “massive” Chinese and US battery industry subsidies.

However, the China Chamber of Commerce to the EU expressed “strong concern and opposition” to the investigation in a statement issued on September 13 — pointing out that

Chinese EV and battery makers already have commercial partnerships with European firms in EU countries as well as China.

“China enjoys a robust cooperative partnership with the European and global automotive industry networks, and the creation of each EV involves the collaborative efforts of tens of thousands of suppliers from around the world.”

The Chamber said the EU’s commitment to an open market “must be translated into tangible measures” without discriminating against foreign firms.

“Efforts to restrict products solely based on their country of origin would run counter to the EU’s World Trade Organization commitments.”

German foreign minister Annalena Baerbock told Bloomberg TV on September 17 she supported the EU investigation, despite concerns about potential

retaliation.

Baerbock said von der Lyen’s commitment to “derisk and not decouple” in terms of EU relations with China was the right approach.

“If you are bound too closely (with China) you can endanger yourself,” Baerbock said.

Separately, Germany’s Bundesbank warned in its latest monthly report, published on September 18, that the country should scale back its reliance on China.

The bank said 29% of German companies imported essential materials and parts from China, exposing their operations to “significant” damage if this trade route were to be disrupted as a result of “increasing geopolitical tensions”.

Nevertheless, the bank said German companies were already taken measures to reduce the strong focus on China when purchasing critical materials.

ENTEK to supply separators to KORE from new Indiana plant KORE Power will use lithium separators manufactured at ENTEK’s new plant under construction in Indiana, the companies announced on September 12.

KORE will buy separators for both NMC and LFP battery cells produced at its Arizona KOREPlex facility.

Under the terms of the agreement, which runs until at least 2031, ENTEK will supply enough separators for KOREPlex’s initial 7GWh capacity and could later double the amount.

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

24 • Batteries International • Autumn 2023

The supply agreement followed ENTEK’s September 6 announcement that it had broken ground at the site of its $1.5 billion lithium ion battery separators production plant in Indiana.

Indiana governor Eric Holcomb, Larry Keith, CEO of ENTEK and Kimberly Medford, president of ENTEK Manufacturing, were among those attending the event at Terre Haute, which marked the formal start of construction on the 1.4 million ft² plant by design-build contractor Clayco.

Operations are set to start in 2025-2027.

Holcomb said the project would have a transformational impact on the region for generations to come.

The plant is set to produce up to 1.4 billion m² of battery separators annually — enough to supply material for about 1.4 million EVs every year.

In August, KORE announced an agreement to supply batteries for Energy Vault energy storage systems manufactured in the US. KORE will start supplying Energy Vault in 2025 after the first phase of its KOREPlex facility comes on line.

www.batteriesinternational.com

NEWS

Lead more environmentally friendly than lithium, says lifecycle assessment Lead batteries are four times better for the environment than lithium batteries.

That’s the conclusion of a cradle-to-grave study — Comparative LCA of Lead and LFP Batteries for Automotive Applications — released on September 20 comparing 12V lead and lithium iron phosphate ones.

The lifecycle assessment, conducted in 2021 in North America. is now available in full online. It was conducted

by Sphera Solutions, according to ISO 14040/44, the international standards on lifecycle assessment.

The independent report was commissioned by — but not written by — Battery Council International and the International Lead Association.

Lead batteries also have a lower global warming potential (GWP) than LFPs under assumptions taken in the baseline scenario of the results of the study.

GWP is the most used metric for quantifying the

ability of greenhouse gases to trap heat in the atmosphere.

The study compared including raw material extraction and processing, inbound transport to the production facility, battery materials manufacturing, battery assembly, usage of the battery over the lifetime of the vehicle and end-of-life treatment.

Small differences were noted between all batteries assessed across most categories, with lead batteries performing better in the baseline scenario due to lower burdens in manufacturing (ranging from 90% to 39% depending on the impact category).

And despite the claimed weight, lifetime, and energy density advantages currently presented by LFP batteries, the study the overall environmental performance of lead and LFP batteries are roughly equivalent over the lifespan of the vehicle.

The near-100% recyclability of lead batteries was also

Leoch to open Mexico battery plant in Monterrey by year end Leoch’s new battery assembly plant in Mexico will be operational by the end of this year, owner and chairman Dong Li told Batteries International on September 18. The new plant will be in Monterrey, in north-eastern Mexico The Singapore-headquartered company said in March that it had selected Mexico because of its unique geographical location and “export policy advantages” for the region — such as the USMCA free trade agreement (formerly NAFTA) between the US, Canada and Mexico.

Leoch is not receiving government incentives for the project.

www.batteriesinternational.com

Meanwhile, in its interim half-year results for the period up to June 30, published on September 18, Leoch said the group remains confident in future demand for its lead batteries, given that startstop batteries continue to be an “indispensable component” of most EVs in addition to other motor vehicles.

But Leoch’s flagship factory in the eastern Chinese province of Anhui will focus on the production and R&D of lithium batteries and plans to gradually ramp up manufacturing capacity, the report said.

Leoch’s overall revenue for the first half of this year amounted to Rmb6 billion ($823 million).

a key factor in the study’s results. Additionally, the design of lead batteries, which share the same basic chemistry and have minimal components, contributes to the ease of recycling.

“In contrast, today’s LFP batteries only use primary

materials, including lithium carbonate and phosphorus, as well as electronics that use precious metals (which are recovered),” the study says.

Another factor is the challenge of recycling lithium battery waste — “a process that is in its infancy”.

US Battery pledge on blood lead levels after OSHA probe The US Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) cited US Battery Manufacturing for four violations on September 27. It found the company had exposed employees to unsafe levels of lead and said the firm faced $160,000 in penalties.

OSHA said investigations opened in May found the Augusta, Georgia, company failed to have engineering and work practice controls in place to reduce exposures to lead and did not prevent lead from accumulating on surfaces.

OSHA also said the deep cycle battery firm had exposed workers to lead levels in concentrations greater than permissible — and did not ensure employees’

respirators were cleaned and disinfected.

The violations followed others in 2018 and 2019.

A company spokesperson told Batteries International the firm was fully committed to ensuring the health and safety of its employees.

US Battery uses engineering and administrative controls, personal protective equipment and monitoring of lead exposure as required by the OSHA standard.

“We have invested tremendous amounts of time and money into these areas and our efforts have generated blood lead levels in all of our employees which are significantly lower than those required by OSHA,” the spokesperson said.

Battery enterprise zone earmarked as US-Korea battery/EV axis form South Korea’s government said on August 17 it had designated one of the country’s key industrial sites to fast track investment to develop a secondary battery enterprise zone.

Commentators say that South Korea is getting into bed with the US in the provision of lithium technology and Michigan EV automotive aspirations.

Deputy prime minister Choo Kyung-ho told an emergency ministerial meet-

ing called to discuss export and investments that the Saemangeum Industrial Complex, in the west of the country, would become a “future growth engine” for batteries.

The announcement follows Korea’s pledge this April to launch a multibillion dollar program to defend and expand its battery industry amid fears lucrative US tax breaks and incentives are tipping the global battery trade balance stateside.

Batteries International • Autumn 2023 • 25

NEWS

EnerSys, Stryten each secure US submarine lead supply battery deals EnerSys said on September 18 it had secured a new $91.8 million multi-year contract to supply its thin plate pure lead batteries to the US Navy as main storage batteries on all four classes of nuclear submarines.

EnerSys said its contract was a continuation of a relationship where it has supplied TPPL batteries for US submarines for more than 15 years.

Mark Matthews, senior VP specialty global, said in addition to supplying

TPPL tech, EnerSys also looked forward to supporting the navy and DoD with the company’s advanced lithium cobalt and proprietary lithium ion chemistries.

Separately, Stryten Energy announced on September 12 it was awarded part of a five-year contract by the US Department of Defense to supply its E-series SVRLA AGM battery tech and components for submarines.

Under its contract, Stryten will start supplying bat-

teries this autumn through to the summer of 2028.

Last year, Stryten formed two new divisions — Motive Power and Essential Power — focused on developing and producing multiple battery technologies, including lead, for the energy storage market.

Motive Power includes advanced lead and lithium batteries, intelligent chargers and energy performance management software solutions for material handling, mining and railway applications. Its team

includes stored energy experts whose work includes power studies, training and inspections.

Essential Power includes advanced lead, lithium and vanadium battery technologies and services, including chargers and racking systems used for backup power for the military and government, telecommunications, UPS systems, railway, utility, microgrids and longduration energy storage for renewable power sources.

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26 • Batteries International • Autumn 2023

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NEWS

Exide Industries set to become $2bn battery giant, CEO says Indian batteries producer Exide Industries is now close to being a $2 billion midcap business and is poised to unveil new investments in its core lead acid technology, MD and CEO Subir Chakraborty has revealed.

Chakraborty said in the firm’s annual report, released on July 13, that Exide had flourished from being a single factory in West Bengal 75 years ago to become a “manufacturing behemoth” — with factories in six Indian states and an export footprint in 60 countries.

He said Exide achieved a post-tax profit of Rs904 crore ($110 million) for the 2022-23 financial year, an increase of 18% over the previous year.

Market capitalization surpassed Rs15,000 crore on March 31, “meaning we are now almost a $2 billion enterprise”, Chakraborty said.

Ebitda for the year was

Rs1,568 crore.

Chakraborty said Exide will now build on its core lead acid batteries business by investing in advanced product development, including the commercial release next year of new AGM VRLA batteries for the auto sector.

Over the past year, the report says Exide secured lucrative contracts including a partnership with an unnamed major OEM for the supply of AGM batteries to support their transition from flooded batteries to more advanced and efficient AGM batteries.

Punched plate technology, which Exide said has seen “great success” in batteries for 4-wheeler vehicles, is now at an advanced stage to be launched for two-wheeler batteries.

The company also continues to deploy its high performance sealed batteries

Amara Raja commits to lead acid as group gets new name Amara Raja Batteries changed its name to Amara Raja Energy & Mobility as of September 28 — stressing that its lead battery roots would continue as one of two key pillars of its future operations.

The other pillar will be lithium-based tech as the India-headquartered group develops further in sectors such as battery storage, cell manufacturing, renewables and battery management systems.

Jayadev Galla (pictured), chairman and MD, said the group had made significant investments in its in-house R&D capabilities in recent years while also partnering with companies “at the forefront of new energy technologies”.

Vikramadithya Gourineni, executive director of the group’s new energy business

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said: “Our transition is more than just a name change — it reflects our move away from being battery-only.”

In a related move, on September 29, the group confirmed it was paying Rs. 1 billion crore ($12 million) in cash to acquire Amara Raja Power Systems from RNgalla Family Private Limited — a company established by the Amara Raja’s founder and former chairman, Ramachandra Galla, who stepped down from the batteries group in 2021.

The acquisition should be completed within three months, subject to various regulatory conditions.

In May, Amara Raja broke ground for its 16GWh lithium battery cells factory and research complex in the southern Indian state of Telangana.

to capitalize on growing demand in the telecoms sector with the rollout of 5G. Meanwhile, the firm expects to ramp up production of its solar batteries to meet what the report said is an expected “solar revolution” in India.

Exide’s foray into the lithium ion sector is also gathering pace.

The company’s Exide Energy Private subsidiary, which operates the Nexcharge brand, is already supplying high-quality lithium ion battery modules and packs — and has provided “invaluable insights into achieving excellence in Indian climatic conditions and safety requirements”. The report said “industrial exports have faced numerous headwinds, starting with the Ukraine war and winter recession in Europe.

“However, we are confident of bouncing back. To mitigate the risks associated with certain markets, efforts have been made to broadbase our exports by entering new and under-served markets such as Korea and Southeast Asia.” Exide said it will continue to scope out new and untapped markets to expand sales across its product range.

Separately the Indian battery giant said on September 12 it is extending its reach

into renewables with a new investment in the sector.

Exide subsidiary Chloride Metals has agreed to take a stake of around 26% in Zillica Renewables — a subsidiary of Cleantech Solar India.

The battery maker will also buy solar energy for its facility at the Supa Partner Industrial Park in Maharashtra from a 4MWp (megawatt peak) plant Zillica is setting up in the state.

The move follows Exide’s announcement in February of plans to take a stake of up to 40% in Ulric Renewables Private Limited — a special purpose vehicle subsidiary formed by Cleantech.

Exide said it could buy up to 19MW of its power needs for plants in Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu from Ulric wind power projects.

Meanwhile, Exide told the National Stock Exchange of India on September 7 it had invested Rs100 crore ($12 million) in its Exide Energy Solutions lithium subsidiary through a rights issue.

EES was formed after an agreement in March 2022 for Exide to collaborate with China’s SVOLT Energy Technology to manufacture lithium ion battery cells in India.

Last March, Exide said it had given the go-ahead to merge EES with another group subsidiary, Exide Leclanche Energy Private Limited — a business that arose out of the company’s fomer joint venture with Swiss firm Leclanché.

Exide Energy Solutions expands lithium planning site

Exide Energy Solutions is seeking to expand its planned production of lithium ion battery cells in India, the Karnataka state government confirmed on August 21. The Exide Industries subsidiary announced last year that it had agreed a long-term technical collaboration deal with China’s SVOLT Energy Technology for lithium ion cell manufacturing on

an 80-acre site.

Now the company is asking for an additional 40 acres of land to expand the project, Karnataka’s large and medium industries minister MB Patil has confirmed. Exide has said previously that SVOLT, which has its headquarters in China’s Jiangsu province, would support the setting up of the Karnataka plant on a turnkey basis.

Batteries International • Autumn 2023 • 27

NEWS

EV batteries to dominate 3.4TWh demand by 2030 — Wood Mackenzie Annual global demand for batteries will rise up to 3.4 terawatt hours by 2030, with EVs accounting for the vast majority of demand, according to analysis published on August 15.

The increase represents a compound annual growth rate of 26% for EV batteries, with ESS and motive products, portable electronics and power devices making up the rest, says the study* by Wood Mackenzie.

However, demand growth is forecast to slow to 3% in the 2040s, with demand reaching around 7.3TWh in 2050.

The study says current announced battery production capacity is nearly 10TWh, “which is both ambitious and excessive in terms of expected demand” — and much of which the study describes as probable capacity.

Preferred cathode technologies for batteries will be a key factor in driving demand for raw materials.

Wood Mackenzie expects the weighted average price of a battery pack to fall below $100 per kWh from 2029, mainly thanks to a shift towards iron-based chemistries.

The use of lithium ion battery technology will continue to grow with production likely to reach 7.35TWh by 2050.

By comparison, sodium ion is “just at the beginning of its ascendancy” — and the study forecasts more capacity to be added to the 158GWh already announced.

The study notes that nickel-based cathode active materials are only produced in significant quantities in China, South

Korea and Japan.

By the end of the decade, production will have diversified to Germany, Canada, the US, Poland, Indonesia and Finland, but the vast majority will still come from the Asia Pacific region.

Meanwhile, LFP batteries account for nearly 70% of both production and installation in China — a switch in technology the study says has happened in just a few years.

There are limited plans for production elsewhere and it is expected to level off in China by the end of this decade.

The continuing global preference for lithium ion battery tech will be the main driver of a five-fold increase in the lithium market by 2050, the study says.

Nearly all mined lithium originates in Australia and China (mined lithium representing more than half of global supply, with the rest coming from brine sourc-

es). But by 2030, Africa and North America will account for 30% of mined supply, according to the study.

On recycling, two million tonnes of black mass (shredded and processed battery waste) are expected to be available for processing each year by 2030 at a series of production hubs — swiftly increasing in the 2030s as EVs built in the decade before reach their end-of-life.

Only 157,000 tonnes of lithium carbonate equivalent will come from the recycling sector in 2030, meeting just 7% of overall demand, but the study forecasts nearly two million tonnes will be recycled annually by 2050.

Senior research analyst Max Reid said further investment will be key to making sure supply of battery raw materials can meet demand.

The increase represents a compound annual growth rate of 26% for EV batteries, with ESS and motive products, portable electronics and power devices making up the rest, says the study* by Wood Mackenzie. *The study, ‘Electric vehicle & battery supply chain: strategic planning outlook to 2050’ draws on analysis from Wood Mackenzie’s Electric Vehicle and Battery Supply Chain Service. Details are online at www. woodmac.com/news/opinion/electric-vehicle-batterysupply-chain

India launches 'watershed' program to fund 4,000MWh of new BESS projects by 2030-31 The government said on September 6 the cabinet had approved the “watershed” Viability Gap Funding (VGF) scheme, under which the state will cover up to 40% of the capital cost of projects selected under a competitive bidding process.

The move aims to increase the viability of energy storage systems as India looks to expand its use of renewables such as solar and wind.

VGF is targeting a

28 • Batteries International • Autumn 2023

levelized cost of storage ranging from Rs5.50 crore ($0.066) to Rs6.60 crore per kilowatt hour.

Ministers have earmarked VGF grants worth a total of Rs3,760 crore to fund the scheme.

Grants will be disbursed in five tranches linked with the various stages of implementing BESS projects.

A minimum of 85% of awarded BESS capacity will be made available to power

distribution companies to ensure consumers see real benefit from the scheme, the government said.

“This will not only enhance the integration of renewable energy into the electricity grid but also minimize wastage while optimizing the utilization of transmission networks.”

According to the government, this in turn will reduce the need for costly infrastructure upgrades.

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NEWS

Leoch to acquire GS Yuasa lead battery firms in China Leoch is to acquire controlling stakes in two Chinabased lead battery firms owned by GS Yuasa in a deal worth up to Rmb280 million ($39 million).

Leoch, the Singaporeheadquartered lead and lithium major, signed an agreement on July 25 to acquire a 70% stake in Tianjin GS Battery (TJGS) and Yuasa Battery Shunde (YBSD).

Leoch said in a Stock Exchange of Hong Kong filing that it will also form a joint venture entity with Japanbased Yuasa.

The agreement was to have been completed on September 28.

Leoch also has an option to acquire an additional 10% in TJGS and YBSD at a later date.

Leoch said the deal will give it a unique strategic edge in the market because the firms are among the world’s largest manufacturers of lead acid batteries.

The move could also pave the way for further expansion and consolidation of the batteries market, Leoch said.

Yuasa said it had been forced to review its Chinese operations following the impact of pandemic restrictions and the introduction of tighter environmental regulations.

Yuasa will still be involved in providing technical support for TJGS and YBSD, but both are expected to grow better as part of Leoch, Yuasa said.

TJGS was established in China in 1991 and mainly produces batteries for the global automarket. The company also has more than 20,000 battery service outlets across China.

YBSD, established in China in 2002, specializes in the development, manufacture and sale of Yuasa brand lead batteries for cars and motorcycles. Its customers have included major automakers in Japan, the UK and other countries.

Sunlight hits the acquisition trail takes control of A Müller, Triathlon Holding Sunlight Group has completed its outright ownership of Germany-based batteries dealer A Müller by acquiring the remaining 49% of shares in the business.

The deal, announced on August 9, follows an initial agreement made last year under which Sunlight took a 51% stake in Müller.

Sunlight CEO Lampros Bisalas said total ownership would help maximize synergies in sales, warehousing and assembly operations — with a focus on expanding supplies of semi-traction batteries on the global market.

Erik Müller will continue as MD of the firm he and his family have built up over nearly 40 years and which will now operate as part of the Sunlight Group.

Sunlight’s latest acquisition announcement comes just weeks after acquiring 100% ownership of Germany-based Triathlon Holding.

The move follows Sun-

light’s announcement in February that it had acquired a 51% controlling stake in Triathlon, which operates two production and R&D facilities in Germany, as well as a lead acid batteries assembly plant in Dallas.

Having full control of Triathlon will optimize production facilities operated around the world under a single management team, Greece-based Sunlight said.

The acquisition will also accelerate innovation and investment in development of lithium ion and lead acid battery tech.

CEO Lampros Bisalas said: “There are only gains to reap from our one group vision, destined to lead in the sectors in which we’re active.”

In May, Bisalas said Sunlight would further invest to ramp up lead battery recycling at its operation in north-eastern Greece.

He said the group is also on course to launch a lithium battery recycling plant

30 • Batteries International • Autumn 2023

within the next three years on the back of a €30 million ($32 million) investment by the company, plus a €3.5 million contribution from the European Union.

In February, the Greecebased international battery player revealed it had taken a 51% controlling stake in Israeli Industrial Batteries Energy Storage Systems.

Clarios to acquire Paragon battery unit Clarios is to acquire the auto batteries and BMS business unit of Germany-listed Paragon GmbH & Co KGaA for an undisclosed sum.

Clarios, the parent company of transportation battery brand VARTA Automotive, announced the deal on August 30 Clarios CEO Mark Wallace said: “The low-voltage network is critical to the new user experiences, data collection methods and power system transformation underway in vehicles.

“Paragon’s team has the skills, culture and commitment to add new capabilities that will accelerate our partnership with key OE customers, especially around advanced lithium ion programs.”

Then in June, Sunlight announced it had acquired a 65% stake in Portuguese business partner Logbatind, which specializes in the sale of industrial batteries and chargers.

Investment firm Coronation ups stake on South African battery and auto group Metair Investment firm Coronation Asset Management has further increased its stake in battery and automotive group Metair Investments to more than 15%.

The deal was announced on September 22, just a week after Metair posted increased operating profit and Ebitda in interim results for the first half of the year.

Africa-focused Coronation previously had a 10% stake in Metair, which it acquired in November 2020.

Coronation did not respond to requests from Batteries International about its interest in Metair — which reiterated last April that it planned to eventually sell its energy storage business but was not committed to a firm timeline.

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NEWS

Yuasa provides bespoke hybrid leadlithium BESS for UK's Royal Mint The UK’s official coin maker, the Royal Mint opened an energy center on July 19 that had been supplied with with a GS Yuasa hybrid lead and lithium BESS. The center in Wales comprises a 2MW solar farm, two wind turbines, a hydrogen-ready combined heat and power (CHP) unit and the BESS. The BESS is controlled by

a bespoke battery management system developed by Yuasa, the University of Sheffield and Infinite Renewables.

AB Energy UK supplied the CHP engine, which Infinite said was selected for its ability to maximize the amount of power that can be produced from the gas consumed.

Infinite designed, supplied

and built the Vestas ‘Daffodil’ wind turbines.

Royal Mint head of sustainability Inga Doak said the center will provide up to 75% of the company’s electricity needs every year.

Infinite director Andrew Crossman hailed the center as a blueprint for commercial and domestic sustainable energy systems in a low carbon world.

The Consortium for Battery Innovation said the project was a great example of using two key future technologies, lead and lithium, to develop energy storage systems.

The center is part of a project funded by the European Regional Development Fund through the Welsh government and Albion Community Power.

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www.cellusuede.com Batteries International • Autumn 2023 • 31

NEWS IN BRIEF Hoppecke lead batteries powering Brazil solar-storage scheme Hoppecke lead battery tech has been supplied to power a solar-storage facility in Brazil’s Amazonas state.

Germany-based Hoppecke said on July 4 the project in the country’s northwest is one of a number launched by Brazil’s government to boost power supplies in isolated parts of the country.

Hoppecke delivered its sun-power VL 2-350 vented lead acid batteries that are at the heart of the SIGFIsystem (individual electricity generation systems with intermittent sources).

Cabot joins US energy efficiency program Cabot said on August 9 it was partnering the US Department of Energy in a national energy efficiency drive for major industrial firms.

The battery materials company is joining the DOE’s voluntary ‘Better Plants’ program to boost its own plans to achieve net zero emissions by 2050.

Under the program, manufacturers commit to reducing energy intensity of their operations by 25% over a 10-year period.

TBS and Inbatec partnership to boost lead battery supply chain September 7, 2023: A new partnership aimed at strengthening the lead battery industry supply chain was announced by TBS Engineering and Inbatec on September 1.

The companies’ distribution agreement links products from TBS’s aftermarket division, launched last year, to Inbatec’s European distribution and services network.

Narada completes first phase of 600MW Chinese BESS Narada Power

has completed the 200MW/400MWh first phase of a BESS facility in China, the company announced on September 8.

Narada said the lithiumbased Leizhou BESS (is now ready to start operations as a shared facility to receive power generated from renewables around the region.

When complete, the BESS is set to have a total capacity of 600MW/1,200MWh, which Narada said will make it the largest such grid-connected facility of its kind in the region.

Technologies deployed for the BESS include advanced flame-retardant electrolyte, module-level short-circuit self-protection, and an aerospacegrade thermal barrier, Narada said.

Doe Run part of Missouri’s $2.3bn leadpowered economy booster The lead battery industry is worth $2.3 billion annually to the US state of Missouri, according to a new report released by the Doe Run Company on September 26.

The lead mining and recycling firm itself contributes $715 million of that sum says the report* — ‘Economic Contribution of the Missouri Lead Battery Industry in 2021’.

The report reveals Missouri’s lead battery industry directly employed 4,110 workers and spent $293.7 million in annual payroll.

When combined with supplier and related jobs, the impact state-wide amounts to a total of 8,550 jobs with $71,500 in average annual wages per worker.

Of those totals, the statewide impact of Doe Run is a total of 1,080 direct jobs, 2,620 combined direct and indirect jobs and $96,300 in average annual wages per worker.

32 • Batteries International • Autumn 2023

Narada BESS order part of 5.5GWh of deals for 2023 Narada announced in July it had won a Rmb 1.61 billion ($221 million) tender to supply its lithium iron phosphate battery tech to China’s state-owned China Tower.

The lead and lithium battery maker said the tender is for a planned BESS. Narada did not disclose details of the deal but said it had won bids and signed agreements for BESS projects totalling around 5.5GWh since the start of this year.

Sunlight completes ‘smart’ Li batteries R&D program The Sunlight Group said on August 1 it had successfully completed an R&D program into developing ‘smarter and healthier’ lithium ion batteries.

The R&D program, which ran from January 2021 until this summer, will help the group develop a “robust prediction model” for monitoring the state of health and state of charge of lithium batteries for electric industrial vehicles.

Integrating the model to improve the battery management system for Sunlight’s products was also a program goal.

Leoch outlines strategy to bolster supply chain partnerships The owner and chairman of lead and lithium battery giant Leoch has said the group can further enhance its role as a key player in the batteries supply chain.

Dong Li told the group’s supply chain partner conference, held in China’s Guangdong Province, that establishing standard procurement strategies and collaborative innovation can accelerate the development of a strong and competitive world-class supply system.

The company announced on July 1 that more than 400 suppliers from across the country took part in the conference, which was held on June 26 and 27.

Leoch COO Wu Kouyue used a keynote speech at the conference to outline the group’s approach to analyzing suppliers’ “pain points” and to introduce Leoch’s strategic procurement system for working with partners.

Vistra’s Moss Landing ESS expanded to 750MW Energy firm Vistra announced on August 1 it had completed the expansion of its now 750MW/3,000MWh Moss Landing energy storage facility in California.

Vistra said the third phase expansion, which added 350MW/1,400MWh to the lithium ion facility’s capacity, had entered commercial operation on June 2 and is storing power and releasing it to California’s grid.

The third phase expansion comprises 122 individual containers that together house more than 110,000 battery modules.

Moss Landing Energy Storage Facility is co-located on the site of Vistra’s existing natural gas-fuelled power plant in Monterey County.

Texas-based Vistra opened Moss Landing in January 2021, hailing the then 300MW/1,200MWh system as the largest such facility in the world.

Kore Power signs battery offtake deal with Energy Vault KORE Power announced a deal on August 9 to supply batteries for Energy Vault energy storage systems manufactured in the US. KORE will start the supply in 2025 after the first phase of its Arizona KOREPlex facility comes on line.

Some 1.3GWh of

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NEWS IN BRIEF batteries will be supplied to Energy Vault in 2025, ramping up to 7GWh in 2027 as KORE’s manufacturing expands.

KORE broke ground for its facility, where it will produce NMC and LFP battery cells for customers in the energy storage and e-mobility sectors, last year.

Energy Vault, whose tech portfolio includes gravity energy and hydrogen storage, made a $15 million investment in KORE in 2022 as part of an initial $75 million tranche of a $150 million investment round led by Siemens Financial Services, the B2B financing arm of Siemens, followed by contracting service company Quanta Services and others.

Wärtsilä, AGL Energy complete Australia BESS project Finnish tech firm Wärtsilä and AGL Energy said on August 22 they had completed construction of the 250MW/250MWh Torrens Island BESS in South Australia.

The BESS, on which construction started 18 months ago, has the capacity to provide power to around 75,000 homes for an hour, with the potential to extend the duration to four hours in future, Wärtsilä said.

The Torrens Island system will use Wärtsilä’s Gridsolv Quantum LFP batteries and proprietary GEMS system management software.

The BESS will operate in grid-following mode, transitioning to grid-forming mode (virtual synchronous generation, VSG) later.

New York’s first stateowned BESS starts up New York’s first stateowned BESS has started operations, governor Kathy Hochul announced on August 25.

The 20MW Northern New York Energy Storage Project, in North Country’s Franklin County, is helping

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to relieve transmission congestion on the state’s electric grid.

The facility, maintained and operated by the St Lawrence-Franklin D Roosevelt Power Project, consists of five 53ft walk-in enclosures, each with more than 19,500 lithium ion batteries grouped in modules and stacked in racks.

New York plans to install 6,000MW of energy storage capacity by 2030.

Wärtsilä signs LFP cells contract with Eve Energy Wärtsilä has signed a multiyear supply agreement with China’s Eve Energy, the firms announced on September 12.

Eve will provide LFP battery cells for the Finnish tech company’s GridSolv Quantum energy storage systems.

Wärtsilä says it has more than 3.5GW and more than 7GWh of BESS capacity awarded, contracted, or in deployment across six continents.

Jaguar, Wykes develops second-life EV battery BESS Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) said on August 23 it has developed a 2.5MWh BESS in the UK using second-life EV batteries with Wykes Engineering, which the partners aim to expand to 7.5MWh by the end of the year.

The batteries supplied have been taken from prototype and engineering test vehicles and the 7.5MWh BESS could eventually provide a day’s power for 750 homes, JLR said.

“After this point more containers can be created to house additional secondlife batteries removed from used production vehicles in the future.”

The batteries were removed from the Jaguar IPACE and slotted into racks in the containers on-site.

“Using the 70%-80% residual capacity in EV batC

M

teries, before being recycled, demonstrates full adoption of circularity principles,” said François Dossa, JLR’s executive director of strategy and sustainability.

Metso adds battery precursor pilot plant to Finnish R&D center Minerals and metals industrial company Metso said on September 21 it has opened a battery materials precursor pilot plant at its research center in Finland.

Metso has also expanded processing testing capabilities at its R&D center in Pori for lithium hydroxide and other battery chemistries.

The pilot facility serves mining and battery industry customers processing battery minerals as Finland ramps up its credentials to be a key player in Europe’s developing EV and ESS battery supply chain.

Janne Karonen, Metso’s director for hydrometallurgical R&D, said pilot run requests for battery minerals such as lithium, nickel and cobalt have increased significantly during the last three years.

“We are working on several battery black mass recycling and precursor projects and have several lithium and other battery chemicals project pilots on our laboratory schedule,” Karonen said.

Helsinki-listed Metso says its proprietary processes cover the extraction of lithium from brines and pegmatite ores up to battery-grade lithium salts.

Batteries International reported in April that energy company Fortum had started commercial operation of its lithium hydrometallurgical battery material recycling facility in Finland.

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Batteries International • Autumn 2023 • 33

NEWS — GIGAFACTORIES

Stellantis and Samsung SDI plan second joint battery plant for US Stellantis and Samsung SDI are to build their second EV battery plant in the US that will have an initial 34GWh production capacity, the firms announced on July 24.

A memorandum of understanding has been signed aimed at starting production in 2027 — at an as-yet unnamed site — through the companies’ StarPlus Energy joint venture.

Italian-French auto firm Stellantis and Samsung SDI confirmed plans to build

their first joint venture battery plant in Indiana in May 2022.

That 33GWh facility is to start up in the first quarter of 2025 and use Samsung SDI’s PRiMX technology to produce EV battery cells and modules for the North American market.

Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares said: “We are continuing to add more capacity in the US together and laying the next steps to reaching our carbon neutrality com-

mitment by 2038.”

Samsung SDI president and CEO Yoon-ho Choi said the second plant will accelerate market penetration in the US. Batteries International reported on July 13 that Stellantis and LG Energy Solution were resuming construction of their NextStar Energy EV battery plant in Canada under a deal worth up to C$15 billion ($11.4 billion) in tax breaks for the project.

China’s Gotion secures incentives deal for $2bn Illinois gigafactory China-based Gotion HiTech is to start production at a $2 billion EV battery manufacturing plant in Illinois next year, the state’s governor announced on September 8.

State governor Jay Pritzker said Gotion had secured a state investment and incentives package to transform a former plant site in Manteno into the gigafactory.

Gotion’s total incentives package from Illinois is valued at $536 million, includ-

ing eligibility for tax benefits totaling $213 million over 30 years.

The company has to invest a minimum of $1.9 billion and create 2,600 full-time jobs.

The 150-acre facility will focus on lithium ion cells, battery pack production and energy storage systems.

Manteno is expected to eventually produce around 10GWh of battery packs and 40GWh of cells annually.

Gotion will be the first recipient of Invest in Illinois funding, which was signed into law in early 2023 to make the start more attractive when vying for large projects such as those in the clean energy sector.

Gotion chairman Li Zhen said his firm’s battery tech would help to boost e-mobility in North America as well as economic and trade exchanges between China and the US.

Tata to invest £4bn for UK gigafactory UK battery ambitions were given a major boost in midJuly as Tata Sons confirmed plans to invest more than £4 billion ($5 billion) to build a 40GW battery cell factory in the country.

Tata chairman Natarajan Chandrasekaran said the gigafactory would start producing cells at the site in Somerset in 2026 following a “rapid ramp-up phase” — supplying batteries for EVs and battery storage systems in the UK and mainland Europe.

The UK government said its financial support for the project, reportedly amounting to hundreds of millions

of pounds, will be disclosed at a later date.

Chandrasekaran said the move also underscored the group’s commitment to investing in e-mobility through its UK-based Jaguar Land Rover business.

The plant will deploy innovative technologies and resource efficient processes like battery recycling to recover and reuse all the original raw materials “to deliver a truly circular economy ecosystem”, Tata said.

“The battery gigafactory will produce high-quality, high-performance, sustainable battery cells and packs for a variety of applications

34 • Batteries International • Autumn 2023

within the mobility and energy sectors.”

According to the UK government, the plant’s initial 40GWh output will provide nearly half of the battery production that the Faraday Institution estimates the UK will need by 2030.

However, the founder of the UK’s FairCharge EV campaign group, Quentin Willson, said there was a genuine fear in the industry that the project “could sweep up all available government support, which would be hugely detrimental” to the UK’s net-zero plans.

Freyr gets €199m from EU to support Giga Arctic project Freyr Battery has been awarded €100 million ($112 million) from the European Union to support its Giga Arctic project in Norway.

The grant, from the EU’s Innovation Fund, provides timely support for continued development of Freyr’s 29GWh nameplate capacity project, co-founder and CEO Tom Einar Jensen said on July 13.

Freyr’s board gave the go-ahead to start construction of the facility in June 2022.

Giga Arctic will be powered with 100% renewable hydroelectricity, the company says.

Last November, Freyr announced it had bought a site in the US state of Georgia to build its planned Giga America battery cells manufacturing plant.

The first phase of that project will have an annual production capacity of around 34GWh. In March, Freyr held an inaugural ceremony for its separate battery cells customer qualification plant in the north of Norway.

The customer qualification plant in Norway’s Mo i Rana hosts an industrial-scale demonstration battery cells production line based on 24M’s semi-solid lithium ion technology.

Freyr plans to develop up to 43GWh of battery cell production capacity by 2025, with an ambition of up to 83GWh in total capacity by 2028.

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NEWS — GIGAFACTORIES

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Batteries International • Autumn 2023 • 35

NEWS — MINING

China, Australia in lithium mining spat China has hit out at Australia as the two sides have become embroiled in a spat over lithium mining rights.

Australia’s treasury minister Jim Chalmers (pictured) confirmed on July 20 he had blocked Austroid Australia from acquiring an additional 90.10% stake in Alita Resources — giving Austroid 100% ownership.

Alita collapsed into insolvency in 2019 with estimated reserves at its Bald Hill

mine of 11.3 million tonnes of lithium ore and two million tonnes of tantalum ore.

Austroid is an Australian subsidiary of the US-based Austroid Corporation, but Chinese state media says the deal was blocked because the subsidiary has a Chinese national as a director.

The director is also on the board of China’s Liatam Mining, which tried to buy Alita’s assets in 2020 but was unable to get regula-

tory approval in Australia, according to an editorial in the China Daily.

The editorial accused Australia of joining in with USled “anti-China hysteria”.

“Australia should be cleareyed and wise enough to recognize that its national interests are not always in line with those of the US,” the paper said.

The Australian government says the issuing of an order to block the deal was

Sumitomo Metal Mining invests in Nano One Sumitomo Metal Mining is investing C$16.9 million ($12.5 million) in Nano One as part of a new battery materials development partnership.

The firms said on September 25 the equity investment boost was part of a collaboration that would have a particular focus on LFP and NMC production

using Nano One’s patented One-Pot process.

Nano One has plans to build its first commercial LFP plant adjacent to its existing pilot facility in Candiac, Québec.

According to the partners, LFP is an important battery type that will capture a significant portion of the market in the years ahead

— and can be produced in North America, Japan and other regions using the technology and know-how of both companies.

Sumitomo’s mining, smelting, refining and metals processing operation includes nickel-rich cathode materials for lithium ion battery and EV producers.

‘More battery materials mining is needed’ to reach net zero, says study Mining for battery materials needs to be ramped up worldwide over the next decade if countries are to meet their net-zero economy pledges, according to a new study published on July 20.

The paradoxical situation of digging up more of the planet to fuel the clean energy transition is set out by the Energy Transitions Commission (ETC) — a coalition of organizations including energy producers, technology providers, finance players and environmental bodies.

ETC’s report, Material and Resource Requirements for the Energy Transition, says water requirements for activities including metals mining, cleaning solar panels and electrolysis for hydrogen, could be as much as 1.5–2 times higher than for fossil fuel energy systems, but lower than that for ag-

ricultural uses.

Meanwhile delays in the battery materials supply chain could spark further fresh price increases for EVs, leading to “hundreds of millions of internal combustion engine vehicles remaining on the road for many more years”.

ETC says building the new energy system will initially push up CO2 emissions because the first generation of any new clean technology has to be built using fossil fuel based energy.

But the production of materials to support the energy transition will result in total global cumulative life cycle emissions of 15-30 gigatonnes CO2 equivalent, compared with the approximately 40 GtCO2 produced every year from the current fossil-fuel-based energy system.

ETC chair Adair Turner

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said there are enough resources and minerals in the world for the energy transition.

However, with some key minerals such as lithium and copper “it will be challenging to scale up supply fast enough over the next decade to keep pace with rapidly rising demand”.

Turner said governments, regulators, producers and consumers must work together to increase recycling, improve material efficiency, invest in new mining and regulate environmental and social standards.

Wood Mackenzie research analyst Max Reid told the Advanced Automotive Battery Conference in Germany in June 2022 that more mining of raw materials would be needed to supply lithium ion battery manufacturers because “recycling alone cannot meet demand”.

on the advice of its Foreign Investment Review Board and declined to comment further.

The prohibition came just weeks after Australia unveiled a new critical minerals strategy, including a pledge to pump A$500 million ($332 million) of fresh investment into sectors including battery materials supply.

Resources and Northern Australia minister Madeleine King said in June the country aimed to become a “globally significant producer of raw and processed critical minerals”.

Northvolt backs deepsea diving ban Swedish battery developer Northvolt is backing calls by global conservation group WWF for a moratorium on deep-sea minerals mining.

Northvolt said on July 26 that, before any deep seabed mining occurs to recover battery metals such as cobalt, nickel and lithium, “it must be clearly demonstrated that it can be managed sustainably”.

However, Northvolt also acknowledged the need to expand terrestrial mining and production of metals around the world to produce EV batteries and support the clean energy transition.

Northvolt said it was founded to enable a decarbonized future, but said deep-sea mining has no place in that future at present.

WWF said signatories to the moratorium also commit to excluding any minerals derived from deep-sea mining from their supply chains.

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NEWS — RESEARCH

MIT team say concrete and carbon black mix could energize storage Cement and carbon black could the form the basis of a novel low-cost energy storage system, according to studies by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Researchers found the two materials can be combined with water to make a supercapacitor that could store electrical energy, according to an MIT news article published on July 31.

As an example, the MIT researchers that developed the system say it could even-

tually be incorporated into the concrete foundation of a house, where it could store energy.

The team also envision a concrete roadway they say could potentially provide contactless recharging for electric cars as they drive along.

Researchers calculated that a 45m³ block of nanocarbon-black-doped concrete would have enough capacity to store about 10kWh of energy, which

they said is considered the average daily electricity usage for a household.

Details of the research are included in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences journal in a paper by MIT professors Franz-Josef Ulm, Admir Masic, Yang-Shao Horn and colleagues at MIT and the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering.

The team says the key to its supercapacitor de-

NGK sodium sulfur, zinc batteries chosen for Hungary ESS demo NGK Insulators is to provide the battery tech for a stationary storage demonstration project at Hungary’s Centre for Energy Research, the company said on July 24.

NGK says its proprietary large-capacity NAS sodium sulfur and zinc batteries will be used in the project working with Hungarian

engineering company Duna Center Therm Uzemi Szolgaltato.

NAS batteries have a large capacity and ability to discharge electricity over long periods of time, making them suitable for peak shift for solar power generation, according to NGK. The demonstration project comes as Hungary

pushes ahead with moves aimed at expanding the deployment of grid-scale battery storage to help achieve clean energy goals, NGK said.

In February, NGK said it would be providing the battery tech for a virtual power plant project in Japan as part of a joint venture with Ricoh.

velopment comes from a method of producing a cement-based material with an extremely high internal surface area due to a dense, interconnected network of conductive material within its bulk volume.

Researchers achieved this by introducing carbon black into a concrete mixture along with cement powder and water and allowing it to cure.

The water naturally forms a branching network of openings within the structure as it reacts with cement, and the carbon migrates into these spaces to make wire-like structures within the hardened cement, according to the paper.

These structures have a fractal-like structure, with larger branches sprouting smaller branches, and those sprouting even smaller branchlets, and so on, ending up with an extremely large surface area within the confines of a relatively small volume.

Morrow Batteries teams with Gamma in virtual cell R&D Morrow Batteries is teaming up with Gamma Technologies to use virtual systems in the development of cells tech, the firms said on August 21.

The Norway-based battery developer said Gamma will provide electrochemical models for physics-based digital twin simulations of its battery cells.

Morrow co-founder and CTO Rahul Fotedar said the partnership would help accelerate development of its battery cell tech.

“GT’s innovative technology reduces the need to build and test on real cells — which helps us reduce costs.

“Through simulations, we can study a larger design space to find the optimal so-

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lutions that are best suited as we continue developing the world’s most cost-effective and sustainable batteries.”

Morrow’s R&D processes will be digitized using GT’s simulations to gain insight into the batteries that would be difficult or impossible to measure using physical testing, the partners said.

Separately, Morrow said on August 28 it was also partnering Nordic Batteries and Eldrift to develop complete battery packs for mobile and stationary battery energy storage systems.

The overall project and product pipeline amounts to 7GWh until 2030.

The three Norwegian companies will comprise a large part of the battery sys-

tems supply chain. Morrow will supply prismatic cells with the existing LFP technology and its next-generation LNMO-X chemistry.

Batteries International reported in May that Morrow had agreed a loan deal of NOK567 million ($53 million) to support development of its battery cells projects at Arendal in Norway, where production is to begin

in 2024.

Last month, Morrow said it had achieved an 86% yield of battery cells production at its customer qualification plant in South Korea just four months after opening.

Morrow started test production at Chungju-si in February and has produced more than 600 prismatic cells with NMC battery chemistry.

Echion formalizes Inobat anode R&D plan Echion Technologies said on September 12, Echion said it had formalized a collaboration agreement with Slovakian EV batteries firm InoBat. The two will study how

XNO anode material could boost performance of InoBat’s products.

Echion will guarantee supply of XNO and access to its electrochemistry for InoBat’s cell design.

Batteries International • Autumn 2023 • 37

NEWS — FLOW BATTERIES

Proposal for new EU chemicals ban to create a threat to flow batteries A proposed EU ban on a group of chemicals key to the development of certain flow batteries could deal a devasting blow to the sector, industry leaders told Batteries International at the end of September.

The European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) is recommending restricting the use of per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), citing concerns over the environment and public health.

Fluoropolymers are one of PFAS category present in certain flow batteries’ ionomer and ion exchange membranes — in addition to flow battery stack components and accompanying subsystems.

Flow Batteries Europe (FBE) policy officer Beata Viršumirska told Batteries International a ban on fluoropolymer-containing parts could threaten the produc-

tion and widespread adoption of competitive technology.

This would “hinder the seamless incorporation of renewable energy into the grid”.

In turn, this could delay the EU achieving the bloc’s climate change goals, Viršumirska said.

FBE represents flow battery stakeholders to shape a long-term strategy for the flow battery sector as well as the legal framework for flow batteries at the EU level and contribute to the EU decision-making process.

An FBE position paper — https://flowbatterieseurope. eu — on the issue released warns an outright and immediate ban on fluoropolymers would have a significant socio-economic impact on the EU and could cause innovative technology companies to leave the European

market or shift focus from some flow battery technologies.

One major repercussion would be the increased operational expenditure, as replacing PFAS-based parts with alternative solutions is expected to incur additional costs, estimated to be in the range of at least 10%.

The paper says these higher expenses could potentially trickle down to consumers, affecting energy storage system prices and overall market competitiveness.

FBE says flow battery companies, universities, and R&D centers are already exploring alternative solutions.

For instance, certain organic flow batteries are entirely PFAS-free, and iron-chromium-based flow batteries are actively exploring alternatives.

However, FBE says market-ready flow batteries rely

on components with fluoropolymers.

FBE is now calling on ECHA to exempt fluoropolymers from any PFAS ban, saying they are not classified as hazardous under the EU’s Classification, Labelling and Packaging Regulation and play a crucial role in ensuring the stability, performance and safety of marketavailable flow batteries, that are among the technologies driving the EU’s ambitious climate goals.

If the ban goes ahead, FBE is calling for a 13.5-year exemption period for the flow battery sector to allow for further R&D and testing of fluoropolymer alternatives.

One energy industry commentator told Batteries International that ECHA often appears to be working against the EU’s transition to climate friendly technologies.”

US DoE analysis puts redox batteries as one of many future ESS technologies Lead, lithium and flow batteries have been included among assessments of 10 technologies with the potential to support future long duration energy storage (LDES) projects in the US. The Department of Energy analysis came in a series of

technical reports released on July 19 under its Energy Storage Grand Challenge initiative by the Office of Electricity.

The DOE is backing LDES research, development, and deployment and aims to achieve 90% cost reductions

for technologies that can provide 10 hours or more of energy storage within the coming decade.

On redox flow batteries, the DOE said they have unique characteristics such as decoupled energy and power, scalability, and poten-

tial cost-effectiveness, due to their liquid nature.

These features make RFBs well suited for various applications, including utilityscale energy storage, microgrids, renewables integration, backup power, and remote/off-grid power.

AVL appoints Primero Group to build Australia vanadium plant Australian Vanadium said on August 14 it had appointed the Primero Group to build its vanadium electrolyte manufacturing facility in Western Australia.

The facility is designed to produce up to 33MWh per year of vanadium flow battery high purity electrolyte, starting commercial production in November

2023.

AVL said Simon Rough has been appointed to manage construction through to production.

Rough has 20 years’ experience in vanadium processing and sulphuric acid production, making him a perfect fit to lead the team, the company said.

AVL holds the exclusive licence for US Vanadium’s

38 • Batteries International • Autumn 2023

electrolyte manufacturing technology for Australia and New Zealand, which is being deployed to de-risk construction and start-up.

Vanadium oxide feedstock for the electrolyte facility will initially be sourced through AVL’s agreement with USV and third-party sources.

Graham Arvidson, AVL’s chief executive, said the

firm was on course to become a trusted supplier of vanadium electrolyte within Australia and beyond.

AVL was awarded an A$3.69 million ($2.4 million) federal government grant in 2021, with part of the funding allocated to building and operating the Western Australia facility to support the commercialization of VFBs.

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NEWS — RECYCLING

New EU Battery Regulation recycling targets ‘challenging and timeline fanciful’ Some of the ambitious recycling targets set out in the new EU Battery Regulation may have little basis with current technological abilities to recover metals from battery scrap with the timeline proposed fanciful.

This was the implication of an after-presentation expert discussion at the Asian Battery Conference in Siem Reap on September 6.

Steve Binks, director at the International Lead Association, gave a paper entitled The EU Battery Regulation — Setting the New Standard for Sustainable Battery Value Chains which outlined the scope and purpose of the new Battery Regulation which was voted into

effect at the end of July this year.

“Although the Regulation has much to be admired — it’s the first global policy instrument to address all aspects of a battery’s lifecycle and is designed to secure the sustainability and competitiveness of EU battery value chains — clearly there are going to be huge challenges in its implementation,” said one delegate.

“In particular some of the timelines outlined by the EU are fanciful and targets overambitious.”

The regulation sets a target for lithium recovery from waste lithium-ion batteries of 50% by the end of 2027 and 80% by the end of 2031.

It also provides for mandatory minimum 8levels of recycled content for industrial, SLI batteries and EV batteries. These are initially set at 16% for cobalt, 85% for lead, 6% for lithium and 6% for nickel. These are raised to cobalt 26%, lead 85%, lithium 12% and nickel 15%.

When delegates pointed out to Steve Binks that no expert could predict that — with the exception of lead — such recycled content targets were possible, he said that the Regulation included provisions for Commission to revise them in 2028 when more information about the market availability of battery grade recycled material would be known.

He admitted, however, that the recycled content target levels proposed in the Battery Regulation had been set by political will rather than expert analysis.

“The consultants who advised the Commission wanted to set more realistic, achievable targets than these, but their views were overruled during the political process,” he said.

The new Battery Regulation replaces the current batteries directive of 2006 and is the first holistic piece of legislation under the EU’s socalled “Green Deal” that covers the entire life cycle of a product: from raw material sourcing, design, use and end-of life.

Taiwan’s ACME Metals testing lead recycling rivals Aqua Metals, ACE Green Taiwanese lead refiner ACME Metal Enterprise has completed initial testing of equipment supplied

by Aqua Metals (AQMS) — and told Batteries International on August 14 it will now also test technology from ACE Green Recycling.

An ACME spokesperson told Batteries International on August 14 the project with AQMS is being carried out in phases.

Verification of performance parameters of AQMS’ electroplating modules, underway since the fourth quarter of 2022, is now completed.

ACME is now conducting continuous runs using electrolytes made by AQMS, while work is underway to finalize the design of the remainder of the plant for activities including de-sulfurization and leaching.

The main purpose of testing out ACE Green’s technology is to treat lead oxide drosses from ACME’s refinery.

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The spokesperson did not expand on why it was also working with ACE, but said a “clearer picture” of all activities could be available as soon as the fourth quarter of this year.

The ACME announcement came as a critical market analysis published

by Chimerix Research on August 16 said it doubted AQMS’ ability to deploy and scale its recycling plants within the proposed timeline.

“The company’s history of delays, lack of revenue, and shareholder lawsuits raises concerns about its ability to deliver on its promises,” it said.

“Without breakthrough developments, the company will be forced at new expensive and very dilutive equity raises in the next 12 months.”

However, other analysts disagree strongly with this.

According to ChartMill, a stock screening and analysis platform, “AQMS was

analysed by eight analysts.

The buy consensus is at 85, so analysts seem to be very confident about AQMS.” AQMS had not responded to a request for comment from Batteries International as this magazine went to press.

However, AQMS chief financial officer Judd Merrill, in a second-quarter earnings call on August 10, said the company’s net loss for the period as of June 30 was $4.8 million or a negative $0.06 per basic and diluted share, compared to a net loss of $3.2 million or a negative $0.04 per basic and diluted share for the same period in 2022.

There was no revenue, but AQMS recorded “modest service fees” under a development agreement.

Judd said the company completed a public offering of about 18 million shares on July 21 resulting in $20 million of gross

proceeds.

AQMS believes that raise, together with $5 million from Korean firm Yulho, will provide sufficient capital to fund its proposed operating plan which is focused on retrieving lithium through 2024, Judd said.

AQMS announced it was expanding into lithium ion battery recycling in February 2021.

ACME’s decision to use AQMS’ AquaRefining technology, at its facility in Keelung, started with the signing of a letter of intent in 2021.

The companies said they intended to develop a process to convert the briquettes formed by AquaRefining directly into battery-grade lead oxide with the use of a ball mill.

Last January, the firm said it had recovered its first battery metal from spent lithium-ion batteries at production scale by electroplating.

Batteries International • Autumn 2023 • 39

NEWS — RECYCLING

STC on track to build first ‘Lead3’ recycling system in Romania Italian lead recycler and engineering company STC told Batteries International on October 3 it was on course to build its first recycling plant in Romania using its proprietary ‘Lead3’ hydrometallurgical technology.

STC said it had completed the technical documentation for its integrated pollution prevention and control authorization request to environmental authorities.

The new plant is being built in Bucharest for the

recycling business of STC’s parent company — battery manufacturer Monbat.

A second such Lead3 plant will be set up at Monbat’s site in Serbia a few months later, said an STC spokesperson.

Monbat is already seeking required environmental permits from authorities in Serbia.

The Romanian and Serbian plants will each allow for the annual production of 10,000 tonnes of lead oxide

for Monbat.

STC says its Lead3 technology allows for the production of lead oxides for battery production directly from lead paste — avoiding a pyrometallurgical process.

Over the past two years, STC says it has successfully installed new energy recovery systems at all Monbat Recycling sodium sulphate crystallization plants in Bulgaria, Romania and Serbia.

The plants have been transformed into mechani-

cal vapour recompression (MVR crystallizers), which STC says allows a combined annual saving on natural gas consumption of about 5 million m3 and a reduction in CO2 emissions of approximately 3,000 tonnes annually.

This magazine reported in February that STC had agreed a recycling equipment supply partnership for lead and lithium ion batteries with ACE Green Recycling.

Exide’s Chloride starts up fourth lead recycling plant Exide Industries’ subsidiary Chloride Metals has launched commercial production of its fourth lead battery recycling plant in India, the group announced on August 14.

The plant — built on a greenfield site spanning more than 15 acres on the Supa-Parner Industrial Park in Maharashtra

— has an initial 96,000 million tonnes per annum capacity rising to 120,000 mtpa.

It is the firm’s second such facility in the state.

Exide said consent for the plant to recycle lead acid batteries, lead scrap and to manufacture lead, lead alloys and cast components, was given by the Maha-

rashtra Pollution Control Board on August 11.

The launch follows the commercial start in 2022 of Chloride’s third lead recycling facility — the 108,000 mtpa plant in the state of West Bengal.

Chloride’s other recycling plant is in Karnataka.

Batteries International reported earlier this year

that Exide had become a member of the Consortium for Battery Innovation.

In March, Exide confirmed it had completed the amalgamation of another subsidiary, Chloride Power Systems & Solutions, which designs and manufactures battery chargers and related equipment.

Gravita India looks to trading boost for refined lead products Gravita India said on July 18 the endorsement of its 99.98% pure lead products by the Multi Commodity Exchange of India (MCX) will boost its trading position on the domestic market.

Gravita said the lead refined at its Phagi plant in Jaipur has been assessed as an approved lead brand deliverable against MCX lead futures contracts.

MCX, which started operations in November 2003, is a commodity derivatives exchange that supports online trading.

Gravita company secretary Nitin Gupta said: “This will provide us an additional platform for hedging, better inventory management and price transparency in the domestic market.”

Phagi started operations in 1994. The site supplies

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markets in Southeast Asia, the Middle East and Europe.

Gravita said pure lead manufactured at its Chittoor plant is already approved by MCX. Batteries International reported in June that Gravita had expanded lead battery recycling capacity at Chittoor from 26,440 tonnes a year to 64,640 tpa.

The increase took the group’s overall recycling capacity to more than 278,000 tpa — putting Gravita on course to hit its overall target of 425,000 tpa by fiscal 2026.

The company has said Chittoor’s proximity to the port of Chennai, about 150km to the east, will help it strengthen its presence in the southern Indian and southeast Asian markets.

Separately, Gravita India said on August 29 the group

had started commercial production of lead at its battery recycling plant in the West African nation of Togo.

Gravita said its facility in the country has an annual recycling capacity of about 6,000 tonnes per annum.

The Togo subsidiary has been sourcing domestic scrap for the past three years and has already established a strong collection network

for used batteries, Gravita said.

The lead recycling group has similar recycling operations in Tanzania, Senegal, Mozambique, Sri Lanka and Ghana in addition to its India plants.

The company also has an aluminium recycling plant in Togo that has an annual capacity of capacity of 4,000 mtpa.

Gravita upgraded to three stars Lead battery recycler Gravita announced on September 11 it has been upgraded from three stars to become a four-star export business under a scheme promoted by the Indian government. There is a maximum five-star rating.

Companies recognized under the scheme are those who have excelled in international trade and successfully contributed to the country’s foreign trade, according to the government.

To achieve four stars, companies’ export performance should be worth the equivalent of $500 million for at least two out of four financial years.

Batteries International • Autumn 2023 • 41

NEWS — RECYCLING

European lithium recycling viable by 2035 with more investment The EU could see lithium ion battery recycling become a profitable business before 2035 but the sector will need greater investment to get there, says a new study released on August 16.

More than €2 billion ($2.1 billion) in investments into the EU recycling market for

lithium batteries are forecast by 2030, according to the study by the strategy consulting business unit of PricewaterhouseCoopers and Germany’s RWTH Aachen University. Handling further market growth through to 2035 will require additional investments of €7 billion, but

EU recycling could then become viable and sustainable with a projected revenue of around €8 billion and a potential fall in battery costs.

However, while recycled material can contribute up to 60% of battery requirements in 2040, a completely closed loop “will not be possible

Portovesme study starts as Li-Cycle launches Germany recycling plant A feasibility study where lead and zinc processing at Glencore’s Portovesme subsidiary in Italy could be replaced with a lithium recycling operation is underway, Li-Cycle confirmed on August 1.

Li-Cycle announced the launch of the study as its first European lithium ion battery recycling plant in Germany moved into operation.

Canada-based Li-Cycle said black mass produced at the Magdeburg, Germany ‘spoke’ facility would be

processed at the Portovesme ‘hub’ if a proposed 50-50 joint venture with Glencore goes ahead.

Spoke facilities are where all types of lithium ion batteries are transformed from a charged state to what the firm describes as an inert product. The resulting black mass is then transferred to a hub, where cathode and anode materials are processed into battery grade endproducts for reuse in battery production or other applications.

Both companies have yet to say whether Portovesme could also continue lead and zinc processing. Li-Cycle had not responded to questions from Batteries International at the time of publishing this article.

Li-Cycle has said Portovesme would have an expected black mass processing capacity of 50,000-70,000 tonnes annually. Li-Cycle plans more spoke facilities in France and Norway in addition to its existing spokes in North America.

UK urged to ramp up training, collaboration for battery recycling Leaders of industry, academia and government must step up collaboration to promote a thriving battery recycling sector in the UK, says a report published on August 15.

The 2035 UK Battery Recycling Industry Vision, released by the Innovate UK Knowledge Transfer Network, says sustainable battery recycling processes, safe and rapid discharging of packs and a highlytrained workforce are

needed to secure sources of vital battery materials at a time of limited global supply.

Establishing a recycling ecosystem would also attract investment from battery manufacturers, who will be keen to be based close to recycling centres, the report says.

Co-author and knowledge transfer manager Sheena Hindocha said: “Without going into the politics of supply monopo-

lies, there’s already a finite amount of raw material to make batteries, and with over 450,000 tonnes of cell production predicted for 2040, we must act now to develop the end-of-life infrastructure required for this demand.”

In August 2022, the UK’s Faraday Institution signed a joint battery research agreement with the US Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory.

Redwood acquires Redux to move into EU recycling market Redwood Materials has realized its expansion into the European EV and ESS battery recycling market by acquiring Germany-based Redux, the companies announced on September 19.

Nevada-based Redwood said in February 2022 it was looking to move into Europe where EV sales are forecast to account for nearly 30% of cars by 2025.

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The deal with Redux, for an undisclosed sum, gives Redwood a well established presence in the EU from which it can quickly expand operations, the firm said.

until well beyond then”.

Regulatory changes in the EU, such as those included in the new Batteries Regulation, will help drive recycling, the study says.

Meanwhile higher electrification rates and the rampup of EU cell production to around 900GWh in 2030 could boost the recycling market to around 6,000 kilotonnes of end-of-life batteries in 2040.

In 2035, recycled material may account for up to 30% of Li, Ni, and Co demand for battery cell production. By 2040, battery recycling in Europe is to rise 10-fold compared to 2030, which will initially be driven by gigafactory scrap.

ABB partners Altilium on battery processing ABB is set to supply equipment for Altilium’s planned commercial battery recycling plant in the UK under an agreement announced by the firms on October 4.

The partnership has started with a memorandum of understanding under which ABB will provide control systems for Altilium’s pilot UK plant — producing cathode active material from used EV batteries.

Now the companies plan to extend their cooperation to launch Altilium’s planned commercial recycling plant, in Teesside, set for development from 2026.

The partners also plan a retrofit of Altilium’s European Solvent Extraction-Electrowinning facility in Bulgaria, which is set to start processing battery waste next year.

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NEWS — LITHIUM SAFETY

Australian watchdog ACCC calls for urgent lithium safety rules Australia’s consumer watchdog is calling for a harmonized electrical safety regulatory framework across all states to help combat fires and other incidents linked to lithium ion battery products.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) said in a report published on October 5 there has been one fatality in the country attributed to a lithium battery fire and numerous reports of injuries in Australia.

The move follows renewed calls at an international level for standard regulation and procedures at all scales of lithium use.

One recent study pointed out that there had been 68 lithium BESS fires worth recording this year and innumerable incidents from the Consistent state and territory legislation regulating products containing lithium batteries is needed — pooling the expertise of electrical safety regulators

throughout Australia.

A national product safety incident database is also needed to support identification and analysis of consumer product safety hazards, the report says.

The exact number of incidents is unknown because many go underreported and the problem is compounded by differences in how data is collected from state to state.

However, the ACCC says there has been a six-fold increase in media reports

ACCC confirmed that LG Energy Solution Australia is recalling almost 17,000 home solar batteries in Australia because they may overheat and catch fire.The recall follows a separate warning issued by the ACCC last November after a recall of “potentially deadly” faulty batteries in residential energy storage systems.

Genex probes fire at modified Australian megapack BESS Genex Power is investigating a fire at an Australian BESS involving a Tesla battery unit design modified following a blaze at a separate facility in the country two years earlier.

Renewables and energy developer Genex said one of the 40 lithium ion Megapack units at the 50MW/100MWh Bouldercombe Battery Project caught fire on the evening of September 26.

Genex said fire chiefs decided to allow the “low intensity” fire to burn out under supervision and did not use water to extinguish the blaze.

No one was on site at the time of the incident and the BESS was disconnected from the grid.

A Genex spokesperson told Batteries International on October 2 that the

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Bouldercombe unit was a design that had undergone a safety retrofit by Tesla following a 2021 fire at the 300MW Victorian Big Battery facility in 2021.

An independent report into the Victorian fire — by engineering and energy storage fire safety consultants Fisher Engineering and the Energy Safety Response Group — said a single Megapack caught fire and spread to a neighbouring unit during the initial installation and commissioning of the facility.

The findings identified a “weakness in the thermal roof design that permits Megapack-to-Megapack fire propagation” — and said the fire was exacerbated by strong winds.

Tesla later devised thermally insulated steel vent shields to protect the over-

pressure vents from direct flame impingement or hot gas intrusion.

According to the report, tests showed that with the new vent shields in place — “even with the Megapack’s thermal roof fully involved in a fire — the overpressure vents will not ignite and the battery modules remain relatively unaffected with internal cell temperatures rising less than 1°C”.

Meanwhile, the Bouldercombe site in Queensland is nearing the end of its commissioning phase, which is set for completion at the end of this month.

Batteries International reported in March 2022 that Tesla would operate Bouldercombe for the first eight years and provide Genex with guaranteed revenues.

relating to lithium battery incidents between February 2021 and February 2023 and 23 recalls between January 2017 and December 2022 involving lithium batteries and products containing them.

Those recalls affected an estimated 89,000 products on the market, the report says.

ACCC deputy chair Catriona Lowe said: “We are concerned by increasing reports of lithium ion battery fires resulting in property damage and serious injuries, including burns, chemical exposure and smoke inhalation.”

By 2026, most Australian homes will have on average 33 devices powered by lithium ion batteries, the commission says.

The watchdog is calling for a nationwide consumer education campaign on how to safely use lithium battery products and correctly dispose of used batteries.

Meanwhile, the ACCC confirmed that LG Energy Solution Australia is recalling almost 17,000 home solar batteries in Australia because they may overheat and catch fire.

The recall follows a separate warning issued by the ACCC last November after a recall of “potentially deadly” faulty batteries in residential energy storage systems.

Batteries International reported (see story below) that Genex Power is investigating a fire at an Australian BESS involving a Tesla battery unit design modified following a blaze at a separate facility in the country two years earlier.

Renewables and energy developer Genex said one of the 40 lithium ion Megapack units at the 50MW/100MWh Bouldercombe Battery Project caught fire on the evening of September 26.

Batteries International • Autumn 2023 • 43

NEWS — LITHIUM SAFETY

NY governor Hochul launches ESS fire safety task force A new multi-agency fire safety taskforce has been ordered to spearhead inspections of ESS sites across New York State.

State governor Kathy Hochul said on July 28 the Inter-Agency Fire Safety Working Group would ensure the safety and security of ESS sites following fires at facilities in Jefferson, Orange, and Suffolk Counties this summer.

Despite such fires being “exceedingly rare” Hochul said state agencies would begin immediate inspections of energy storage sites through the working group.

She said this would help prevent fires and ensure emergency responders have the necessary training and information to prepare and deploy resources in the event of a fire.

Hochul said the working group will review ESS operations and operators — as they examine the condition of their batteries to verify operation within design parameters, correct any deficiencies, check on-site fire suppression measures and confirm fire suppression plans with local fire departments.

Findings from probes into

the incidents will include a list of recommendations for stationary energy storage equipment and installations.

The findings and recommendations will be shared with organizations including the New York City Fire Department, National Fire Protection Association, International Code Council, the New York State Fire Prevention and Building Code Council and Underwriters Laboratories.

The governor did not single out sites involved in recent fires, but one is known to be Convergent Energy’s BESS facility in Warwick.

The utility reported on June 29 that investigations were underway following a fire involving one of its Powin Centipede systems.

In June 2022, Hochul unveiled plans for 22 largescale solar and battery storage projects for some 2,408MW in New York State.

Last May, New York City fire commissioner Laura Kavanagh said she would consider supporting further measures aimed at stamping out lithium ion battery fires following a number of incidents, some fatal, involving e-scooters and e-bikes.

Fire-damaged EV cargo ship analysis underway Stricken car carrier the Fremantle Highway was towed into a Dutch port in early August after a fatal onboard blaze, with initial reports suggesting an EV battery was to blame and the probability rising that this was the case.

According to Lloyds List, nearly 500 EVs were among the 3,784 cars on board the vessel when fire broke out on July 25, while en route from Germany to Singapore via Egypt.

Dutch broadcaster RTL has released a recording of an initial emergency responder reporting that the fire “started in the battery of an electric car”.

But the Netherlands Coastguard has distanced itself from the recording, saying it is too early to say what triggered the blaze that led to the death of one of the 23 crew members and injured many others.

Rijkswaterstaat, part of the Dutch Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management, said yesterday there were no indications

that the fire was continuing.

Rijkswaterstaat said the cargo could be safely unloaded at the port allowing investigators to establish the cause of the blaze.

Only two of the rescued crew members remained in hospital as of July 30, according to vessel charter company Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha.

The Fremantle Highway

44 • Batteries International • Autumn 2023

was built in 2013 and has the capacity to carry 6,000 vehicles.

An industry observer told Batteries International: “As terrible as the incident has been, one can only imagine how much worse thing might have been if the ship had been filled to capacity.”

In a separate report published on July 27, Allianz Commercial said fires on

vessels such as the Fremantle Highway remain one of the biggest safety issues for the shipping industry.

The report said lithium ion fire risks will likely ease over time as manufacturers, carriers, and regulators address the current challenges.

“In the meantime, attention must be focused on preemptive measures to help mitigate the peril.”

www.batteriesinternational.com

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NEWS — FINANCE

Ford still under pressure over volumes of EV sales, batteries Turmoil at auto giant Ford continues over its EV business with concerns being raised at the losses made on EV sales, details of the links the firm has with Chinese sourcing of EV batteries and plant, and a dispute and strike with workers, according to sources as Batteries International

went to press.

Although EV sales were at their best-ever level at 20,962 for the third quarter this compares with sales of 14,843 during the second quarter. Renewable energy specialist Robert Bryce wrote in July, “Ford reported a $1.08 billion operating loss on its EV

business during the second quarter and … [putting that figure with the sales numbers] … that means Ford lost $72,760 for EV sold.”

Ford’s EV future has also been complicated by its October 6 deadline [tomorrow] to give the US Congress details of its ties

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to Chinese EV batteries major Contemporary Amperex Technology.

The move comes amid increasing concern by US legislators over Chinese involvement in battery tech being provided to propel the country’s energy transition.

Republicans Jason Smith, Cathy McMorris Rodgers and Mike Gallagher, who chair the Ways and Means, Energy and Commerce and China select committees respectively, told Ford CEO Jim Farley in a letter on September 27 that he faced being called to testify before Congress if documents relating to the auto firm’s partnership with CATL were not produced.

“Ford’s refusal to provide substantive responses… undermines Ford’s own commitment to ‘act with transparency, integrity, and honesty’ and raises serious concerns regarding its licensing agreement with CATL,” the letter said.

In May, the US Department of Energy reversed its decision to award Microvast a $200 million grant to build a lithium ion battery separator plant, amid claims the company had links to China.

Meanwhile, on October 3, Ford made a new offer in a bid to end an ongoing strike over pay and conditions by the United Auto Workers union. However, Ford said a dispute over battery plant projects remained unresolved.

On September 25, Ford suspended work on an EV battery plant in Michigan, set to produce lithium iron phosphate batteries using CATL technology, citing concerns about being able to operate the plant competitively while contract negotiations continued.

www.batteriesinternational.com

NEWS — FINANCE

GM pushes $60m funding round Mitras’ iron-based cathodes Mitra Future Technologies said on August 16 it will step up its development of ironbased cathode battery materials following a $40 million first close of a $60 million series ‘B’ funding round led

by General Motors.

Mitra said the investment boost will spur plans

to commercialize US-made iron-based cathode active materials such as lithium manganese iron phosphate (LMFP) and support development of EV batteries compatible with GM’s Ultium battery architecture.

The use of AI to test thousands of new cathode designs

each month enables Mitra to benefit from a lab-to-market development timeline that is 90% faster than competitors, the Californian start-up claims.

Mitra said its tech also has the potential to “help shape the future of battery energy storage” with a focus on US-

HSBC pledges $1bn for ESS, in climate tech start-ups HSBC is pledging a $1 billion global investment package to support start-up firms with projects such as battery storage and EV charging infrastructure.

The banking giant said on September 20 it aims to support new initiatives including sustainable food and agriculture and carbon

removal technologies.

HSBC’s $1 billion allocation plans to focus on high potential climate tech companies, supporting earlystage firms and providing capital for first-of-a-kind demonstration projects — including through its $100 million investment in Breakthrough Energy

Catalyst, whose partners include Microsoft and BlackRock.

The bank cited data published by Climate Tech VC indicating that, after successive rapid year-on-year growth, venture capital funding for climate startups plunged by 40% in the first half of 2023.

based production.

Iron-based cathodes are Mitra’s first product category and offer a shift away from the use of elements such as nickel and cobalt that face “imminent supply crunches”, the company says.

GM’s vice president for technology acceleration commercialization Gil Golan said its backing would speed up the auto giant’s work on battery chemistries such as LMFP and support moves to establish a North America-focused battery supply chain.

Other companies supporting the funding round included existing investor Earthshot Ventures and new backers such as GS Futures and Bricks Capital Management..

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NEWS — FINANCE

Morrow launches €70m fresh capital to spur production Morrow Batteries said on September 22 it was raising up to €70 million ($74 million) in new capital as it moves toward commercial production.

The Norwegian firm’s first gigawatt-hour LNMO battery cells factory in Arendal should start up early next year.

Morrow said the private placement boost, guaranteed by the company’s largest owners, will be raised in two tranches and spur further development.

Major shareholders Å Energi, PKA, Siemens Financial Services, ABB and Nysnø guaranteed the private placement, part of which will support completion of the firm’s Morrow Industrialization Center.

Morrow’s board gave the go-ahead for the first

tranche on September 22 and should approve the second tranche this autumn.

CEO Lars Christian Bacher said: “Building a strategic and competitive new industry is capital-intensive and will not succeed without public-private collabora-

tion.” Batteries International reported in May that Morrow had agreed a loan of NOK567 million ($53 million) to support development of its battery cells projects at Arendal.

Morrow said in July it had achieved an 86% yield of

battery cells production at its customer qualification plant in South Korea just four months after opening.

Last month, Morrow announced a partnership with Gamma Technologies to use virtual systems in the development of cells tech.

Questions over Savannah sale of Portugal’s Barosso lithium project Lithium developer Savannah Resources has rejected reports that its Portugal project is up for sale — raising concern about securing a domestic battery materials supply in Europe.

Savannah chairman Matthew King said on September 29 the company is drawing up a shortlist of “potential strategic partners from across the lithium value chain” to invest in the Barroso Lithium Project.

Savannah is focused on finding investors willing to support Barosso’s construction “and bring complementary skills or additional opportunities to a longterm partnership”.

But one industry analyst told Batteries International that the move would heighten concern among EU leaders that the project could attract Asian battery manufacturers — leading to offtake deals that could

hurt Europe’s plans for a home-grown supply of battery materials.

Savannah says latest data shows Barosso has sufficient lithium production to support production of about 500,000 EV battery packs annually. A study in August said the EU could see lithium ion battery recycling become a profitable business before 2035, but the sector would need greater investment to get there.

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NEWS — FINANCE

Gore Street fund picks LSES for California BESS LS Energy Solutions is to provide the battery tech for the Gore Street Energy Storage Fund’s 200MW/400MWh BESS in California’s Imperial County.

The so-called Big Rock lithium ion BESS is expected to provide resource adequacy and ancillary services to the California Independent System Operator market and improve grid reliability.

The BESS will comprise 137 all-in-one AiON-ESS containers with a twohour storage capability.

Each of the modular storage units LS will supply will have a 1.5MW capacity and be able to store 3.5MWh of electricity, the companies said.

The units, together with 1,300 LS modular 140 kVA AiON-SIS string inverters, will create one of

the largest energy storage installations in Imperial County, the partners said.

In addition to supplying the AiON-ESS containers, LS also expects to provide commissioning support and operational services for the facility.

The battery will be run at 100MW of deliverability to supply 400MWh to meet the four-hour discharge requirements under a resource adequacy contract.

Gore Street acquired the Big Rock site in February 2023 from Avantus, which will continue to provide administrative and development services for the installation.

Big Rock is Gore Street’s first project in California and its latest BESS investment after projects in Texas, Ireland, the UK and Germany.

KKR, Infracapital in $1bn deal for joint control of Zenobe Global investment firm KKR is acquiring joint control of UK-based Zenobe alongside existing investor Infracapital, in a deal that values the business at around £900 million ($1.1 billion).

Zenobe, an international EV fleet and battery storage specialist, confirmed on September 7 it had secured a £600 million equity boost from KKR, in addition to around £270 million from existing shareholder Infracapital.

The companies did not disclose shareholding details, although unconfirmed reports suggested KKR’s stake would be around 45%.

Jera and Tepco Power Grid will remain as mi-

www.batteriesinternational.com

nority shareholders after completion of the deal, which is subject to various regulatory approvals.

Zenobe said the move will enable the firm to speed-up the design and construction of two additional battery storage sites across Scotland.

It will also enable the extension in capacity of a BESS already being developed in Scotland, which will support the integration of wind power into the grid and Zenobe’s target to commission about 1.2GW of storage in the UK by 2026.

The investments will also back the firm’s target to develop an additional 2.5GW of BESS facilities in North America and Australia by 2030.

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NEWS — FINANCE

Ford, Korean firms, Quebec CAM project wins Canada funding A consortium of Ford and two South Korean companies are to build a C$1.2 billion ($886 million) EV battery materials plant in Canada, backed by federal and provincial governments.

Ford, cathode active materials firm EcoProBM and battery maker SK On said on August 17 the Quebec facility, which would start operations in the first half of 2026, will produce an average of 45,000 tonnes of cathode active material (CAM) annually for future Ford EV batteries.

The federal government is providing a conditional contribution of C$322 million while the provincial government of Quebec will issue a partially forgivable loan of C$322 million through its Investissement Québec investment agency.

Construction has begun on the 280,000m2 site which, in addition to creating 345 jobs, will offer co-op positions for university and college students.

EcoPro CAM Canada — set up in February by the joint venture part-

ners — will produce CAM and high quality NCM for rechargeable batteries, which the firms say will target increased performance and range compared to existing batteries.

Ford and SK On will formally become investors in the joint venture on completion of the Canadian financing and subject to various regulatory approvals.

EcoProBM will oversee the day-to-day operations of the plant which will deploy EcoPro’s core shell gradient technology — a

high-nickel concentration gradient-type NCM cathode material said to improve structural stability.

Ford Canada president and CEO Bev Goodman said the deal represented the auto firm’s first such investment in Quebec.

The Quebec announcement comes just weeks after Stellantis and LG Energy Solution resumed construction of their NextStar Energy EV battery plant in Ontario after being awarded tax breaks deal worth up to C$15 billion.

LGES in $3bn Michigan investment boost in Toyota batteries deal LG Energy Solution said on October 5 it is investing around $3 billion to expand battery production at its Michigan plant to support a new landmark supply deal for Toyota electric vehicles.

LGES is to provide 20GWh annually of its high-nickel NCMA long cell pouch-type batteries starting in 2025.

LGES will build new production lines for battery cells and modules at the Holland, Michigan facility exclusively for Toyota — following what the South Korea-based battery maker said is its largest single supply agreement outside of joint venture deals.

An LGES spokesperson told Batteries International on October 10 the new financial commitment is in addition to the $1.7 billion already pledged for the expansion of the battery plant in Holland, Michigan.

In May, LGES held a topping out ceremony marking the completion of the structural steel framework for the expanded section of the plant.

LGES’s current annual production capacity at the site is 5GWh and will increase to 25GWh when the expansion is finished next year and mass production starts in 2025, the spokesperson said.

LGES has a total of eight

battery manufacturing facilities either operating or under construction in North America.

Toyota Motor North America president and CEO Tetsuo Ogawa said securing supplies at scale of lithium battery tech was key to the

auto giant’s expansion of its electric vehicles production and sales across the region.

Batteries International recently LGES raised $1bn through its first global green bond issue, to be invested in its global battery production facilities.

LGES to invest $1bn green bond proceeds in global battery network LG Energy Solution has raised $1bn through its first global green bond issue which will be invested in its global battery production facilities.

The South Korea-based manufacturer said on September 19 proceeds derived from the issue will support corporate environmental responsibilities and R&D that contributes to sustainable development.

LGES said the issue comprises a $400 million threeyear bond and a $600 million five-year bond.

The three-year bond was issued at 100 basis points

50 • Batteries International • Autumn 2023

above the yield of US threeyear treasury notes, with the five-year at 130 basis points above the yield of US five-year treasuries.

The company said it attracted orders from 114 institutional investors on its three-year bond and 186 on its five-year bond, with the total order reaching five times the issuance size.

As of last June, LGES said its overall total order backlog amounted to KRW440 trillion ($331 billion) as of June 2023.

In April, South Korea’s government launched a multibillion dollar program

to defend and expand its battery industry amid fears lucrative US tax breaks and incentives are tipping the global battery trade balance stateside.

The government later designated one of the country’s key industrial sites to fast track investment to develop a secondary battery enterprise zone.

In July, LGES and Stellantis resumed construction of their NextStar Energy EV battery plant in Canada under a deal worth up to C$15 billion ($11.4 billion) in tax breaks for the project.

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COVER STORY: HYBRID BATTERY COMBINATIONS

The secret is in the blend It’s the ultimate mix and match. Combine the strengths of two battery technologies and perhaps, just perhaps, you’ll get something better than both of them. Sara Verbruggen reports.

Greater than the sum of its parts.

That’s the idea behind the latest thinking in battery development. Add one lithium battery — in the right way — to one lead battery and you could have a battery capable of superior performance compared with a single product.

And it doesn’t have to be lead and lithium, it could be lithium and flow batteries, supercaps and lead, and even a mix of lithium chemistries.

Over the past decade or so these hybrid batteries have been the subject of research projects, the occasional demonstration or pilot but have failed 52 • Batteries International • Autumn 2023

to find a commercial foothold in the market. The lead acid battery-supercapacitor combination, the UltraBattery, for example promised a lot but, in the end, failed to deliver.

That said recent efforts look more promising with products beginning to gain some commercial traction.

Different battery chemistries have different characteristics in terms of different power ratings for example.

In many use cases a battery based on one chemistry will suffice.

“But where you have more complex requirements in terms of the battery’s function or performance such as an

application that requires peak shaving as well as fast response then a single chemistry might not yield optimal performance,” says GS Yuasa’s senior technical co-ordinator, Peter Stevenson.

Applications and use cases The cost of battery energy storage varies with its discharge rate. For instance, lead acid is suited to long duration energy storage and lithium is suited for short duration peak power.

Combining different battery chemistries or storage technologies can optimize the total cost of ownership. www.batteriesinternational.com

COVER STORY: HYBRID BATTERY COMBINATIONS

In the case of lead acid and lithium ion combinations, evidence shows that dual chemistry supports lead acid longevity in cycling applications, according to Michael Glenn, principal technical development officer, at Battery Energy Power Solutions in Sydney, Australia.

“In an off-grid setting, this has been shown to abate reliance on diesel gensets, thus, lowering both operational expenditure and carbon dioxide emissions.”

Battery Energy has paired its gel lead acid chemistry with lithium iron phosphate batteries. “Our gel was selected for its proven long life and LFP for its superior safety compared to other lithium chemistries,” Glenn says.

GS Yuasa’s first dual chemistry BESS, demonstrates this. It’s lead acid and lithium ion hybrid deployed at its factory in Wales, is a 100kW system that has been in operation since 2018.

It is used for peak shaving to reduce the factory’s load on the grid.

“The lithium ion component’s capacity is more than 95% and the lead acid component’s is just below 90%. www.batteriesinternational.com

“Where you have more complex requirements in terms of the battery’s function or performance such as an application that requires peak shaving as well as fast response then a single chemistry might not yield optimal performance.”

— Peter Stevenson, GS Yuasa Batteries International • Autumn 2023 • 53

COVER STORY: HYBRID BATTERY COMBINATIONS The battery is behaving as we expected it to,” Stevenson says.

The company installed its second lead acid-lithium ion battery in 2022 at its plant in Ebbw Vale, Wales, where it forms part of a microgrid that comprises a rooftop solar PV array. The battery is used for peak shaving and is able to store solar generated during the day to use later.

At the Royal Mint’s Energy Centre in Llantrisant, Wales, a 200kW dual chemistry battery has been in operation since July this year. The lithium ion component’s capacity is 150kWh and the lead acid’s is 500kWh. Battery Energy’s lead gel-LFP combined battery is aimed at cost optimized energy storage systems, where the LFP services short duration power peaks and lead gel provides long duration reserve energy. “This is ideally suited to ad hoc demands necessitating both short and long-duration energy storage,” says Glenn.

One application he talks about is telecom battery storage systems capable of also managing grid energy demands. “Telecom batteries provide reserve power in the event of an outage.

In aggregate, many gigawatt-hours’ of lead acid telecom batteries are installed globally and so these could be

“Energy transferred from lithium to lead via a circulating current is effective at converting hard sulfate crystals and maintaining capacity, extending lead battery life.”

— Michael Glenn, Battery Energy Power Solutions 54 • Batteries International • Autumn 2023

used to manage grid energy demands and be paid for doing so.

“In this case, the dual chemistry provides a solution. Energy transferred from lithium to lead via a circulating current is effective at converting hard sulphate crystals and maintaining capacfy, extending lead battery life,” Glenn says.

Technical considerations and challenges “There have been projects in the past and these were described as hybrids because they used two different batteries or storage devices in a system.

But they were essentially separate because they were connected only on the AC side,” says Stevenson.

GS Yuasa’s battery connects both the lead acid and the lithium ion batteries DC-to-DC, requiring only one power conversion system instead of two.

Stevenson says: “When we developed the concept we had to be aware of two main issues or challenges when connecting terminals of lithium and lead acid batteries. One was around voltage and the other around current.

“You can’t connect at the individual cell level because of the different voltages. Instead, you have strings of cells of lead acid and lithium ion so you can establish an overlap between the two, so that you can select the right number of lithium ion and lead acid cells with the same voltage.”

The two different battery chemistries will accept, or give, current at two different levels, so GS Yuasa had to size the batteries to avoid over-current during charging and discharging.

“Because GS-Yuasa’s LIM series of lithium ion batteries can operate at much higher currents than typical lithium ion storage cells — 6C versus 1C — it is possible to store most energy in low cost lead acid cells with a small lithium ion capacity providing the operational flexibility of dual chemistry systems,” Stevenson says.

In Battery Energy’s approach, circulating currents between the two chemistries was an important technical consideration. “This is where one chemistry charges or discharges into the other at rest. Fortunately, we found that the energy transfer from lead to lithium is minimal at the bottom-of-charge.

“This ensures that the lead acid chemistry is not over-discharged. It is also critical to set the nominal voltage of both chemistry strings, this requires connecting the correct number of cells in series,” says Glenn.

The Future Electric Vehicle Energy networks supporting Renewables (FEVER) project, will decouple EV charging demand from the UK electricity grid, by enabling 100% renewable energy to be used through a hybrid energy storage system, located at the FEVER charging station — Andrew Cruden, Southampton University Both battery chemistries in Battery Energy’s solution charge from a common bus voltage, hence, no electronic control is required, for example a DCto-DC converter. The company has also adapted the charge protocol from a lead acid remote area power system.

The LFP chemistry’s battery management system required for protection did not require any bespoke modifications to facilitate dual chemistry operation.

Commercial progress Having obtained valuable insights from both laboratory testing and field trials Battery Energy is working with clients to develop commercial lead gelLFP products based upon their specific requirements.

Rollout is scheduled to start from the first quarter of 2024.

Dual chemistry batteries are not applicable for more standard or straightforward applications. GS Yuasa works with customers to identify which type www.batteriesinternational.com

COVER STORY: HYBRID BATTERY COMBINATIONS of battery technology works best for their use case’s requirements and in certain cases these might benefit from a dual chemistry battery as opposed to a lead acid or a lithium ion.

Following the installation at the Royal Mint, GS Yuasa’s dual chemistry battery will be deployed as part of commercial electric vehicle chargers designed to operate as off-grid, circumventing the need for a grid connection, (since these can take years to obtain).

The Future Electric Vehicle Energy networks supporting Renewables (FEVER) project, which involves four UK universities (Surrey, Sheffield, Southampton and Portsmouth), will decouple EV charging demand from the UK electricity grid, by enabling 100% renewable energy to be used through a hybrid energy storage system, located at the FEVER charging station.

The hybrid storage system acts as the buffer between the variable renewable energy generator and regular EV charging demand.

Stevenson says: “Our dual chemistry battery will be able to both accumulate energy slowly, thanks to the lead acid component, while recharging EVs quickly, due to the lithium ion. There is the potential for such infrastructure at local authorities to recharge EV fleets.”

Andrew Cruden principal investigator of the FEVER project, and professor at Southampton University’s School of Engineering, says: “We will use GS Yuasa’s dual chemistry Pb-acid/Li-ion battery system in the FEVER demonstrators, in addition to our continuing research and laboratory system we have.”

Location and timings of the demonstrators are still being discussed and negotiated at present, he says.

One of the potential advantages of using the dual chemistry within the off-grid EV charging infrastructure is that the combination reduces the amount of time the chargers would have to operate for.

Lead acid alone would require between nine to 12 hours of charging, whereas the lithium ion can absorb electricity far more quickly, enabling

LITHIUM BATTERY SHALL SPEAK UNTO LITHIUM Mixing lithium chemistries inside other lithium packs has also proved there is the potential for other mix-and-max synergies.

ONE’s (Our Next Energy’s) dualchemistry architecture, Gemini, combines LFP and anode-free chemistries into one battery pack, enabled by the company’s proprietary DC-DC converter.

In an EV the LFP cell powers the motor and meets the demands of daily driving, achieving a range of 150 miles on a charge. Then the Gemini battery switches to the anode-free cell, using it to charge the LFP cell, providing an additional 450 miles of range.

The battery combining the two cells will deliver more than 600 miles on a single charge.

ONE’s first-generation 1007 Wh/L LFP-anode free cell eliminates the need for graphite and anode manufacturing equipment, reducing production costs to $50/ kWh cell cost at scale, according to the firm. Volume production is slated for 2026.

In February this year ONE took this further with the announcement of its new product called Aries Grid, a LFP utility-scale battery system that can serve as longduration energy storage.

The firm says that Aries Grid will be offered in 2-, 3-, and 6-MWh the charger to be switched off so that it is not using energy to run. This can then feed the energy over time into the lead acid battery which has more storage capacity.

Hybrids harnessing VRFB The Energy Superhub Oxford (ESO) which combines a 50MW lithium ion battery from Wartsila with a 2MW vanadium redox flow battery from Invinity went live in 2022, testament to the perseverance by the project’s various partners who experienced additional challenges during Covid-19.

Following the installation at the Royal Mint, GS Yuasa’s dual chemistry battery will be deployed as part of commercial electric vehicle chargers designed to operate as off-grid, circumventing the need for a grid connection. www.batteriesinternational.com

modular units that allow for system customization. The lithium-ion energy storage system uses an LFP cathode chemistry that is more durable and has double the lifetime energy throughput of the nickel, cobalt and manganese chemistries which make up most commercially available stationary energy storage systems in the US. “With discharge times ranging from four to 12 hours, Aries Grid can create a renewable microgrid that provides 24x7 firm capacity baseload to power factories, data centers and communities,” says a ONE statement.

Chinese EV brand NIO has developed a 75kWh cell-to-pack battery that comprises LFP and nickel cobalt manganese cells.

Advantages of the hybrid battery are that higher energy densities are achieved, thanks to NCM cells, as well as improved performance in colder temperatures. An algorithm controls the performance of the NCM and the LFP cells to improve the low-temperature energy efficiency of the whole battery system, resulting in improved range in cold weather.

SODIUM AND LITHIUM HYBRIDS TOO CATL, a producer of lithium ion cells based on LFP chemistry and sodium ion cells, developed its AB Battery System Solution to mix and match sodium ion and lithium ion batteries and integrate them into one battery system, controlled via a BMS algorithm.

The AB system compensates for the current energy-density shortage of the sodium-ion batteries, while maximising its high power advantages in low temperatures.

According to 36Kr Holdings, Chery Automobile will use a sodium-ion and lithium ion hybrid battery from CATL in its new automotive iCAR brand.

Batteries International • Autumn 2023 • 55

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COVER STORY: HYBRID BATTERY COMBINATIONS The objective of the hybrid battery was to investigate the possible benefits, or otherwise, of operating the two different chemistries together in the provision of frequency response services.

According to the project’s annual report published last year, due to the delays in gaining approval to operate the overall hybrid battery in the frequency response markets, “it has not been possible within the ESO project timescale to commercially operate the total system together and hence evaluate the potential benefits.

“This work will continue beyond the project end date, and EDF Renewables together with Habitat Energy will find the optimum operating balance across both systems.”

According to EDF Renewables, a final round of testing by the National Grid was completed in September 2023 and the hybrid battery is now operating in the grid services market.

It is too early to give details on combined performance of the lithium/flow hybrid in the grid services markets at this point. EDF Renewables is now beginning to operate the battery as a hybrid in these markets alongside trading in the electricity markets, the company confirmed.

A spokesperson at the company says: “The key challenges were in development and delivery of what was in effect a new flow battery product, so inevitably there were development and manufacturing challenges during the construction process.

“The other key challenge has been the integration of the batteries with the overall battery management system to enable full provision of the combined system.”

Because true hybrid operation has only recently begun, it is too early to say whether the overall economics of the system will be improved. “But as flow batteries become more established and costs reduce, the hybrid combination could deliver additional benefits, potentially through reducing the cycling load on the lithium battery and extending its lifetime,” says the.

Combining VRFBs and supercapacitors In the EU project Hyflow, Fraunhofer Institute for Chemical Technology.

Karlsruhe Institute of Technology and German power controls specialist Freqcon have worked on a hybrid storage demonstrator designed to provide virtual inertia.

The Hyflow project has been www.batteriesinternational.com

“There are some applications, where hybrid storage is the only viable solution. The biggest commercial potential for hybrid energy storage might look like niche applications at first first glance, but they can be profitable.”

— Peter Fischer, Fraunhofer working towards demonstrating a 1MW supercapacitor module, provided by Freqcon, coupled with a 300kW/1.5MWh vanadium redox flow battery module built by Fraunhofer ICT, using stacks from J Schmalz and controls from Siemens.

The hybrid forms part of a system that also comprises an 800V DC-link, which is connected to the DC-intermittent circuit (>1000V) of a 2MW wind turbine.

The demonstrator has been installed at Fraunhofer ICT’s premises. A 675kW solar photovoltaic array field has also been connected to the 800V DC-link, with KIT providing the fast control. The system will be put into operation in the near future, pending activity by Siemens and Freqcon.

Peter Fischer, group leader of the Redox Flow Battery Group at the Applied Electrochemistry Department at Fraunhofer ICT says applications where a hybrid storage system or hybrid battery can add extra value include the need to transform large power spikes into longer low energy operations or vice versa.

He refers to both small-scale implementations, for example elevators, as well as on a larger scale, such as large machines with electrical motors or motors with starters in some types of production lines.

Eyeing niches Fischer says: “There are some applications, where hybrid storage is the only viable solution. The biggest commercial potential for hybrid energy storage might look like niche applications on the first glance, but they can be profitable.

“For example, in UPS applications which operate on all time-spans, especially larger UPS applications for critical infrastructure. Fraunhofer ICT published on this topic around six years ago, where we also coupled an VRFB with a supercapacitor, successfully showing that such a hybrid system serves all time spans. This is interesting for military or data centres which require a high degree of availability.”

Another application is providing momentary reserve plus “grid shaping” capabilities. especially on islands or weak grids mainly based on renewables.

“You will need a very dynamic power component and a very long duration energy component. This is one of the few applications, which are useful in the grid,” he says.

Another application, Fischer describes, is to enhance or extend the life time of hydropower plants, where a flow battery can be deployed to prevent wear from fast switching Francis Turbines.

“Or to support storage systems with less dynamic behaviours, like an electrolyser or sodium sulphur battery, to guarantee steady operation in a more dynamical off-grid or weak grid situation.”

Technical considerations The energy management system has to be adjusted to the storage requirements of the individual storage device, in this instance the VRFB and the supercapacitor, according to Fischer.

Discussing dual chemistry and hybrid storage devices more generally, he thinks these will be enhanced in time as the availability of DC components, like bidirectional DC-DC-converters, bidirectional DC-AC converters, contactors and DC-switches increases and improves, with their cost coming down too.

“We are already seeing how growth in electromobility and electric vehicles already has increased the availability of some of these components compared with a few years ago, but I’m sure we will see more manufacturers for these components soon,” Fischer says.

Batteries International • Autumn 2023 • 57

COVER STORY: HYBRID BATTERY COMBINATIONS Next steps The commercial potential for hybrid, or dual chemistry, batteries is still debatable.

One commentator blamed the stuffiness of both the lead and lithium industries in not investigating earlier the potential hybrids can offer.

“From one side, until perhaps six or seven years ago, the lead industry was on the defensive about cosying up to lithium battery manufacturers. They were either defensive or just didn’t want to know.

“From the lithium side, unfortunately their prejudices against lead — the constant bleating that it’s a sunset industry with a sunset technology — are entrenched. Their vision of themselves as being on the cutting edge and denial of lead’s possibilities is a blockage to advancement.”

He points to the fact that some OEMs — Tesla being a prime example — are trying to eliminate even the small standby power lead battery in EVs despite their suitability for the job as well as their price.

The one example of a commercial hybrid storage device — the UltraBattery — was mothballed four years ago by East Penn, which owns the IP through its acquisition of Ecoult, an Australian spin out from CSIRO. The technology, once touted as a potential game-changer in providing an alternative to lithium batteries had to contend with a market where lithium ion very quickly came to dominate grid storage.

When it comes to dual chemistry batteries Glenn says that many ask “why?” adding that in many cases a single chemistry is the best option.

“However, dual chemistry demonstrates its value when the goal is to maximise the utility of a single battery asset,” he says.

According to EDF Renewables the commercial potential for hybrid systems, combining VRFB with lithium is unknown for the moment, as it is still early days.

“As flow batteries become more established and costs reduce, the hybrid combination could deliver additional benefits, potentially through reducing the cycling load on the lithium ion battery and extending its lifetime,” the company spokesperson said.

Glenn thinks hybrid chemistry batteries have the potential to be highly disruptive in niche sectors. Driving this are clients wanting several applications from a single installation.

“For instance, a battery that main58 • Batteries International • Autumn 2023

“From the lithium side, unfortunately their prejudices against lead — the constant bleating that it’s a sunset industry with a sunset technology — are entrenched.

It’s a blockage to advancement and stupid to boot.” tains a certain reserve capacity and can also cycle daily, ad hoc loads, both short duration power bursts and long duration autonomy, and so on. In my estimation, hybrid battery chemistries will play a prominent role in future.”

Longer term Fischer sees positive prospects for hybrid batteries. “In most demanding grid situations a short duration storage system alone can do the job and this will be favoured at

current levelized cost of storage.

“But, as the LCoS reduces and as more renewables are integrated into the grid, hybrid storage systems will offer added value and also help to increase life time and resilience of the storage system, as the dynamics can be covered by the hybrid system more effectively than by a single technology, helping the energy component provide reliability and duration.”

REACHING THE MAXIMUM FOR THE MIX The EU-funded EMMUseBat project, running until 2024, explores various aspects around the operation of a real large-scale battery system, based on five different technologies — two lead and three lithium.

These were first tested in the M5BAT project, which completed in 2018. EMMUseBAT is investigating the aging behaviour of batteries as a result of their operation and participation in Germany’s grid.

Partners will create and evaluate a platform for the development and testing of new energy management algorithms for large-scale battery systems in various markets and applications. This includes developing a digital twin of the system control of the 5MW hybrid battery developed in M5BAT. Lucas Koltermann, a research associate at RWTH Aachen

University, says: “M5BAT helped us to understand how to use the advantages of different battery technologies and it also taught us also how to fix issues concerning communication protocols, different cell and BMS behaviour and also to understand the limits of the different batteries.”

He says the hybrid approach is interesting for the future, but not with five different battery types.

“The effort and knowledge required for a hybrid storage system based on any more than two chemistries or technologies is too extensive, negating any advantages.”

He says the design and layout of hybrid, or dual chemistry, batteries depends on the application, or use case and ultimately optimizing the hybrid battery for that particular application.

“The effort and knowledge required for a hybrid storage system based on any more than two chemistries or technologies is too extensive, negating any advantages.”

— Lucas Koltermann, Aachen University

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NUCLEAR MAGNETIC RESONANCE Joerg Koehler, Alain Belguise, and Oliver Pecher explain how defining and understanding the electrochemistry of future batteries is enabled

by NMR and how it will improve production efficiency and lithium battery manufacture.

NMR offers gateway to better lithium battery understanding Nuclear magnetic resonance is a longestablished technology in medical and clinical research. The analytical power of NMR is now being used in pioneering basic research and product innovation in materials science to investigate

the development and design of novel devices for energy production, storage and conversion.

Techniques such as electron and optical microscopy offer high resolution imaging of the materials but are often

Preventing dendrite formation is an underresearched field. NMR allows separation and quantitative identification of many aspects of the layer.

Intensity [a.u.]

Mossy Lithium

Bulk Lithium

338.2

338.4

338.6

338.8

B-field [mT]

Image 1: Different lithium morphologies detected with a Bruker E540 ELEXSYS X-band spectrometer equipped with a 4108 TMHS resonator. Top: mossy lithium (green). Bottom: bulk lithium (black). Adapted from the following reference, in accordance with Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License: Niemöller A, Jakes P, Eichel RA and Granwehr J (2018) EPR imaging of metallic lithium and its application to dendrite localisation in battery separators, Scientific Reports, 8:14331.

60 • Batteries International • Autumn 2023

limited to surface imaging and are difficult to interpret quantitatively.

NMR and electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectroscopies are non-invasive methods with quantitative and structural capabilities, and research is continuing to improve sensitivity and increase resolution.

NMR methodologies are being used at the University of Cambridge in research and development to monitor structural changes that occur during the operation of a battery, to investigate the effect of rapid charging and cycling of the battery.

One recent paper considers how the chemical and electrochemical reactions at the positive electrodeelectrolyte interface in Li-ion batteries influence cycle life and safety.

The electrolyte was analyzed by solution NMR spectroscopy to identify any soluble decomposition products formed.

NMR spectroscopy can be used to reveal structural details, such as electronic structure, to study dynamics in battery materials, including possible alternative electrode materials and electrolyte components, such as Li salts, solvents and additives, and solid forms.

Improving a lithium ion battery’s internal resistance by increasing target ion mobility can enhance its performance, which depends on the mobility of the ions in the battery’s ionic liquid.

Pulsed gradient spin echo (PGSE) NMR can be used to investigate resistance by measuring the mobility of different ions separately, independently and in situ, and by measuring the diffusivity of different nuclei, including three different molecular species such as 1H, 19F and 7Li, over a wide range of temperatures. www.batteriesinternational.com

NUCLEAR MAGNETIC RESONANCE Analysis by NMR has grown our understanding of the processes that impact the critical solid–electrolyte interphase and dendrite formation during the first charge of a lithium ion battery.

The formation of a stable SEI determines many parameters that impact the performance and longevity of a battery. During charging, when Li ions move towards the anode, they may undergo plating, leading to the formation of dendrites, which can cause the battery to short-circuit and catch fire.

Preventing dendrite formation is an under-researched field. NMR allows separation and quantitative identification of many aspects of the layer.

For example, 7Li and 19F magic angle spinning, known as MAS, NMR enables the identification and quantification of lithium fluoride in the SEI at anodes and electrodes.

Changes in the intensity of the Li peak during cycling can be correlated with the growth of dendritic microstructures versus smoothly deposited metal. One study found that in situ NMR could determine that up to 90% of lithium deposited during a slow charge of a Li/LiCoO2 battery was dendritic.

Improving a lithium ion battery’s internal resistance by increasing target ion mobility can enhance its performance, which depends on the mobility of the ions in the battery’s ionic liquid.

The technique can also be used to test methods to prevent dendrite formation, including electrolyte additives, advanced separators, cell pressure, temperature, and electrochemical cycling conditions.

The benefits of NMR in researching new battery materials and performance are increasingly recognized.

Future applications could also include studying lithium ion battery capacity fade, examining cells after a large number of cycles, and high stress and accelerated aging testing.

Image 2: Series of magnetic field maps taken at intervals during discharge and then charge of the cell. The plots are labelled by the discharge capacity of the cell at each step. The magnetic field maps are referenced to the field map produced by the fully charged cell.

Reproduced from the following reference, in accordance with Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License: 11. Ilott AJ, Mohammadi M, Schauerman CM, Ganter MJ and Jerschow A (2018) Rechargeable lithium-ion cell state of charge and defect detection by in-situ inside-out magnetic resonance imaging, Nature Communications, 9: 1776.

Analysis by NMR has grown our understanding of the processes that impact the critical solid– electrolyte interphase and dendrite formation during the first charge of a lithium ion battery. www.batteriesinternational.com

TOWARDS THE BATTERIES OF THE FUTURE Solid-state battery technology is set to redefine the industry.

Solid state batteries have a solid electrolyte compound that still allows the movement of Li-ions, replacing the liquid electrolyte.

Although not a new concept, new solid electrolytes have been discovered that have high ionic conductivity, similar to liquid electrolyte.

Because they are non-flammable when heated, solid state designs offer real safety improvements, and they permit the use of highvoltage, high-capacity materials that may overcome performance issues thought to be due to high internal resistance for Li-ion. The result can be a battery that offers significantly increased energy density and improved cycling performance.

NMR also plays a key role in defining new electrochemical reactions for next generation chemical energy storage. The first market introduction of batterypowered electric vehicles powered

by Na-Ion batteries in 2022 redefined the compromise between raw material availability and battery performance.

Another example is Si-doped anode materials for extended storage capacity which will lead to less graphite demand in battery manufacturing.

Defining and understanding the electrochemistry of future batteries is enabled by NMR. Derivatives of these research and development methods will bring NMR into battery manufacturing environments helping to improve production efficiency.

Written by: Joerg Koehler, head of Business Unit Industrial, Bruker BioSpin; Alain Belguise, head of Business Unit Academia, Bruker BioSpin; Oliver Pecher, CEO ePROBE

Batteries International • Autumn 2023 • 61

OPTIMIZING BESS RUNNING COSTS Negative energy pricing has become a feature of European energy markets. Alastair Martin, founder of Flexitricity, examines how it has increased in frequency in markets and looks at the UK experience to show how organizations can make it work to their advantage.

Battery opportunities for businesses from negative energy pricing

Negative pricing occurs when demand for a product drops or supply increases to an extent that owners or suppliers are prepared to pay others to accept it — in effect setting the price to a negative number.

Electricity consumption is driven partly by weather and partly by the clock and calendar. This complicates the lives of electricity providers. Nuclear operators, for example, have powerful technical and economic reasons for keeping the plants running at a constant output for weeks on end.

These stations aren’t the best options for responding to changes in energy availability due to increased wind or sunshine.

Storage offers a partial solution.

However, in most countries energy storage options aren’t big enough to keep up with changing needs. National transmission networks and cross-border interconnectors may help smooth local variations across wider areas, but they have capacity limits.

Negative pricing, including “dayahead” and “same-day” wholesale exchanges, has become more common in the UK energy market. This July alone there were several negative pricing events, these tend to cluster around weekends.

The EPEX hourly day-ahead market set a record low of -£70/MWh (-$90MWh), and at one stage, the intraday price fell to £-120 per megawatt hour.

The benefits to businesses There’s a great deal to gain from negative pricing events for businesses that can alter when they consume energy or store it using batteries or heat buffers.

Several methods can be used to turn this flexibility into revenue. These include accessing wholesale markets and the Balancing Mechanism directly, or using pass-through supply agreements to access cash-out prices.

What we find is that electricity mar-

There’s a great deal to gain from negative pricing events for businesses that can alter when they consume energy or store it using batteries or heat buffers.

62 • Batteries International • Autumn 2023

kets span several timeframes, ranging from years ahead of consumption, to hours ahead, and even to real time.

As negative pricing is usually down to a combination of inflexibility, weather and network issues, negative pricing is most common where markets have shorter timeframes such as day-ahead auctions, intraday markets and the Balancing Mechanism.

At present, the UK electricity industry is undergoing successive regulatory changes which are intended to broaden access to flexibility markets generally, and negative prices specifically.

For many organizations, possibly the biggest question is which of its energy assets could operate flexibly given the opportunity?

BESS flexibility The most obvious candidate technology is through battery energy storage systems. The opportunity to be effectively paid twice from a single negative pricing event is compelling. This involves charging the battery while prices are negative, and discharging it when positive prices return.

Batteries frequently also have the technical capability to access other revenues, such as frequency response.

This allows them to seek the best www.batteriesinternational.com

OPTIMIZING BESS RUNNING COSTS value from market conditions at the time. Most won’t actually follow negative prices when there are more lucrative services available.

Fleets of electric vehicles, often referred to as ‘batteries on wheels’, can give their operators the opportunity to exploit low or negative prices by choosing when to recharge. For optimum results, it’s best to use automated dispatch in response to fastmoving situations.

Of course, any automation has to deliver a properly-charged fleet by the right time each morning. This is known as ‘smart charging’ among EV fleet operators. For other industrial and commercial energy users, processes such as cooling or heating that can be advanced or held back can deliver similar results.

Removing size restrictions from these market opportunities has become a key goal. Making this a reality involves aggregating multiple assets into virtual power plants (VPP) that are large enough to make a difference to the grid or to a distribution network operator. It certainly pays to be flexible about flexibility, allowing different assets to be turned on and off, as long as they perform their intended functional purpose.

Revenue generating opportunities It’s likely that the highest revenue opportunities will come about from dedicated energy assets with 24-hour availability. making BESS installations an ideal candidate.

Industrial and commercial assets will generally have a ‘day job’ to be met before their auxiliary purpose in a flexibility strategy. Most organizations will tend to consider flexibility as an ad-hoc or part-time activity around normal business operations.

Wherever possible, it pays to enhance available flexibility by investing in heat or cooling stores.

An essential element of any strategy involves accessing as many markets as the asset is capable of participating in, collaborating with an energy flexibility provider who can take on the complex qualification, verification, risk management, dispatch and reporting processes involved. It’s also essential to be able to aggregate capability as most individual energy assets are too small to participate directly.

A vital stage is to set appropriate limits and expectations on participation. It’s important to set parameters around temperatures, storage levels www.batteriesinternational.com

WHAT IS NEGATIVE PRICING? Energy usually has a positive price.

Energy generators sell to suppliers buying energy on behalf of customers. Systems operators make adjustments to balance prices based on demand and supply.

Negative pricing kicks in when the system operator is forced to choose between paying generators to reduce or constrain production or paying customers to increase usage.

When customers are more willing to use more available green energy, the less the system operator has to pay solar and wind farms to reduce output. In most cases, the cheaper

option involves paying customers to consume more.

Negative energy pricing occurs when reduced electricity demand forced grid system operators to constrain their electricity generators that run on renewable sources of energy, like solar and wind. Dialling down green energy represents lost opportunity, and comes with a cost.

Solar and wind farms generally work to an agreed price for their output. This cost needs to be covered even if there are instructions not to produce energy. Ultimately, driving prices below zero — hence negative energy pricing.

and BESS cycle limits. Where core business operations require it, the customer must have dynamic control over these parameters.

Automation is the final stage. Optimizing value from negative prices and other fast-moving events is not a manual task. It’s important to work with an experienced flexibility partner with sound relationships across a wide range of different asset classes, including factories, greenhouses, BESS sites, cold stores and district energy. The approach may vary depending on the specific site, the goal has to be gaining operational access to all appropriate markets alongside all other assets.

A look to the future It’s likely that we will see more negative pricing events as variable renewable energy generation and the technical limits of nuclear energy grow. It can be seen as a natural consequence of inflexibility in the grid, on both the demand and production side.

Negative pricing is far from an anomaly. As the grid transforms, the depth and duration of negative price events will change. Negative pricing is a signal to the market to invest in flexibility that makes best use of the energy resources that are compliant with net zero.

By combining battery assets, smart electric vehicle charging and flexible business energy consumption, energy prices should come down overall.

Negative pricing in the real world Maximizing revenue from negative pricing requires any organization to be agile. For example, during the negative pricing events of July 2023, battery owners could charge their batteries while day-ahead prices were negative, then discharge them when they returned to positive pricing.

Battery owners also generated additional revenue by providing frequency response services to National Grid Electricity System Operator (ESO).

This type of grid flexibility service can be triggered in seconds or less, ensuring that the grid operating frequency stays within tight limits.

Negative pricing provides financial incentives for organizations to support a net zero grid by encouraging the use of batteries and other flexible energy assets. Running energyconsuming processes during negative price events help to make use of available green energy.

MAKING IT WORK The 50MW, one-hour West Gourdie battery, owned by Foresight Group and operated by Flexitricity, was one of the top revenue earners on July 2 this year. As reported by Modo Energy: 83% of West Gourdie’s revenues came from Dynamic Containment — mostly the low-frequency service, where prices averaged £13/MW/hr.

West Gourdie was able to stack trading actions to take advantage of negative prices. The system allowed for charging up during negative prices and discharge in the evening. This accounted for 17% of revenues.

The system cycled approximately 0.9 times on the day

Batteries International • Autumn 2023 • 63

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20ABC EVENT REVIEW The great and the good of the lead battery industry convened on September 6-8 at Siem Reap in Cambodia for the 20th Asia Battery Conference in what proved to be one of the most important lead conferences in recent years.

Triumph among the temples

Siem Reap isn’t exactly at the forefront of most batterymen and women when thinking geography. Nor is Cambodia the easiest to place with exactitude when you live outside of Asia. But the choice of this small city — even though it is Cambodia’s second largest — for the conference was inspired.

The venue had two high-quality hotels one, and one incongruously named a Sofitel harked back to French colonial times and bordered on the sumptuous. Each hotel was connected www.batteriesinternational.com

with the other and the conference and exhibition hall by a series of free tuktuk shuttles set up by the organizers.

“There was nothing quite like it,” said one member of the Batteries International team, “waking up with a clear head and after a fine breakfast and heading off into the morning on a tuk-tuk to get to the conference early.”

As far as this magazine was concerned not a single person was heard to complain about this open air method of getting around. “In the evening when the conference events were over, we used to go into the centre of town,” said one attendee, “into a lively quarter called Pub Street, we might have a meal and a few drinks and then head back to the hotels.

“The price of the tuk-tuks was cheap, the drivers were friendly and it was a wonderful way to end the evening.”

Although the ABC was preceded by the 8th Secondary Lead Battery Conference on the Monday and Tuesday, many delegates had arrived early to get a feel for the place and settle in.

“Getting to Siem Reap wasn’t particularly difficult in terms of travel,” said one delegate. “It was a two-flight hop — much as we’ve had in the past going to Bali, for example. I heard that some moaned about the lack of direct flights. I didn’t understand this because Bangkok, for example, is one of the hubs in the region and it was just about an hour to get to here.”

The conference itself started with a reception on the Tuesday evening in one of the halls of the conference hotels. It was preceded by the highly traditional and truly elegant Cambodian dancing and then an introduction by the organizers and a thank you to some of the donors that had supported this event’s charitable giving to the Angkor Wat hospital (see other pages in this review).

The mood was energized. This reporter, for example, saw at least a dozen people he hadn’t seen since the Batteries International • Autumn 2023 • 65

20ABC EVENT REVIEW

Opening drinks, dances, delights The pre-conference drinks reception has gained in importance in recent years and now sets the tone for the networking to follow.

66 • Batteries International • Autumn 2023

last pre-Covid event in 2019 in Bali.

One delegate said, “it wouldn’t be true to say that I haven’t seen some of these people [the delegates and wives] since we last saw each other at ABC four years ago, though there are a few that have been missing. But the difference is that we’re seeing each other back in totally normal circumstances again — and that’s a huge relief.”

The reception spilled over into an exodus — some took tuk-tuks to their hotels and to sleep, some to hotels and the bars and some to the center of town and once more on to Pub Street.

To each their own and Pub Street, in the views of this commentator, would best be described as “21st century Babylon” with noisy music, bright and flashing lights and the universal huge screens that one finds across many Asian city centers. (Memo to self, I must get out more.)

But it proved popular with the latenight crowd of delegates who liked the ambience, cheap prices and sense of fun. Later on others wandered off to some of the interesting restaurants that are also located amid the bustle.

One surprising bar called itself a Welsh tavern — though its only link with the country was an obscure photo of a castle and a tatty Welsh flag — which served a traditional Welsh ale called mango beer which in fact had a wonderfully pleasant bitter-sweet fruit taste. Devotees of Welsh bitters might probably question the authenticity of the drink.

The next morning started with a bang. The first-day-of-a-conference anticipation was in the air as several hundred delegates gathered outside the main conference hall drinking coffee and wondering — despite the irritating bell being banged across the reception salon saying everything was about to start — whether to wait till it really did start.

For those of us who went in early, there was a quite stunning traditional dance presented before the speeches as the crowd drifted in. It was a good warm-up.

One of the endearing qualities to attending an ABC as opposed to other large-scale conferences is the level of detail the organizers delve into. The screens in the main hall room dominated the viewing presentation with numerous small touches such as an image of a flag in the corner of the screen that moved as if in a breeze.

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20ABC EVENT REVIEW

The gala dinner ... and fireworks The celebrations ahead of the gala dinner opened, quite literally, with a bang and a huge firework display lit up the skies as the delegates drank aperitifs outside, before moving inside to the vast dining area and a series of buffet areas offering local and international dishes. There was also a side annex where vegetarian and vegan options were available.

68 • Batteries International • Autumn 2023

still at the level of slide show projectors displayed in the village hall. (Also given the amount of money that has to be spent to attend these conferences, what’s so wrong with a bit of glitz?)

This reporter was fortunate to attend the set-up before the Secondary Lead Conference that had preceded the ABC. One of the engineers — who had been with ABC and its co-organizer Conference Works, for almost 20 years — said: “They let me do everything to make everyone that this is a prestige event.

“So, if you see the ABC or conference banner at the side of the big screens, we’ll make sure it’s a gif so the flag is moving. We’ll introduce speakers with a theme tune or songs when they come to podium to build up the anticipation of the event.

“We’ll adjust the levels way in advance and make sure, as much as we can, that there’s no way things are going to go wrong.”

If this sounds like sharp-talking in terms of spreading the cost of such detail over the huge gathering, the criticism would be unfair. The same attention to detail and branding was to be found in the much-smaller secondary lead event held before the ABC. And so on to the main event. Mark Stevenson’s introductory opening on the Wednesday morning was a well structured but simple affair — effectively saying “we’ve got a stunning line-up of presentations ahead of you in the next three days … here we go.”

Without commenting on some of the presentations which are mentioned in other parts of this magazine, this commentator thought the balance of industry themes worked.

“The themes don’t change,” said Mark Stevenson, conference chair, “but the balance and emphasis that we give to the themes reflects the changing importance they have to our industry.”

The trouble with all conferences is that there is no such person one could call the average delegate, the R&D expert, the operations manager and the chief executive want to learn different things.

“My difficulty with attending these events,” said one delegate to Batteries International, “is that I’m keen to know broad brush technical advances into our industry but at a certain level I’m not prepared to be bombarded with super-scientific presentations, marketing nonsense posing as insight, and speakers — for no fault of their own — giving a presentation in an accent that I can’t understand.” www.batteriesinternational.com

20ABC EVENT REVIEW

Hijackers at the exhibition hall There was a record number of exhibitors at this year’s ABC with the exhibition area handily perched midway between the outside coffee area and the main conference speaking arena. Delegates were cornered!

www.batteriesinternational.com

Overall, the mix of presentations was, as typical in these events, a mix of the great, the good and — quite frankly — yes, a couple were dire.

Yet it would be a foolish person not to have realised that the conference was getting the zeitgeist of how the lead battery industry was viewing the world.

Examples of this were the global perspective on the battery transportation sector delivered by Ray Kubis (which he has kindly allowed us to print in this issue), a look at the technical challenges ahead in the world of additives

by Francisco Trinidad, or the broader outlook for supply and demand for lead and their impact on prices given

by Neil Hawkes or Huw Roberts.

That said, and despite the global perspectives on offer, the lead battery industry is still standing at a crossroads in how it sees its future and which direction it should go in.

One delegate told this reporter that he had been approached by a battery supplier keen to install a lithium BESS for $185/kWh. “Could you have imagined that five years ago?” he said.

“He’s not talking about a cell level but a system level! It’s going to be a very difficult challenge for lead to match that once prices like that become standard.”

Perspectives on how to approach the future varied widely. In one corner the four speakers from the Consortium for Battery Innovation echoed similar mantras — effectively the better that lead batteries could be developed, the greater their chance of surviving the onslaught of lithium.

Implicitly CBI speakers suggestethat the future of the lead acid battery will continue to be bright. In the desperate struggle to meet decarbonization targets in the years ahead the demand for energy storage and batteries will be as strong as that for renewables, they say.

Effectively lithium batteries can’t sustain that demand and lead ones will fill the gap.

It’s an interesting take on today’s energy storage landscape but even the CBI’s internal documents looking at top-level research from Christophe Pillot, a partner at Avicenne Energy, don’t predict an explosion in demand.

The CBI are — clearly — serving the best interests of the lead battery community in pioneering batteries even though their commercial results are minor. Or at least so far. One ILA insider later said simply: “but just watch this space”.

Another perspective delegates were Batteries International • Autumn 2023 • 69

20ABC EVENT REVIEW able to hear were details of the ridiculous will-it, won’t-it dilemma of how the lead battery (and its lithium counterpart) will fit into the emerging European energy market.

The region’s bureaucrats are trying to regulate lead out of existence — and perversely may achieve the same fate for lithium and flow batteries too.

One fascinating insight emerged in a presentation about Europe’s new battery regulation, showed that key issues about recycling targets were being set by politicians and, shockingly, European Commission civil servants who were simply over-ruling what expert opinion said was achievable.

“I used to believe that logical arguments would be able to sway Europe’s politicians and civil servants,” one campaigner later told this magazine.

“But now I believe that only lobbying these people will make them change their minds.”

Asian regional issues were well covered with a wide range of speakers. Leoch’s Dong Li gave a broad perspective of the region in terms of battery demand and growth. Presentations by Indian speakers IESA’s Debi Prasad Dash, Luminous’ Amlan Kanti Das and a well received distinctive double act by Exide Industries’ Subhankar Chakraborty and Indrajit Majumdat also helped paint the picture of a country braced for rapid growth — and a region waiting to participate.

This was a theme that had been picked up even more strongly in the previous secondary lead conference.

One topic that needed greater coverage despite not being essentially a lead battery issue, was the growing possibility of an economic conflict opening up between the combination of US and Korean lithium battery manufacturers versus Chinese ones.

The growing perception in the US that China has become an economic threat in the battle to win the EV markets of the future, is likely to spill over to lead battery manufacturing.

The gala dinner was held on the Thursday night. The evening kicked off outside one of the hotels with drinks, canapes and an impressive display of fireworks.

The original intention to hold the dinner outside — ABC veterans still have a smile on their face after the blow-out success of that gala night in Bali — had to be curtailed and the huge dining hall was completely packed. The entertainment was reckoned to be riveting, but only if you were near enough to see it!

70 • Batteries International • Autumn 2023

In the scrum to get a table when everyone sat down, some colleagues and friends were parted and one person at the Batteries International table suggested that in future delegates made a contribution to that year’s ONE minute giveback to book a table in advance.

The final day of the conference ended on a technical bang as Doug Lambert chaired a panel session on ‘Aspects of Lead Acid Battery Tech-

nology and Performance’ with Eckhard Karden, Stuart McKenzie, Francisco Trinidad, Mike Glenn and Rob Desborough candidly explaining their thoughts (and fears) about what advances could be achieved.

As delegates flew out that Friday evening and following morning, there was a general perception at the airport that it had not been just a good conference but a very good conference indeed.

The technical presentations The technical side to the conference is always one of the most keenly anticipated aspects of the show. This year didn’t disappoint with presentations ranging from the hyper-technical to broad-reaching discussions (with occasional wrangling!) over policy decisions by the regulators.

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CONFERENCE WATCH MONTHLY The definitive guide to battery energy storage conferences and meetings for the year ahead

SUBSCRIBE FOR FREE Contact Jade Beevor jade@energystoragejournal.com

20ABC EVENT REVIEW The ONE Minute Giveback returned for 20ABC and delegates pulled out all the stops to provide for Cambodian children in need and to support the medical teams working in a local hospital. John Shepherd saw at first hand the work being done by…

The hospital angels of Angkor

The ONE Minute Giveback, a charity initiative started at 18ABC in Bali, was revived at September’s 20ABC in Cambodia to support the Angkor Hospital for Children (AHC).

The facility is an independent nonprofit paediatric healthcare hospital just a short drive from the conference venue in Siem Reap.

As Batteries International went to press, the $20,000 target set for funding a bed in AHC’s oncology ward, had raised more than $21,800.

The fund-raising campaign was managed by Mark Richardson, one of the 20ABC organizers, and Scott Fink, president of Sorfin Yoshimura.

I had the privilege of joining Fink 72 • Batteries International • Autumn 2023

and a small group of 20ABC delegates on a visit to the hospital and the closing day of the conference, where we were met by senior fund-raising officer, Fabienne van de Loo. We had been invited to see at firsthand how ACH coped and to understand how precious every dollar of support is in supporting the facility’s mission to provide specialist care for children across Cambodia with longterm, rare or acute conditions.

As we were being shown around we were all doing our utmost to be as unobtrusive as possible and to respect the dignity of the children and their families.

One little girl, perhaps no older than

three or four, was sitting patiently on a bench outside the oncology unit.

Her tiny left hand clutched a piece of fruit which she stopped chewing momentarily to cast a curious glance over to our group.

I nodded and smiled at the girl, who placed her other hand into the reassuring lap of a woman sitting alongside her — most probably ‘Mom’ — before she beamed a smile back.

It was a smile that belied the undoubted discomfort — to put it mildly — that the child must have been enduring.

Her innocent face was cruelly disfigured in a way that requires no elaboration here. Suffice it to say she most www.batteriesinternational.com

20ABC EVENT REVIEW clearly deserved the urgent care and assistance of the medical professionals.

I unashamedly shed a tear (which I felt to be a wholly inadequate response) and I noticed others in the group were equally struggling to keep their emotions in check.

But for me, the expression of a little girl bravely smiling through, despite her condition, encapsulated the welcoming and hopeful spirit of the entire hospital.

All around us medical staff and others, the angels of AHC, were going about their work in the clammy and oppressive afternoon heat, calmly consoling and caring for the hubbub of children and their accompanying parents.

On arrival the facilities at their disposal include an in-patient department for cancer (mainly leukaemia) with around 15 beds.

In addition there is a neo-natal unit, a CT scanner and dental clinic.

The hospital also relies on the services of an eye cancer specialist, currently the only one in the country.

ACH is also equipped to deal with burns, broken bones and to offer physiotherapy. Even spectacles are provided for children who require them and help.

The hospital will also help source medicines.

Cambodian nurses do internships at ACH, which regularly welcomes help from international volunteers.

Beyond the fantastic care offered by a combined medical workforce of more than 100 nurses and around 50 doctors, along with other health professionals and community health workers, ACH is also an educational and wellness center.

For example, the dental clinic champions preventative care too and even teaches children the basics of brushing their teeth correctly.

In a small hospital garden children and their families learn the importance of healthy eating and a balanced diet to help combat malnutrition.

Here, there is a focus on produce that can be grown quickly and relatively easily in the Cambodian climate.

This is backed up with food preparation and cookery lessons.

A large hospital kitchen is equipped for families to prepare their own food while staying with children at the hospital. Food is provided for those who arrive without provisions.

ACH needs to raise at least $5.5 million annually to cover its total running www.batteriesinternational.com

costs and is totally reliant on donors.

Services were provided free of charge until July 2022. Since then, families who can make a small contribution towards treatment are asked to do so, but ACH turns no child away.

The hospital is a registered nonprofit in the US and UK meaning donations are tax deductible or eligible for Gift Aid but donors come from around the world are always welcome.

The whole experience was incredibly humbling. If you were among those who donated to the ONE Minute Giveback during the conference you can rest assured every single dollar of support goes toward improving the lives and well-being of children in need.

If you were unable to donate during the conference, you can do so online: https://angkorhospital.org/donate/

More than 20 years ago, acclaimed Japanese photographer Kenro Izu visited Siem Reap to photograph the temples of Angkor.

Shocked by the post-war poverty and state of healthcare, he vowed to open a hospital that would ensure any child could get the healthcare they needed.

Today, hospital director and CEO Ngoun Chanpheaktra says AHC is a leader in providing the highest quality complimentary care for vulnerable, neglected children in poverty.

The hospital continues to work with Cambodia’s government to help raise the quality of medical and healthcare in the country to that of developed nations.

Angkor Wat and its temples The choice of Siem Reap for the conference had one huge, but not entirely unexpected, benefit. Angkor Wat, one of the wonders of the Asian world, was a 15 minute tuk-tuk ride away from both the conference hotels.

Angkor Wat — its name in English means City of Temples — is a huge complex mostly dating from the 12th century and later. It was founded by King Suryavarman II in around AD1122 to be his state temple and capital city.

In the next century dozens of ad-

ditional temples were built creating a site some 160 hectares in size and the biggest temple complex in the world.

Over the years Angkor Wat fell into disrepair and it was only rediscovered in 1860 by a French missionary.

But in the following 100 years the jungle vegetation around it was cleared making it one of the wonders of the Asian world and, coincidentally in 2023, a perfect tourist destination for the lead battery industry’s finest at play.

Angkor Wat, one of the wonders of the Asian world, was a 15 minute tuk-tuk ride away from both the conference hotels Batteries International • Autumn 2023 • 73

COMPANY FOCUS: HAMMOND GROUP

Hammond Bolsters Asian Production Capacity with New Treated SureCure® Manufacturing Line

The building blocks of improved battery performance are contained in the modified tetrabasic lead sulfate seed crystals, Hammond Group’s nextlevel generation of positive paste additives, Treated SureCure®.

With the recent launch of full-scale operations at Hammond Group’s new state-of-the-art Treated SureCure® manufacturing line in North America, the company announced increased production capacity for its Malaysian plant as well. The facility in Kuala Lumpur is capable of making just over 4.1 million pounds of Treated SureCure® or 1900 metric tons per year for the Asian Pacific markets.

Demand for Treated SureCure, one of Hammond’s most effective additives, had increased to such a degree that Hammond invested in doubling its production capacity to meet the needs of battery manufacturers worldwide.

Hammond holds a patent on the SureCure manufacturing process and has produced a variety of these additives for years. The new Treated SureCure is rapidly being adopted by major battery manufacturers. This next-level positive additive facilitates the controlled growth of uniform tetrabasic lead sulfate crystals and has gained manufacturing integration by Hammond customers since its introduction.

74 • Batteries International • Autumn 2023

What Are the Advantages of Treated SureCure?

Treated SureCure allows for greater crystal growth control and consistency in the manufacture of 4BS morphology in the battery active material. Also, the additive provides better energy efficiency during the curing process since 4BS can be created at lower temperatures WITHOUT any use of steam.

No Steam Curing Required Steam curing requires increased energy to maintain the high temperatures needed to grow the 4BS. “You put in a great deal of resources, in terms of energy and equipment, and end up with an inconsistent product,” said

Tom Wojcinski, Hammond’s Senior Research and Development Chemist.

“One of Treated SureCure’s benefits for battery manufacturers is taking the guesswork out of crystal growth.

It eliminates the activation energy needed for 4BS formation and allows for a consistent optimized final product in terms of conversion to 4BS and in controlling the final particle size of the crystals achieved in curing.

“To put it simply, Treated SureCure is to the battery what steel reinforcement is to concrete. It provides an extra layer of durability to your material and even allows you to use less since what you have is stronger.”

More specifically Wojcinski says “Treated SureCure is a micro-milled

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COMPANY FOCUS: HAMMOND GROUP

SEM images at 5000X comparing the crystal structures of cured positive material showing the differences between Tribasic curing, Tetrabasic curing without seeds and Tetrabasic curing with Treated SureCure®.

seed crystal that facilitates, controls, and improves the growth of tetrabasic lead sulfate, often called 4BS, which strengthens the positive active material allowing for extended cycle life and cost savings due to the ability to reduce the density of lead in your paste formulations.”

Enhance Battery Performance Battery performance is also enhanced with the use of Treated SureCure.

“Customers using Treated SureCure have noted increased charging efficiency, allowing the batteries to perform better with less overcharge,” says Wojcinski. “All these improvements translate to better battery performance in cycling, in some cases up to 70% improvement in cycle life, over 3BS and older SureCure additives.”

Ng Ming Yeow, General Manager at Hammond ALSB-Malaysia, elaborates: “The smaller, more consistent crystal structure formed in the cured positive material using Treated SureCure will then provide benefits to production in terms of shorter formation times and greater formation efficiency over steam cured plates.

Also, the more durable active material will enhance battery performance by extending cycle life compared to traditional tribasic cured material.”

Reduce Costs The additional durability provided

by Treated SureCure means some manufacturers can even save money by using less material to achieve the same performance. Treated SureCure can improve the cohesion/adhesion of

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the active material and grid components of the positive plates.

“Some of our customers have been able to reduce costs by lowering their paste densities to use less lead — up to 5%,” said Ming Yeow. “That can be a large cost savings with no loss of battery performance using the additive. Not to mention that our new Treated SureCure also helps form batteries quicker and more efficiently than traditional 4BS curing methods and even our older line of standard SureCure. Customers who have adopted Treated SureCure have seen increased post formation voltages and higher initial capacities as well as greater PbO2 content and higher surface area in their formed positive plates using our additive.”

Uniform Tetrabasic Crystal Size Treated SureCure has improved in other ways over past methods of creating 4BS seed additives. Treated SureCure undergoes a final finishing step during production that modifies the additive to provide better crystal size control during curing. Since the improvements in formation efficiency are all linked to controlling the final crystal size of 4BS in the cured material, it is important to note that increasing or decreasing the loading can affect this final crystal size. More seed sites through higher loading means smaller final crystal sizes, and lower loading equates to less seed sites and a larger final crystal size.

“If the crystals are too big, you lose the benefits in formation

Ng Ming Yeow, General Manager of Hammond Group’s Malaysia production facility, provides his expertise on Treated SureCure® manufacturing during a visit to observe the operation of the new production line in the United States.

Batteries International • Autumn 2023 • 75

COMPANY FOCUS: HAMMOND GROUP

Hammond Group’s Treated SureCure® production line in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia is capable of producing 1900 metric tons of product per year. Their recently completed Treated SureCure® line in Hammond, Indiana USA doubled production capacity.

efficiency, and if your 4BS is too small, you will not improve your cycling performance,” said Wojcinski. “With the improvements in crystal size control offered by the finishing treatment of the new Treated SureCure and Hammond’s experience in optimizing the loading rates of the additive to achieve the best balance of efficiency versus durability, our recommended loading is at 1% of the weight of the leady oxide used in a customer’s formula to gain the benefits.”

Global and Regional Distribution “Treated SureCure is a fully commercialized product from Hammond.

We have a production line capable of making just over 4.1 million pounds or 1900 metric tons per year at our Malaysian facility in Kuala Lumpur,” said Ming Yeow. “Typical shipping times to customers in Asia are about one week from time of pick up to receipt at local ports.”

Hammond is a global manufacturer of battery expanders, specialty chemicals, red lead, oxides and additives backed with full product technical support. With over 90 years experience in service to automotive, industrial, telecommunications, data center, and renewable energy storage battery manufacturers, Hammond has developed a range of other breakthrough products, like Gravity Guard™, an additive designed to reduce acid stratification.

Hammond Malaysia offers all of the products and solutions found at their parent location in the USA to customers in Asia. “In addition to Treated

76 • Batteries International • Autumn 2023

SureCure™ products, we produce our full line of Advanced Negative Expanders tailored to assist with SLI, Deep-Cycle, PSoC and Energy Storage needs,” said Ming Yeow. “We have tested and developed new ingredients and formulations aimed at better high temperature performance for batteries in extreme climate locations, like India and southern China. We also have the ability to produce lead oxides such as red lead and orthorhombic PbO in Malaysia.”

Hammond’s facilities in Asia, the USA, and the UK are ISO:9001 certified for quality. “Our US location is IATF certified to help conform to the more strict requirements needed for our automotive industry customers,” said Wojcinski. “We provide full traceability on all our products including Treated SureCure at all our production locations.”

Advanced Customer Support Beyond in-house research and product development, Hammond’s state-of-the-art research and development lab offers technical support to customers. “Hammond is very customer-focused in our approach to technical support,” said Wojcinski. “We engage with customers directly and leverage our experience to provide the best options for them.

Or we can even partner more closely through our Technical Assistance Programs to help them address specific needs or goals. We like our customers to think of us as an extension of their own research efforts.”

Hammond is involved in large-scale battery research consortiums like the

CBI and BCI to stay informed of the needs and concerns of the industry to help drive product development and recommendations.

In 2022 Hammond advanced its customer commitment even further by forming the Innovation Leadership Council to provide operational solutions for its global customers.

Council members include John Miller, recently Senior Director of Engineering for Stryten; Dr. Francisco Trinidad, recently the Director of Battery Technology for Exide Europe; Rosalind Batson, President of Clear Science Inc.; and Lash Mapa, Professor of Industrial Engineering and Technology Purdue NW. “This group represents some the best minds in the battery industry drawing on decades of experience in materials research, advanced technology, chemical and industrial engineering, manufacturing, logistics, and more,” said Gordon Beckley, Chief Operating Officer at Hammond.

“Through their extensive battery industry knowledge base, our innovation group is proving invaluable by enhancing our solutionsbased customer approach with timely resolutions of operational issues, and contributing to Hammond’s continued efforts towards the industry’s goals of advanced energy storage solutions.”

Readers who would like more information about Hammond Group Inc. product offerings or to schedule a call with the Hammond Technical or Customer Service Team, may visit www.hammondglobal.com

www.batteriesinternational.com

No Steam Curing Required.

Accelerate TTBLS Crystal Growth with Less Time and Energy Use Improve your product AND your bottom line. Treated SureCure is a fundamentally better way to create TTBLS crystals, with more uniformity and more efficiency in, both, time and energy use, compared to steam curing and other methods. Battery manufacturing and performance will benefit from tested and proven enhancements like stronger plates, more-consistent curing, increased cycle life, and improved charge acceptance — all while providing verifiable savings.

INDUSTRY NEWS full-scale operations of its North Hammond Bolsters With American Treated SureCure® manuline underway, Hammond Asian Production facturing Group announced increased production Capacity With New capacity at its Malaysian plant. The facility in Kuala Lumpur is capable of Treated SureCure® making just over 4.1 million pounds of production online in the US in early Treated SureCure® per year. Demand 2023. In addition to SureCure prodManufacturing Line for one of its most effective additives ucts, Hammond Malaysia produces

Energy Storage needs. The plant is ISO:9001 Certified and allows for quick turnaround on orders to customers Advanced Negative Expanders tailored throughout Asia. Read more at to assist with SLI, Deep-Cycle, PSoC and HammondGlobal.com/news. ®

had risen to such a degree that the company doubled capacity by bringing

INFO@HAMMONDGLOBAL.COM

HAMMONDGLOBAL.COM

ABC PERSPECTIVES: FUTURE BATTERIES Ray Kubis, battery industry veteran and chairman of bipolar lead developer Gridtential. offers his thoughts on the direction and shape of our future battery transportation needs as per part of this presentation given at ABC in Siem Reap.

Drivers for tomorrow’s battery energy world

The global lead-based battery industry has a sustainable, localized, low-cost supply chain and over 700GWh of capacity. This is large but this does not guarantee its future.

Although, there have been incremental improvements with AGM, pure lead designs and carbon additives, an Battery Conference, Cambodia there are only a2023 handful of companies accepting the generational challenge needed for the industry to stretch the performance and life to levels needed to compete in the years ahead.

Unless more companies move quick-

attery Conference, Cambodia 2023

ly to advance lead batteries, even many the global transportation market for of our leading companies will show batteries set to triple to 4.1TWh per declines in future sales and earnings. year and worth $521 billion by 2030.

Showing my bias, I am an investor in The big drivers are EVs, hybrids, and one lithium start-up driving for great- LSEVs (low speed EVs worldwide) er safety and density. And to help meet with two, three or four wheels. the generational challenge, I continue We are starting to see EV demand to invest in Gridtential, whose Silicon growth rates moderate in some counJoule technology combines treatedSeptember tries 7,as2023 consumers consider affordabilsilicon wafers with lead for a higher ity, charging and convenience across performance and life the broader customer base following Here are some factors weighing on the early EV adopters. our market.

Sales of lead batteries are forecast First, high growth continues with to grow at a 3% rate to $71 billion by 2030 as the higher mix of better designs needed by today’s vehicles to improve fuel efficiency and reduce emissions offsets some share loss in each transportation market segment to lithium batteries.

Based on a recent survey, those AGM-based batteries support the highest growth platform for lead batteries filling the stop/start function across the majority of OE (non-EV) new vehicles worldwide, and are inSeptember 7, 2023 creasing in the much larger replacement market.

Regulatory trends Mandates, regulations and incentives Figure 1. Regulatory trends continue as a major driver for the electrification trends across transportation and other applications. (figure 1) The mandates, regulations and common regulatory platform for all China’s policies have supported a incentives continue as a major driver for battery technologies which could remove dramatic growth in recent years for the electrification trends across one of the clouds over the lead battery material processing, battery and vetransportation and other applications. industry. hicle production, and incentives were recently extended through 2025. With China’s policies have supported India’s EV market is largely about 2 and intense local competition, China’s dramatic growth in recent years for 3 wheel vehicles supporting the wider makers are keen to export more batmaterial processing, battery and vehicle improvement in air quality across its very teries and EVs. production, and incentives were recently large cities. And its FAME incentives Europe’s EV mandates remain in extended through 2025. With intense have led to an expanding deployment of place, yet a recent update in the regulocal competition, China’s makers are locally made ebikes, larger eScooters lation has created an exemption for now keen to export more batteries and and eRickshaws (or Tuk-Tuks).

ICE vehicles that are powered by bioEVs. fuels.

For the US, the key development has We must complement the EuroEurope’s EV mandates remain in place, been the incentives contained in the IRA pean Battery Association for managyet a recent update in the regulation has act in 2022 which has catalyzed huge ing to achieve a common regulatory created an exemption for ICE vehicles investments to localize battery supply 1 Figure 2. Methodology All transportation apps – ebikes to big trucks and buses platform for all battery technologies that are powered by bio-fuels. chains and production.

And we must complement the European

Batteries how International • Autumnis2023 Let 78 me•explain the forecast built Battery Association for a very positive with two examples. development to prospectively achieve a

Also shown is an SLI type battery category, Heavy Duty Batteries for

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ABC PERSPECTIVES: FUTURE BATTERIES Electricity demand Electricity demand is increasing eveNICHE MARKETS — rywhere from the combination of ecoAIRCRAFT, SHIPS nomic growth and the huge push for electrification of transportation.

TRAINS Though the growth of renewables is helping, a huge share of electricity generation is still from coal ranging Each of these segments represent from one-fifth in the US to over twoover $500m in batteries thirds in China and India. The houseworldwide today, and likely hold costs of electricity now range heading toward $1 billion by from $.06/kWh in China up to over 2030 as each segment has an $.50/kWh in Germany. increasing trend to greater electrification in existing and new As costs will always matter to governments, businesses and households, applications.

For aircraft, some companies one has to be careful in assuming how much emission reductions will happen have launched trial electric Methodology in this aspirational change away from vertical take off and landing The forecast is built with two exam- low-cost baseload generation. vehicles (eVTOL) suitable for ples. (figure 2). For EV light vehicles, it Many countries, including the US, short haul flights.

For ships, modest distance EV starts with the 8.1 million EVs in 2022 are reducing the use of coal in generaand the average kWh battery content tion, yet for many reasons the use of ferries can now re-charge often as quickly as the normal unload for the global sales that year, at an av- coal increased by 3.3% to 8.3 billion Asian Battery Conference, 2023 and reload cycles. Italy is taking erage estimated cost per kWh. tonnesCambodia in 2022 according to the Ininitial hybrid electric trains where Then this is extended to the forecast gternational Energy Agency. batteries can bridge the network 31 million EVs by 2030, with now larger average battery packs and low- EVs, hybrids and trends of overhead electric cables. er cost per kWh, following the huge Investment bank Morgan Stanley surge in material costs in 2021, and forecasts that 40% of all new vehicles the shift to lower cost, lower range LFP vs NMC batteries in the mix.

Also shown is an SLI type battery category, Heavy Duty Batteries for trucks, buses, et al, with the estimated battery units sold in 2022 worldwide along with a kWh content and cost, and then extended in the same way.

With this format with insight on all Batterywe Conference, Cambodia 2023 segments from eBikesAsian to Buses arrive to forecast battery demand in energy content and value by 2030.

Here, courtesy of CRU, are assumptions for battery metals and oil which impact the mix and cost of vehicles and batteries (figures 3 & 4). The stability in lead costs is aided by the huge recycling content of the global 13+ million tonnes of lead consumed each year. The lithium battery materials are forecast lower following the earlier Thanks to CRU, I am showing the dramatic price surges.

Bloomberg has profiled the huge de-assumptions for battery metals and oil mand for metals for lithium batterieswhich impact the mix and cost of through to 2030, which is 17 millionvehicles and batteries. tonnes of mostly mined materials.

Although there will be supply andThe stability in lead costs is aided by the demand variations in the short term,huge recycling content of the global 13+ there appears to be sufficient materi-million metric tons of lead consumed als in the ground and at the bottom ofeach year. the Pacific Ocean, as some are targeting to collect. It is important to rec-The lithium battery materials are now ognize though that just like with oil,forecast lower following the earlier the reserves of these metals will bedramatic price surges. recovered with notably different costs depending on the location, geology, Figures 3 & 4. Assumptions on commodities and lithium usage royalties and other factors.

Source: BloombergNEF, Bloomberg Professional services. Race to Net Zero (via DoE) July 2023 — something that could remove one of the clouds over the lead battery industry.

India’s EV market is largely about two and three wheel vehicles supporting the wider improvement in air quality across its very large cities. The FAME incentives have led to an expanding deployment of locally made ebikes, larger eScooters and eRickshaws, commonly known as tuk-tuks).

For the US, the key development has been the incentives contained in the IRA act in 2022 which has catalyzed huge investments to localize battery supply chains and production.

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This is a brief from Bloomberg profiling the huge demand for metals for lithium batteries through to 2030, which is 17

September 7

Septem

It is important to recognize though that International • Autumn 2023 • 79 just Batteries like with oil, the reserves of these metals will be recovered with notably

ABC PERSPECTIVES: FUTURE BATTERIES

will be EVs by 2030, and will cross the 50% mark in the 2032/2033 period.

In China, there is tough competition from the very small $5,000 EVs from the Wuling mini, to BYD hybrids, and the larger vehicles including Tesla’s.

Numerous price adjustments may lead to consolidation of the very high number of aspiring producers, concurrent with others’ efforts to export aggressively.

Current trends — including small and large EVs and hybrids — indicate China will be the first major country to exceed 50% of new energy vehicles by 2030. In addition, with high forecast growth for exports, some forecast Chinese-made EVs will be over 50% of global EV sales by 2030.

Renault with its Dacia brand, VW with its ID platform, and Mercedes with its premium offering have all brought appealing vehicles to their customer base aiding the progress of electrification of new vehicle EV sales to over 15% in 2022 in Europe.

However, Tesla’s Berlin plant, and the notable entry of Chinese EV imis presenting a tremendous ian Batteryports Conference, Cambodia 2023 challenge to legacy European vehicle producers, suppliers and surrounding industries.

Tesla continues to lead the US market with about two-thirds EV market share of the 6% of new light vehicle sales in 2022. Ford has successfully promoted its eMustang and F-150

Numerous price adjustments may lead to consolidation of the very high number of aspiring producers, concurrent with others’ efforts to export aggressively Lightning pick-up truck, and GM has launched its eSilverado, eHummer and eCadillac, all with large battery packs and premium pricing. Toyota‘s major US presence continues to be led by its diverse hybrid solutions, which were over 500,000 of its 2 million 2022 US shipments.

The IRA legislation passed in 2022 has catalyzed new battery and EV vehicle investments across the US, The investment tax credits and loans to support EV battery and supply chain localization, along with consumer EV incentives is a major part of the $1 trillion plus in government support for climate change mitigation across the next 10 years.

The largest markets Norway, one of the richest nations per capita, has led the world with EV penetration with a long list of EV preferences, and for 2022 EVs represented 79% of new vehicle sales.

By contrast three other important economies, Japan, Brazil and South

Africa all had less than 1% EVs in 2022, with different influences on local EV adoption.

For Japan, one can argue they have led the world in CO2 vehicle-based emission reductions over the last 10 years with progressively higher penetration of very efficient hybrids. These reached 40% of vehicle sales in 2022.

With South Africa’s continued challenges in electricity supply, it is understandable EV sales are quite low.

India’s electrification in transportation to date is best illustrated by Hero, the market leader in motorcycles, and Mahindra, the leading local light vehicle maker.

Hero has launched successful electric scooters and motorcycles. MahinSeptember 7, 2023 dra, is building on the same platform as eRickshaws for personal transportation. Ola has raised and invested a lot money to support its all-electric future of two and four wheel vehicles supported by its own giga-factory for lithium batteries.

India’s FAME subsidies have aided

The US National Lab Argonne, puts the combined battery investment announcements increasing capacity by 20X to nearly 1 terawatt hour by 2030. This could power 10 to 13 million all EV light vehicles.

The IRA legislation passed in 2022 has catalyzed significant new battery and EV investments the US 82 vehicle • Batteries International • Autumn across 2023

Shown is a summary from Argonne, one of the US National labs, which puts the combined battery investment www.batteriesinternational.com announcements increasing capacity by

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ABC PERSPECTIVES: FUTURE BATTERIES the ramp in these diverse electric vehicle sales, which also aids local pollution reduction in their very busy large cities from legacy small engine rickshaws or tuk-tuks.

battery makers especially across Asia have a real opportunity for significant and/or expanding sales if they provide economical and better performing lead- based solutions.

A recent Gridtential survey showed a wide variety of battery business thought over the best markets for

growth to 2030.

Even by application there was a range from optimism to pessimism for relative growth, yet these five were the top areas for growth of lead batteries across all applications from transportation to so- called industrial markets, and the developing ESS markets.

The numbers The total transportation battery market is forecast to triple by 2030, and this is about 15% compounded annually combining lithium and lead solutions.

FIVE OF THE MOST INFLUENTIAL COMPANIES This splits to about 20% compound growth for lithium and 3% for revIN THE ELECTRIFICATION OF LIGHT VEHICLES. enue growth annually for lead based batteries.

• Tesla is broadening its product range, increasing capacity, and (For clarity, fuel cell or sodiumreducing costs and prices on the way to its targeted 10 million EVs. based solutions are not included here, it is unlikely they will be significant in • BYD’s mix of EVs and Hybrids, aided by its strong battery transportation applications to 2030.) background, is supporting its exports worldwide.

Within the propulsion mix forecast, • VW is adding vehicle and battery partners to protect its global 31 million all electric light vehicles market share, especially in its two largest markets in the EU and by 2030 is about the middle of other China. forecasts The EV propulsion batteries are a • Toyota keeps expanding its global hybrid leadership utilizing mix of different lithium batteries, the both lithium batteries and nickel-based bi-pole batteries, while Asian Battery Conference, Cambodia 2023 September 7, low voltage auxiliary batteries reannouncing EV plans based partly around its progress with solid quired in EVs are still forecast to be state batteries. mostly lead based solutions by 2030.

• GM has promised an all EV future built around its Ultium battery I have included the range of hybrids pack. with also stop/start vehicles to be 53 million or over half all new vehicles sold by 2030. (figure 5) The forecast noted for hybrids, especially the 48V so-called mild hybrids, represent another great opportunity for advanced lead batteries.

Toyota, Kia and Honda lead with attractive hybrids today across many countries, and though there is a range of efficiency gains from different platforms, let’s keep it simple and summarize the profile as 40/40/40 — over 40 mpg efficiency, 40+ miles of pure EV operation for 80% of most family September 7, 202 trips, and <$40,000 cost. Asian Battery Conference, Cambodia 2023 Recently some companies are changing their structures and forecasts for vehicle technology and supply.

Four companies led by Renault have announced a new alliance to combine Figures 5. * Includes cars and light commercial, excludes LSEV’s a major share of their vehicle and R&D efforts arounds more efficient ICE and hybrid vehicles globally.

Within the propulsion mix forecast, I I have included the range of hybrids with Ford also recently announced a rebelieve the 31 million all electric light also stop/start vehicles to be 53 million duction of its mid-term EV output vehicles by 2030 is about the middle of or over half all new vehicles sold by and explained a strengthening of other forecasts I have seen.

2030. their hybrid offering to give customers a broader choice for electrified The EV propulsion batteries are a mix of The forecast noted for hybrids, vehicles. different lithium batteries, the low voltage especially the 48v so-called mild hybrids, One takeaway from the split of the represent another great opportunity for lead-based transportation batteryauxiliary batteries required in EVs are advanced lead batteries. market by 2030 is the significance ofstill forecast to be mostly lead based solutions by 2030. the propulsion applications in eBikes and other LSEVs at 31%.

Technology progress with lithium or lead batteries may change this, yet 84 • Batteries International • Autumn 2023

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ABC PERSPECTIVES: FUTURE BATTERIES Beyond the stop/start market and LSEVs briefly covered already, the three others listed are buffering, data centers and behind-the-meter (BTM) ESS applications. BTM ESS apps were either renewable, generally solar paired solutions for businesses and homes, or the so-called micro-grids for communities.

Vehicle makers increasing use of stop/start technology.

Shown in this chart below are the Asian Battery Conference, Cambodia 2023 shares of stop-start technology at the OE level currently, mostly using AGM batteries across the EU, China and the US. Though higher cost batteries, they clearly reduce fuel consumption

ian Battery Conference, Cambodia 2023

Vehicle makers keep increasing the utilization of stop/start technology.

Shown here are the shares of stop-start technology at the OE level currently, mostly using AGM batteries across the EU, China and the US. Though higher cost batteries, they clearly reduce fuel consumption and emissions, and the demand is now increasing in the replacement market.

and emissions, and the demand is now Figure 6 is an example of the EV increasing in the replacement market. charge ‘buffering’ pilot for a fleet supConsidering these trends for stop/ ported by a GS Yuasa lead battery at start, and other applications, it is fair an installation in central US. to summarize that at a global level Buffering is a function where batall the net growth is for AGM batter- teries can help EV fast chargers or ies, with flooded capacity moving to commercial businesses use batteries excess, needing to be re-purposed or to help avoid the generally expensive, closed in the years ahead. or unavailable peak or high current OE vehicle makers would like needs. smarter batteries with individual cell Data centers keep growing in size monitoring, and voltage flexibility to and number as growing demands for 12, 14 to 48 volts for the increasing data processing and storage, and now 7, 2023 demands across their vehicle designs.September booming AI applications, demand seThis includes supporting the require- cure power. ments for Advanced Driver Assistance It is helpful also to split the incre(ADAS) and Safety (ANSIL) applica- mental- type from the step-change imtions and standards. provements prospect.

There are many credible pathways for incremental improvements in lithium and lead based batteries, with many of them reflecting the cocktail mix for the electrodes with silicon for lithium and carbons for lead, among others. For lithium, true solid-state designs for a large energy pack is rec7, ognized by most as the best chanceSeptember to notably improve both safety and energy density in lithium batteries.

And for lead based, bi-pole designs which by structure notably changes the performance, weight and life possibilities for lead electro-chemistry is the best opportunity recognized by many.

In, addition, OE vehicle makers have told us at Gridtential they would like both smarter batteries with individual cell monitoring, and voltage flexibility to 12, 14 to 48 volts for the increasing demands across their vehicle designs.

This includes supporting the requirements for Advanced Driver Assistance (ADAS) and Safety (ANSIL) applications and standards.

Considering these trends for stop/start, and other applications, I believe it is fair to summarize that at a global level ALL the net growth is for AGM batteries, with flooded capacity moving to excess, needing to be re-purposed or closed in the years ahead.

Figure 6. an example of the EV charge ‘buffering’ pilot for a fleet supported by a GS Yuasa lead battery at an installation in the Central US

These are the main points of a presentation given by Ray Kubis at the 20th Asian Battery Conference this September.

A fuller of the presentation a discussion of the merits of bipolar lead batteries can be found by contacting Here isversion an example of theincluding EV charge Ray via Energy, www.gridtential.com Ray Kubis, Chair, Gridtential Inc. 27 ‘buffering’ pilot for a fleet supported by a GS Yuasa lead battery at an installation www.batteriesinternational.com Batteries International • Autumn 2023 • 85 in the Central US.

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EVENT REVIEW: 8 SLBC — RECYCLE 100 One highly positive result of this year’s secondary lead conference was the creation of a working group focused on understanding the under-investigated world of slag chemistry. Michael Halls reports.

Formation of a council to investigate slag With over five different generic types of slag found coming from recycling furnaces, Mark Stevenson, organizer of the Secondary Lead Conference, led an open roundtable in its closing session to discuss the issue.

Called “Understanding Slag” it was chaired by Doug Lambert, an industry veteran of some 40 years. There were 200 delegates in the auditorium with another 100 live streamed that was being beamed across the globe.

This was an unprecedented event given that no such forum had existed before.

That said, its principal importance in terms of the recycling industry lay in the fact that this much-overlooked subject created the possibility of exploring an understanding, for the first time, of the different types of slag and possible commercial opportunities that could arise from it.

Stevenson, someone who has a lifetime’s experience at both an academic and hands-on understanding of metallurgy and smelting, highlighted the issue. “Discussing ‘slag’ as a single topic is complex and often frustrating, as there is a lack of definition, understanding and very little data on the subject,” he said. “It’s labelled (wrongly) a waste. And as a waste rarely gets any attention until we have a problem.

“The first question any operator should ask is, “What type of slag do I make?” he said.

There are at least four basic types of slag that are produced at temperatures above 1000°C-1100°C. The first are calcium iron silicates where the main additives are limestone, lime silica, and iron and the sulfur content is around 1%-2%. The processing of sulfur — found in the PbSO4 of the plates — is a critical part of any smelting procedure.

The second type is where iron oxide is the dominant additive and the sulfur levels are between 2%-5% The third looks at using sodium iron

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silicates and where the main additives are soda ash, silica and iron. Again, the sulfur levels are between 2%-5% The fourth type creates a matte — effectively an in-between state before a slag — uses soda, iron (and non-desulfurizing agents). Here the sulfur level is much higher, between 6%-15%.

A last category needs to be included whereby the residues from hydrometallurgical and other chemical processes may be included. Although it’s known that there will be such residues, their composition is still largely theoretical or unknown.

Darren Nelson, director of Nexus Recycling, told the conference slag was always regarded as a cost centre, and determining otherwise would be a good research exercise. “How can we call it waste when we don’t know the full composition of what we finish with?” he said.

Rather than go through all the discussions at the conference, it might be more useful to talk about later conversations about the creation of a working group that initially called itself a Slag Council.

As a working title it was useful but doomed for failure — slag being a pejorative term in US/UK English. It is more likely to end up as something less provocative such as IFIS — International Forum for Investigating Slag.

The Council has already attracted a great deal of interest, with a notso-small, but excited, group forming wanting to be participate.

Stevenson, speaking to Batteries International just ahead of this magazine

going to press, said: “My initial proposal was for a group that wants to investigate collaboratively what we can do with slag and that has attracted a huge wave of interest from the industry.

“At the moment we don’t know if the slag that we generate could have any real kind of commercial value, or for that matter the costs of disposing it can be reduced. But the real issue is whether we can come to a greater understanding of the different types of slag and how to deal with them better.”

Stevenson suggested that the new forum should be open to contributing members and provide a database that would prove a resource to those in the industry as well as give a greater understanding of the way that lead battery recycling works and also its superlative record in recycling rates.

In early October Stevenson sent out a proposal document to almost 50 interested people that had expressed an interest in his council proposal. “I’ve had a great response it’s now a question of how we formulate ourselves,” he said.

So far the International Lead Association has been on the sidelines of the initiative, something whose endorsement could propel the forum to the top tables of lead battery discussion.

One commentator said: “Stevenson’s proposed forum is something that is unprecedented in the lead recycling community — it embraces vision, commercial realities and an environmental perspective, all in a positive realistic fashion. This has to be something that we should all participate in.”

“Discussing ‘slag as a single topic is complex and often frustrating, as there is a lack of definition, understanding and very little data on the subject. It’s a waste that rarely gets any attention until we have a problem” Batteries International • Autumn 2023 • 87

EVENT REVIEW: THE BATTERY SHOW The Battery Show and Electric & Hybrid Vehicle Technology Expo 2023 Novi, Michigan, US * September 12-14, 2023

The battery event that just keeps growing It’s hard looking back at the Battery Show’s first event in Novi in 2012 — itself a relocation from a rather dismal launch in California 2011 — to remember quite why the Battery Show that year suddenly became the landmark event of the US battery industry.

But despite all it did. The location was atrocious, the facilities non-existent and mid-November in Michigan is the time of year when the weather is only deciding whether it wants to snow a little or a lot.

One commentator at the time called it “the abomination that causes desolation” — there was absolutely zero on site or nearby in terms of a hotel to stay in, a restaurant to eat at within walking range and facilities within the hall were confined to fine dining of hot dogs or burgers. Or burgers and hot dogs if you wanted to mix it up a little.

But the same commentator also said it was the place to be, describing it as the most exciting exhibition he had seen to see a showcase of the US burgeoning battery business.

“It caught the zeitgeist of the age,” one delegate later told Batteries International. “America was just about to be gripped by EV fever, lithium batteries were going to set the automobile world alight and companies such as A123 were in the process of raising $1 billion from private inves-

88 • Batteries International • Autumn 2023

The conference and expo have been vital over the years to watch the innovations and teething pains of a new industry move towards maturity tors and the US government.

“The show was the place to be if you were going to do any kind of business in the US battery or automotive business.”

Since then the show hasn’t lost its lustre at all. Rather it’s gained more over time. The later arrival of a Hyatt hotel and restaurant took the sting out of some of the location but that was never the point in attending.

It weathered the difficult years of the mid-2010s, growing steadily in both its scope and standing.

Everyone knew in 2012 that GM’s proud boast at Novi that year of building some 500,000 EVs by 2017 was unlikely to happen. Nor did most believe that A123’s business would be sustainable until the moment it actually sold some batteries.

But the conference and expo were vital to attendees to watch the inno-

vations and teething pains of a new industry reaching for maturity.

This year’s Battery Show and Electric & Hybrid Vehicle Technology Expo 2023 didn’t disappoint. It boasted a four-track conference featuring over 180 sessions hosted by experts from industry-leading companies and covered the hottest trending topics and the newest market innovations.

With over 2,000 delegates to the conference — a good chunk of whom came internationally from countries such as Germany, UK, China, Canada, India and more — the mix was completed with industry professionals from top car manufacturers and OEMs that included engineers, decision-makers, project managers, R&D and executives. Astonishingly. the largest Battery Show in North America attracted an attendance of well over 18,000 visitors.

The major theme this year was “Navigating North America’s EV Transition”, including US government investments, discussions over IRA regulations, supply chain problems and solutions, battery Gigafactory news, and future battery recycling projects.

Keynote speakers included David Howell, principal deputy director, Office of Manufacturing and Energy Supply Chains at the US Depart-

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EVENT REVIEW: THE BATTERY SHOW ment of Energy, who spoke about the DoE’s activities to support battery innovation, manufacturing, and supply chains.

Sebastian Wolf, chief operations officer at PowerCo, detailed Volkswagen’s new battery plant in Canada and its EV production plans in North America. Meanwhile Eric Norris, president of energy storage at Albermarle discussed ideas on achieving a self-sufficient North American lithium supply chain.

‘With back-to-back sold-out shows attracting over 800 exhibitors, we’ve seen 30% growth this year in exhibitor interest,” says the organizers. “To meet the overwhelming demand, next year we’re moving to elsewhere in Detroit to accommodate the 1,200+ exhibitors who want to be part of The Battery Show success.

“In addition to strong interest received from our exhibitors, we’ve made sure that our attendees have best-in-class experience when attending the event.”

The expo floor featured the Open Tech Forum which the organizers described as the epicenter for panel discussions as well as live demonstrations from thought leaders.

The Battery Tech Forum, also on the show floor, consisted of educational sessions provided by advanced battery suppliers. Also, daily product showcases presented by industry-leading exhibitors, offering the chance to examine some of the latest technologies through interactive demos.

Over the three days, there were several networking receptions, hosted at various exhibitor booths, providing attendees with the opportunity to connect with like-minded engineers, designers, and decision-makers over beer, wine, snacks and soft drinks.

ATTENDEE VIEWPOINT The organizers provided testimonials of the feedback they had received after the event. Here are two of them which are representative of the tone of attendees.

“My experience at The Battery Show was nothing short of exceptional.

The event provided a comprehensive view of the industry, from cutting-edge technologies to insightful keynote sessions. Networking opportunities were abundant, and I left with valuable connections and a wealth of knowledge. The event’s commitment to sustainability and innovation stood out, making it a must-attend for anyone in the field. I highly recommend this event to colleagues looking to stay at the forefront of the electric and hybrid vehicle industry.”

“The expo was very well attended with a great deal of foot traffic.

Seemed like all the key players were there, so great networking opportunities are available. Bring plenty of business cards!”

The Oktoberfest networking reception returned this year in the delegate dining tent. “We welcomed thousands of attendees to discuss ideas with entertainment provided by a lively polka band, drinks, hors

d’œuvres, as well as our famous raffle giveaway, with the winning contestant lucky enough to receive a brand-new e-bike from our sponsors Aqua Metals!” said the organizers.

The next Battery Show and Electric & Hybrid Vehicle Technology Expo will be on October 8-10, 2024 at 1 Washington Boulevard, Huntington Place Detroit, Michigan. A pre-conference workshop will be held on October 7.

Novi: where energy storage and OEMs meet

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Batteries International • Autumn 2023 • 89

EVENT REVIEW: RECYCLE 100 8th International Secondary Lead & Battery Recycling Conference — Recycle 100 September 4-5, 2023 • Siem Reap, Cambodia

Themes unchanged but lessons needed to be learnt Brian Wilson reports on some of the highlights and key take-aways of the eighth edition of this highly useful conference.

The first battery recycling conference to be held since Bali in 2019 proved to be a huge success attracting over 250 delegates — a record — and a lively programme culminating in the creation of a working group looking for better ways to recover more waste from slag.

Mark Stevenson, the conference chair, opened the conference by noting that since Bali the energy storage market had changed and that within a few years lithium-ion battery sales will outstrip lead battery sales. Given that recycling lithium batteries will be an environmental necessity, many lead battery recyclers are contemplating whether to move into lithium recycling.

He said that secondary lead operations are well placed to make the move as they are used to processing hazardous ULAB (Used lead Acid Batteries). For that reason the conference title had incorporated “Recycle 100” into the wording so as to embrace recycling in other battery chemistries.

The first presentation of the day came from Huw Roberts, the founder of the consultancy CHR Metals presented statistics that indicated primary and secondary lead production in Europe and North America had not recovered to pre-pandemic levels.

International trade in ULAB has become more significant in recent years, but is still limited to a handful of countries, such as South Korea, India, and the Middle East.

Recycling rates, excluding China fell, during the years of the Covid 19 pandemic but are starting to recover.

For reasons that are not immediately obvious, he said there has been a massive expansion in secondary lead capacity, far in excess of ULAB availability, now or even in the future.

He said overall lead consumption

90 • Batteries International • Autumn 2023

will rise year on year and continue to do so despite competition from other battery chemistries.

Next up was L Pugazhenthy, executive director of India Lead Zinc Development Association (ILZDA).

Pugazhenthy — better known to the international battery world as Pug — discussed the revised Battery Waste Management Rules which had first been adopted in 2022 in India.

The updated rules now include the principle of extended producer responsibility and placed environmental performance criteria and recycling rate targets on battery manufacturers,

retailers, consumers, collectors and recyclers. Since ULAB dealers are currently omitted from any obligations under EPR, a further revision is under consideration.

Leoch gives further China insights Dong Li, the founder of Leoch International Technology, followed Pug with the focus on the lead recycling industry in China. He said that China produced 65% of the global primary lead market and 29% of the secondary lead market.

However, there is evidence to suggest that secondary lead production is

Slides from Dong Li’s presentation

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EVENT REVIEW: RECYCLE 100 under reported, and so additional attention is being directed towards the 64 lead operations to ensure that all the ULAB generated are collected and recycled through licenced plants.

Dong Li also said that despite the growing penetration of the e-bike market by lithium ion motive batteries, sales of motive e-bike lead batteries remained at pre-pandemic levels.

Botree Cycling Within the framework and context of Recycle 100 Xiao Lin, the CEO of Botree Cycling, introduced to the conference the difficulties and options associated with lithium-ion battery recycling. In his opening remarks, Xiao said, “the time for a massive amount of spent lithium ion batteries in need of disposal or recycling is getting ever closer.

“Considering the anticipated growth in the lithium ion market, primary resource depletion and availability becomes an issue, and that means spent lithium ion battery recycling not only solves environmental dumping issues, more importantly, it achieves a closed-loop for resources, thereby helping the emerging energy system reduce its reliance on primary resources alone.”

Recycling lithium ion batteries and reusing the secondary cathode and anode materials could dramatically reduce the battery’s carbon footprint by at least 30%.

In addition, upcoming EU legislation on minimum usage of recovered Co, Li and Ni will force many battery manufacturers to source secondary materials. This was a theme taken up

by ILA director Steven Binks in the ABC conferences a couple of days later.

Xiao said longer term, and especially after 2035, despite concerns about the financial viability of lithium-ion battery recycling, it will be of equal importance as primary sourced materials in the battery supply chain, and eventually recycled materials will become the most important when battery sales volumes plateau.

However, there are difficulties, because unlike lead batteries — which are basically a single chemistry — lithium ion batteries can have nine, and sometimes more, chemistries.

The fact that there are a range of differing chemistries means that it is necessary to employ different recy-

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HYDRO-METALLURGICAL ULAB RECYCLING; SOLVETEQ With increasing scrutiny by regulators of the lead industry’s environmental performance, especially atmospheric emissions from pyro-metallurgical secondary lead plants, it is not surprising to find a growing interest in the development of hydro-metallurgical ULAB recycling.

One of the leading researchers in the field of hydro-metallurgical recycling, Ola Hekselman, CEO and co-founder of Solveteq, updated the conference in respect of developments since discussing the

process in Bali in 2019.

The deep eutectic solvent process for the recovery of lead from spent battery paste has gone through a bench scale prototype processing 1 kilo of paste per hour and the next phase in the program will be to build a 25 kilos per hours pilot plant in 2024 with a view to a full scale commercial operation commissioned in 2026.

Longer term, the team at Solveteq is also examining the recycling of lithium-ion batteries using a similar solvent based methodology.

cling processes for each battery type.

For example, for a LiPO4 battery there are two recycling options to process the spent battery. Both options employ solvent extraction. One option can recover all the components and the other is a selective recovery process.

Botree Cycling, he said, has developed a recycling process for all

lithium ion chemistries and achieved material recovery rates in the range of 90% or more.

STC’s complete solution Alberto Bergamaschini from STC Italy, showcased some of the company’s latest designs for battery recycling plant and equipment that improve separation of the crushed battery

Batteries International • Autumn 2023 • 91

EVENT REVIEW: RECYCLE 100 components, minimise atmospheric emissions and reduce slag production.

(See slide on previous page) However, most interest was shown by the delegates in the company’s new desulfurization processes that enable the production of saleable by-products such as calcium sulfate (gypsum) and ammonium sulfate (fertilizer); and in their ultra-pure nano structured lead oxide, for improved battery performance.

Jiangsu New Chunxing Chunming Yang, chairman of Jiangsu New Chunxing Resource Recycling followed Bergamaschini with his own innovative furnace design and recycling process. The co-joined smelting furnaces with water jackets, prolongs the plant operational period and thereby reduces maintenance costs and downtime.

The oxygen-blown smelting does not require any iron chips or sodium carbonate, again lowering operating costs. Slag is tapped from a static furnace reducing the entrained lead in

the slag. The molten lead is tapped in a patented oxygen free environment to reduce oxidation and dross formation.

The final presentation before the lunch break was given by Gravita executive director, Vijay Pareek who explained about how setting up a ULAB collection and recycling operation in Africa requires an understanding of the challenges as well as the opportunities. There are nine countries with licensed secondary lead operations and Gravita are present in four of them — Ghana, Tanzania, Mozambique, and Senegal.

Returning to more traditional conference themes, Vikas Kapur, the vice president of the Asia Pacific Region for Nederman outlined the company’s philosophy and policy of “Balancing Priorities in Air Pollution Control. Vikas detailed the company’s approach to assessing pollution control requirements, designing appropriate plant to meet regulatory standards.

The company’s portfolio was illus-

HEDGING AND FINANCIAL RISK CONTAINMENT Normally Brian Wilson lectures to the conference delegates about occupational health, safety and sound environmental management, but on this occasion Brian, based on his own smelting operation and his 25 years with the International Lead Association, explained how to mitigate some of the many financial risks that can easily liquidate a secondary lead business.

Brian’s presentation examined the financial risks associated with recycling lead acid batteries and provided practical approaches for mitigating them. Delegates were given insights into the importance of effective supply chain management, including inventory control and

efficient invoicing processes.

The presentation also explored the significance and benefits of hedging metal purchases and sales, particularly in backwardation and contango markets (where buying the future price of lead is above or below existing parameters, to protect against price fluctuations.

By understanding these strategies and their integration into the financial planning for lead acid battery recycling operations, attendees should be better equipped with the knowledge and tools necessary to minimize financial risks, optimize profitability, and maintain a competitive edge in the industry.

The next issue of Batteries International will look at Brian’s presentation in depth and show its use for the market.

92 • Batteries International • Autumn 2023

trated with two key case studies that led to the concluding remarks that, proactive work to mitigate any harmful emissions is stimulating for the employees and the local community. So, even in a tough regulatory environment it is possible to be cost effective when managing emission control systems and balance the business needs with the wishes of local communities for a clean place to live and thrive.

While it might seem obvious that anyone working in a lead plant should never go home in lead contaminated work clothes, but as Dan Askin, the president and technical director of ESCA Tech explained to the conference in many LMIC recyclers, that is exactly what workers do, and in doing so, expose their families to lead dust and possible intoxication. Furthermore, a worker who goes home in their work clothes effectively extends their occupational lead exposure to 128 hours or more without respite.

David Bush, director of Uniseg Plastics introduced to the delegates the latest designs in battery collection containers. “It’s easy to forget that lead contamination and handling of dangerous materials isn’t restricted to smelting, but starts from collection,” he said, outlining the ingenious ways the battery containers have been designed for safe storage.

Steve Binks, regulatory director at the International Lead Association, closed the day’s session with an explanation of how the Association’s, Lead Battery 360 product stewardship tool could help the industry manage the environment, social and governance risks within the battery value chains.

Indeed, an ESG framework helps stakeholders understand how an organization manages risks and opportunities around sustainability issues.

Furthermore, ESG reporting helps build trust in an organization and has positive benefits in relation to top-line growth, cost reduction, reducing risk of Regulatory interventions , attracting best talent and enhanced investment returns, he said.

Complying with the standards set out in LB360 will also ensure compliance with the latest EU Battery Regulation Materiality, the first global regulation to establish a full lifecycle approach from mining to end of life and ensures that batteries placed on the EU market consider global ESG issues.

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EVENT REVIEW: RECYCLE 100

IDENTIFYING INEFFICIENCIES TO CREATE A NEW BUSINESS Darren Nelson, director of the Perth-based Nexus Recycling Company, showed that a study of the costs or recycling should not be over-focused on the plant itself. Rather the cost of collection and transportation should be considered, and once considered create a business opportunity.

Australia is a country and a continent, and the distances between lead battery users, ULAB collectors and recyclers are vast.

Nelson illustrated the transport issues facing the secondary lead sector in Australia with a map showing that there are only two licensed environmentally sound secondary lead smelters in Australia, one in Wagga Wagga and one in Melbourne.

Transporting some ULAB across Australia to the recycling plants renders ULAB recycling uneconomic.

Darren explained that a different recycling solution had to be found to make ULAB recycling in Australia financially viable.

The solution currently being implemented is to set up regional breakers and transport the paste and grids to the smelters, thereby increasing the lead content of each load being transported to the recyclers. In this context breakers were commissioned in Sydney and Brisbane, but no

provisions were made for Western Australia.

So, in 2022 Nexus Recycling completed a development on a greenfield site and started operations of a 15 tonne per hour battery breaker supplied by Wirtz Manufacturing. The lead bearing materials are transported nearly 3,500 kilometres to Melbourne, and the battery acid converted locally into saleable gypsum.

A similar situation was found in another presentation but there were no such transport issues in Fiji. But as a remote Island in the Pacific Ocean, shipping ULAB to any Asian recycler is expensive and this expense is reflected in the price recyclers are prepared to pay for the ULAB. The solution is to have a small, but environmentally sound secondary lead plant located on the Island of Fiji. Pacific Batteries general manager, Diwakar Dubey presented the case study how an out-of-date inefficient ULAB breaking, lead smelting and refining operation upgraded to a compact modern safe, efficient and environmentally sound ULAB recycling plant.

Diwakar said that the company now had a vision and mission to become the ULAB recycling hub for all the islands in the south Pacific.

The second day The opening of the second day of the conference kicked off with a presentation by Andy Bush, ILA managing director by charting the future for lead in a what he predicted could be a “Golden Age” for batteries, motive and stationary.

Yuji Tanamachi, the CEO of IRuniverse, described to delegates the changes to ULAB recycling in Japan since the ban on exports to other Asian countries. Initially, there was a boost to the ailing domestic secondary lead industry, but increasingly there are indications that other Asian recyclers have set up operations in Japan to break ULAB and export the grids and paste as finished products.

The trade is not in line with the Basel Convention and bringing the domestic This was followed by Farid Ahmed, the VP for global strategy for ACE Green Recycling, discussing a low temperature solvent based methodology that in the opinion of the company provides a more sustainable future for lead batteries. Since this April the basic chemical principles have started to be applied to lithium battery recycling.

James Griffiths, an analyst at CRU, then looked at how secondary lead supplies fit into the lead market balance globally, this presentation provided as insight into the various stages of maturity in lead recycling, using two key countries — USA and China — as examples as well as some broader thoughts on informal recycling.

The presentation also considered the state of progress in recycling the likely surge in a few years ahead in used lithium batteries, providing a contrast between the long-established lead recycling systems already in place.

Nawshad Haque, principal scientist with Australia’s CSIRO compared the carbon footprints generated by lead and lithium ion batteries using life cycle analysis, taking data collated from the sourcing of the raw materials, through manufacturing, use and recycling. After analysing all the data, the conclusions were that: • There is still a lot of uncertainty about carbon footprints of both primary production of lead and Li batteries and their respective recycling.

• It was hard to compare the two

www.batteriesinternational.com

Batteries International • Autumn 2023 • 93

EVENT REVIEW: RECYCLE 100 battery systems, with the energy source being dynamic.

• More battery community should support and investigate these areas of research.

• Environmental, Social and Governance rating will require these indicators and results.

This was followed by Ling Hongbin, from the Research Division of Hunan Re Technology who introduced the company’s latest recycling innovation, the oxygen-rich side blown bath smelting technology (OSBS).

Basically oxygen-enriched air is blown directly into the slag layer through the primary nozzles on the first layer of the copper water jackets on both sides of the furnace body.

Raw materials, flux and fuel are fed into the furnace through the charging port at the top of the furnace.

Slag and metal drop into the lower molten bath, where they separate by gravity into a slag layer and lead bullion.

There is a relatively high concentration of sulfur dioxide in the flue gas, so high in fact that it is easy to make concentrated or dilute sulfuric acid.

The outcome is a reduced risk of sulfur dioxide emissions.

The OSBS is now being widely adopted by the Chinese secondary lead recycling industry.

Advantages of the OSBS technology are: it uses anthracite as fuel and reductant, thereby reduces the cost of recycling; by using enriched oxygen (65%) it reduces the flue gas volume when compared to a blast furnace; and, it reduces the risk of sulfur dioxide emissions to the atmosphere.

The only disadvantage that Hunan Re Technology has identified is that the initial investment in the OSBS furnace is higher than competing pyrometallurgical processes.

Drew McCartor, the executive director of the non-profit NGO, Pure Earth warned that lead battery manufacturers and recyclers are facing increasing attention and scrutiny from decision-makers and regulators concerned with lead pollution and population exposure.

Engitec Technologies are a wellknown and established supplier of turnkey secondary lead installations with the company offering the widest range of Plant capacities, that is from to the biggest Breakers in the world

94 • Batteries International • Autumn 2023

to the new CX® SMART recycling module.

Stefano Buono, sales area manager for Engitec Technologies, the well known and established supplier of turnkey secondary lead installations gave delegates their first glimpse of the small scale module, but nonetheless, complete ULAB recycling unit.

He said, increasing fuel and transport costs means that recyclers and governments will realise that there is a need for compact plants with proven technologies and sturdy construction close to the sources of ULAB. Maurizio Mori, the sales manager for GME Recycling had the honour of presenting the final paper of the conference entitled, Innovative Solutions to Emerging Challenges in Lead Recycling. The two major challenges identified by GME are: • lithium-ion scrap mixed with ULAB will likely explode when crushed.

• AGM separators blind the screens in the battery breakers.

To overcome and deal with these challenges GME invented a lithium ion battery detector that can be fitted to the breaker’s charge conveyor and a high pressure wash system to clear the AGM separators from the screens.

Slag versus matte Earlier Sander Arnout, CEO of InsPyro, addressed the environmental issues associated with furnace residues, better known as slag within the industry.

Sander said that to tackle the problem it is essential to know the composition of the slag, because not all slags are the same, and the composition and characteristics will depend on the furnace technology and the materials

charged to the furnace.

In certain instances, what is deemed to be a slag is in fact a matte.

One valuable metal not included in Sander’s slag composition was tin and the fact is that this valuable alloying metal is usually discarded.

According to investigations by Boris Geuvens, the general manager at JGI in Belgium, about 27,000 tonnes of tin are consumed annually in lead batteries, representing the fourth largest application for tin (about 7.5%).

This means that there is about 2-2.5kg of tin per tonne of lead (provided that the Sn is not lost in the slag).

Furthermore, most secondary lead operations do not valorise the tin from their lead circuit on the basis of the LME price for tin. So, the number imply that the full value of tin in remelted lead is about $50-75 per tonne of lead.

To recover tin during the ULAB recycling process, JGI have introduced a proprietary treatment called, Stanext.

Stanext does not require any additional investment, just add the reagent to the refining kettle and the tin can be removed with the dross and concentrated in the furnace to produce a high tin content lead bullion.

Modelling suggests that the higher the tin concentration in the lead/tin bullion, the better its valorisation is.

Based on this assumption and assuming that 80% of the estimated 2.5 kg of tin contained in the remelted lead can be concentrated in a lead/tin bullion with about 10% tin, an income of about $45 tonnes can be achieved.

This means that a secondary lead smelter with a 1,000 tonnes a month capacity can generate an income of about half a million dollars annually.

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FORTHCOMING EVENTS

Budapest, Hubgary

Darmstadt, Germany

Bordeaux, France

Li-ion Battery Europe 2023

nual Battery Safety Summit will bring together the key players from around the world to present the latest R&D advancements for integrating and implementing LIB safety to meet everincreasing energy demands.

end-users to boost battery research and innovation in Europe.

Batteries are crucial to the enabling of technology that will allow the EU to achieve its zero-emissions goals through a responsible and sustainable market. BID aims to increase knowledge and encourage exchange around the deployment of cutting-edge technologies in battery materials, cell design, manufacturing and recycling.

Join the event and you will be able to: • Stay on top of the latest trends and technologies.

• Gain industry insights.

• Attend the Battery Young Research Award ceremony.

• Enjoy the networking opportunities and reception event with key stakeholders.

October 29 – 31 Budapest, Hungary Li-ion Battery Europe 2023 is at the forefront of expediting the development of EV & Li-ion Battery in Europe, gathering policymakers, investors, manufacturers, raw material suppliers, component suppliers and technical service providers internationally to build partnerships.

Highlights include: • Build and expand your network with 800+ International C-level key players • Get a complete overview of opportunities and challenges in optimising Li-ION projects • Take part in over 15 hours of networking time with a unique crowd of financial and Li-ION stakeholders • Join a dynamic, interactive event featuring brainstorming sessions, open space time, networking moments, and much more • Pre-day VIP Salon and Field Trip Contact Shanghai Metals Markets — SMM E: Youngyang@metal.com www.li-ion-battery-europe-metal.com

Battery Safety Summit November 6-7 Tysons Corner, Virginia, US With constantly increasing market demands for higher energy density cells globally, it is critical that advances in chemistry and engineering for next generation batteries have a significant focus on safety. Accurate testing, modelling and battery management systems are critical for predicting and controlling the complex electrochemical, thermal, and mechanical behavior of LIBs. With streams focusing on both materials and engineering for safety, the An-

96 • Batteries International • Autumn 2023

Contact Dave Mello Cambridge Enertech E: dmello@cambridgeinnovationinstitute.com www.cambridgeenertech.com/battery-safety

Battery Experts Forum November 7 – 9 Darmstadt, Germany The Battery Experts Forum is the biggest conference and exhibition for battery technology. Over 100 experts from the leading battery manufacturers and users provide information on the newest trends, product developments and solutions.

The event will be accompanied by a specialized exhibition with more than 60 exhibitors, who are among the most important companies in the entire battery supply chain. From cell and battery manufacturers to OEMs and users, new design, production and manufacturing solutions, including battery systems, materials and components, as well as testing and recycling processes are presented.

An absolute must for anyone involved in battery technology!

Contact Battery Experts Forum E: info@battery-experts-forum.com www.battery-experts-forum.com

Battery Innovation Days November 14 – 15 Bordeaux, France Battery Innovation Days (BID) fosters dialogue among the research community, policymakers, industry players and

Contact CLERENS E: info@batteryinnovationdays.eu www.accelevents.com/e/battery-innovationdays-2023

The Energy Management Exhibition November 22 – 23 London, UK EMEX is the UK’s must-attend energy event for everyone wanting to increase their organisation’s energy efficiency and reduce carbon emissions. EMEX connects all commercial energy consumers with leading experts, policy makers and suppliers. EMEX is more than just an event. It’s a platform where practitioners and experts from various backgrounds and sectors are coming together to share their knowledge and experiences from successful implementations of energy efficiency strategies.

Contact Mark Allen Group E: julia.pugh-cook@markallengroup.com www.emexlondon.com

www.batteriesinternational.com

FORTHCOMING EVENTS Expo for Decarbonised Industries Date TBC Düsseldorf, Germany All you need for climate-friendly, secure and economical energy supply in your company: The Expo for Decarbonized Industries > ENERGY STORAGE (decarbXpo) bundles the most comprehensive range of energy storage systems, solutions for decarbonization in industry and commerce, and a highquality forum and conference program into one event.

Directly from the organizer of leading global industry trade shows. Supported by research institutes, sector and industry associations.

Future Battery Forum November 27-28 Berlin, Germany + Online The management conference brings together the entire value system of battery technologies: Across various industries more than 300 users, battery system and cell manufacturers and their suppliers will spend two days exchanging information, making new contacts and enriching each other. The event is rounded off by the innovation exhibition with 30 inspiring showcases as a networking and break-out area.

Contact IPM AG E: fbf@ipm.ag www.futurebattery.eu

London EV Show November 28 – 30 London, UK The next edition of the London EV Show will once again bring the entire EV value chain under one roof to network with major industry players and identify numerous business opportunities in a hypercompetitive EV market.

The event aims to enable a large showcase of the new EV models & innovative solutions, a powerful speaker line-up and an enthused audience of policymakers, business leaders, investors, thought leaders and a wide range of end-users.

Featuring a massive exhibition space and highly-actionable conference agenda, London EV Show is a must-attend EV event of 2023 that will host 3 days of strategic deliberations, critical knowledge-sharing, quality business meetings and the latest product demonstrations.

Contact Valiant Business Media E: info@londonevshow.com www.londonevshow.com

www.batteriesinternational.com

Contact Caroline Markowski, Messe Dusseldorf E: markowskic@messe-duesseldorf.de www.decarbxpo.com

Global Automotive Components And Suppliers Expo December 5 – 7 Messe Stuttgart, Germany Global Automotive Components and Suppliers Expo features international exhibitors demonstrating the best of manufacturing expertise from around the world. Global Automotive Components & Suppliers Expo provides vital connections between engineers, project buyers and manufacturers.

Tier 1, 2 and 3 automotive component manufacturers from around the world will be at the expo to display their very latest technologies and products. Plus numerous other exhibitors will be on hand to discuss how they can participate in cost reduction within supply chains, and how they can offer new, alternative, cost-effective manufacturing and supply solutions.

Advanced Automotive Battery Conference USA — AABC USA December 11 – 14 San Diego, Californi,USA The 2023 program will uncover the underlying technical and business issues that will impact the pace and path of vehicle electrification worldwide.

Join us in San Diego to network with chief battery technologists from leading automotive OEMs, who will share their development trends and projected battery needs, as well as their key suppliers who will present their latest offerings and roadmaps for the future.

Contact Cambridge Enertech E: ce@cambridgeenertec.com www.advancedautobat.com/us

Intersolar North America January 17-19 Long Beach, California. US Intersolar North America and Energy Storage North America is the premier U.S.-based conference and trade show focused on solar, energy storage, and EV charging infrastructure. Dedicated to accelerating the energy transition, the combined event delivers actionable education, invaluable networking, and an immersive exhibit hall experience — which includes the popular Solar Games installer competition.

Join 6,000+ energy leaders and 300+ exhibitors in Long Beach, CA, to help shape the next phase of our clean energy transformation.

Contact Diversified Communications E: ISNAinfo@divcom.com www.intersolar.us / www.esnaexpo.com

Contact UKi Media & Events Clinton Cushion E: registartion@ukimediaevents.com www.globalautomotivecomponentsandsuppliersexpo.com

Stuttgart, Germany

Batteries International • Autumn 2023 • 97

FORTHCOMING EVENTS MRAI 11th International Indian Material Recycling Conference January 23-25 Kolkata, India Over the past decade, Material Recycling Association of India has organized 10 successful International Indian Material Recycling conferences. With your continuous trust and overwhelming support, MRAI is pleased to announce its 11th IMRC 2024 Convention & Exposition in Kolkata, India.

MRAI 11th IMRC 2024 Convention & Exposition will focus to bring Indian and International Recyclers under one roof for networking and showcasing their business interest, products, technologies, services, new innovations, perspective, etc.

The Conference will accommodate 2500+ Delegates and 130+ Exhibitors representing Recycling Fraternity.

Contact Metal Recycling Association of India E: mail@mrai.org.in www.imrc.mrai.org.in/index.html

IEEE Eelectrical Energy Storage Applications & Technology Conference January 29-30 San Diego, California, US EESAT has been the premier technical forum for presenting advances in energy storage technologies and applications since 2000. This forum is now sponsored by the IEEE Energy Storage and Stationary Battery (ESSB) Committee, under the IEEE Power and En-

ergy Society, with continuing support from the DOE Office of Electricity and the national laboratories.

The technical program will highlight advances in electricity storage technologies including new battery chemistries, such as flow, sodium, zinc, and other battery designs, flywheels, hydrogen storage, PS, CASE, and novel approaches such as demand response as storage programs.

Contact IEEE MCE www.cmte.ieee.org/pes-eesat/

Solar Finance and Investment Europe January 31-February 1 London, UK Returning for its 11th year, Solar Finance & Investment Europe Summit will bring together the brightest minds representing funds, banks, developers, utilities, government and industry across Europe and the UK on a programme that is solutions-focused from top to tail. The event is designed to enable leaders at the forefront of solar investment and deployment in Europe to scale, learn and land themselves industry defining partnerships.

We will showcase the latest insights on European markets, solar-related technologies and winning strategies from the best in the business. Join us in discussing next steps for the industry.

Contact Ollie McCullough, Solar Media E: omccullough@solarmedia.co.uk www.financeeurope.solarenergyevents.com

RE+ Northeast February 13-14 Boston, Massachusetts, US RE+ Northeast’s primary mission is to deliver on the missions of both SEIA and SEPA in a way that strengthens the solar energy industry domestically and globally, through networking and education, and by creating an energetic and engaging marketplace to connect buyers and suppliers.

The event focuses on the exchange of ideas, knowledge and expertise for furthering solar energy development in the Northeast United States.

Contact Smart Electric Power Alliance E: customerservice@re-plus.com www.re-plus.events/northeast/

NAATBatt Annual Conference February 19-22 Carlsbad, California, US. NAATBatt 2024 will be the top networking and market intelligence event in the North American advanced battery industry in 2024. 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.

Joining NAATBatt International is a great way to build relationships in an industry that will help shape the 21st Century. Vehicle technology, renewable energy, light aviation, maritime propulsion systems, robotics, weapons systems, medical devices, consumer

SAVE THE DATE The Smarter E India — ees India February 20-23 Gandhinagar, Gujarat, India With three parallel energy exhibitions, The smarter E India is India’s innovation hub for the new energy world. It presents cross-sector energy solutions and technologies and reflects the interaction of the solar, energy storage and electric mobility industry.

The smarter E India addresses all the key areas along the value chain and brings together local experts and international stakeholders in the energy future.

Jain temples, Palitana, Gujarat state

98 • Batteries International • Autumn 2023

Contact Solar Promotion E: brijesh.nair@mm-india.in www.thesmartere.in/home

www.batteriesinternational.com

www.ees-events.com

ENERGY STORAGE EVENTS

— The Leading Exhibition Series for Batteries and Energy Storage Systems ■ February 21–23, 2024, GANDHINAGAR, INDIA INDIA‘S LEADING ELECTRICAL ENERGY STORAGE EXHIBITION www.ees-india.in ■ JUNE 19–21, 2024, MUNICH, GERMANY EUROPE’S LARGEST EXHIBITION FOR BATTERIES AND ENERGY STORAGE SYSTEMS www.ees-europe.com ■ AUGUST 27–29, 2024, SÃO PAULO, BRAZIL SOUTH AMERICA’S HOT SPOT FOR BATTERIES AND ENERGY STORAGE SYSTEMS www.ees-southamerica.com Follow us

FORTHCOMING EVENTS electronics and the Internet of Things will all depend on electricity supplied by advanced battery technology.

Contact NAATBatt International E: info@naatbatt.org www.naatbatt.org

Energy Storage Summit February 21 – 22 London, UK The Energy Storage Summit is renowned for its quality, breadth and expertise, featuring an all-encompassing range of strategic and technical sessions on the adoption and deployment of storage.

The Summit plays a pivotal role in the journey to propelling the industry into the next stage of its development, providing an unrivalled platform to develop the right partnerships and create business opportunities of all sizes.

Contact Solar Media E: energystorage@solarmedia.co.uk www.storagesummit.solarenergyevents.com

ACI’s Battery Recycling Europe February 28-29 London, UK The conference will bring together Battery Recycling industry experts, collection scheme operators and battery manufacturers to learn, share and discuss the current and emerging topics in the Battery Recycling industry.

The two day event will give you an insight on the newest recycling

Seoul, Korea

100 • Batteries International • Autumn 2023

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 Active Communications International E: luca@acieu.net www.wplgroup.com/aci/event/batteryrecycling-europe/

Battery Japan February 28-March 1 Tokyo, Japan BATTERY JAPAN is the world’s leading international exhibition for rechargeable battery, showcasing various components, materials, devices, finished rechargeable batteries for rechargeable battery R&D and manufacturing. It is held twice a year in Tokyo (Mar.) and Osaka (Sep.) Contact Reed Exhibitions E: wsew.jp@rxglobal.com www.wsew.jp/hub/en-gb/about/bj.html

Interbattery March 6-8 Seoul, Korea InterBattery is Korea’s only battery industry exhibition that simultaneously accommodates the fast-growing mobile market, automobile industry, as well as ESS and EV markets.

Visiting Interbattery allows buyers

and manufacturers to interact with one another whilst learning about the newest products and trends in the Korean and International markets.

InterBattery has served itself as an exclusive business platform showcasing the battery industries forthcoming prospects since its first launch.

Contact COEX E: interbattery@coex.co.kr www.interbattery.or.kr

International Battery Seminar and Exhibition March 12-15 Orlando, Florid, US Founded in 1983, the International Battery Seminar & Exhibit has established itself as the premier event showcasing the state of the art of worldwide energy storage technology developments for consumer, automotive, military, and industrial applications.

Key thought leaders will assemble to not only provide broad perspectives, but also informed insights into significant advances in materials, product development, manufacturing, and application for all battery systems and enabling technologies.

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 E: ce@cambridgeenertech.com www.internationalbatteryseminar.com

Orlando, Florida, US

www.batteriesinternational.com

FORTHCOMING EVENTS The Distributed Energy Show March 13 – 14 Telford, UK The Distributed Energy Show is a free to attend exhibition and conference that will bring together the entire supply-chain focused on distributed energy resources and provide visitors with a comprehensive array of technologies and systems to enable them to generate, store, manage and distribute their own power and heat.

Contact Event Partners E: lana.mercer@event-partners.com www.distributedenergyshow.com

Battery Tech Expo Central Europe

Abu Dhabi

March 14 Prague, Czech Republic Central Europe is rapidly emerging as a key location in the Battery Technology landscape. With a well-established and rapidly developing automotive industry, and a growing number of gigafactories both in operation and planned to come on-stream, the next few years will see a rapid expansion in battery production capacity in the region.

The Battery Tech Expo – Prague is perfectly located to showcase the Battery Technology supply chain in the Central Europe Hub – Highlighting the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary and Poland, whilst remaining within easy reach of the German. French and Italian automotive centres of excellence.

Contact David Reeks, 10fourmedia E: david.reeks@10fourmedia.co.uk www.batterytechexpo.co.uk

Intersolar & ees Middle East April 16 – 18 Dubai, United Arab Emirates Take your chance to join the most powerful platform in the MENA region 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.

Renewables and energy storage at MEE is the largest gathering of solar and renewable energy industry professionals in the Middle East & Africa, offering the most effective trade focused platform to international manufacturers and distributors looking to meet regional buyers.

Contact Solar Promotion International E: stunz@solarpromotion.com www.intersolar.ae/home

www.batteriesinternational.com

Dubai

World Future Energy Summit

Battery Tech Expo

April 16 – 18 Abu Dhabi, UAE

April 25 Silverstone, UK

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.

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 Battery Tech Expo 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.

Contact RX Global E: worldfuturenergysummit@rxglobal.com www.worldfutureenergysummit.com

Contact 10fourmedia David Reeks E: david.reeks@10fourmedia.co.uk www.batterytechexpo.co.uk

Batteries International • Autumn 2023 • 101

LIST OF ADVERTISERS

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Abertax 59 Accurate Products

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Colorobbia 95 Continuus Properzi

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Entek 10 Erhardt + Leimer Farmer Mold & Machine Works

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Froetek 8 Hadi Offerman

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Maccor 3 Nanobase 51 Novanta Photonics

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102 • Batteries International • Autumn 2023

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d r o w t s a l The

The rum smugglers of Siem Reap

Confessions of a belt and braces man A mystery photo went viral at the Siem Reap ABC conference in September. It consisted only of a belt and a pair of heavy-duty electrical pliers.

A story later emerged: a sorry tale of pride and vanity, waist size exaggerations, hard-haggling on Pub Street and ending with much relief in a lonely hotel room.

“The belt I bought was too tight. Luckily I am always well equipped to deal with conference emergencies,” said the belt reliever. “Which I did promptly in a professional and discrete fashion.”

But who carries pliers at a conference? What next? Bringing pens to take notes?

The trouble with gala dinners is that there’s always too much time between one’’s table sinking a few bottles of wine and a prompt reordering of same.

Despite pleading and begging, waiters never bring more than three bottles at a time, extending those dry, de-tox minutes.

A painful silence descends on the table. Fingernails drum impatiently. A haunted look crosses everyone’s faces.

Sometimes things get so bad even the sponsor’s talk is listened to.

Practical solutions — what’s wrong with a dedicated waiter permanently on standby at

Fly me to the moon (by private jet only)

Billabong blues in Pub Street Never hustle a hustler.

That’s one of the first lessons in life a well known conference organizer [name withheld on his request] knew from his earliest school days growing up in the damp, smoky pool halls of New South Wales.

But it was all

104 • Batteries International • Autumn 2023

the table? — are regarded as impractical by the organizers.

Surely it would be a waste of the waiter’s time?

“Not really,” one diner said at the Siem Reap gala night, “we could probably keep them busy if we focused on the task at hand.”

In the event a solution was found.

Smuggled G&Ts, whiskies, single malts, Negronis, vodka and Zacapa rum for the connoisseur were prepoured into water bottles.

“It was business as normal,” one delegate later said, “we even cheered the loudest when the gents on the stage ended their speeches.”

If you had one wish to make the world a better place, what would you choose?

World peace? A cure for cancer?

Alleviating poverty? An end to lithium mining?

Nope. Actual conversation, with slight exaggeration, heard at Siem Reap airport. “You know what I really, really would wish for when I go on these long-haul flights?”

Voice two: “A better class of passenger in first class? A higher standard of business lounge pampering? Compulsory hygiene measures for those at the back of the plane?”

“Nope none of that, from now on all international conferences should lay on private jets! They’ll be good for business … we’ll look great when we talk down to our scruffy clients.”

forgotten when a young Cambodian lady challenged this figure to a friendly game of pool.

A $10 stake.

Competitive instincts were aroused — “Strewth, I’m not a whinging Pom,” he told his British friends.

“I’ve beaten more drongos than you’ve had hot dinners.

Our mystery Ozzie friend was ignominiously thrashed. As he left he muttered: “unfair dinkums … but it just wasn’t a fair suck of the sav.” * *Translation (UK English): Oh bother socks, I’ve lost again and to such a worthy opponent too! www.batteriesinternational.com

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