The rise and rise of the lead acid battery an old faithful becomes the new high tech

Lithium and cadmium are perhaps the metals that spring to mind when we think of the high tech rechargeable battery revolution. But lets not write-off the lead acid battery just yet. The worlds oldest rechargeable energy storage solution may be about to reveal a few surprises. Lead acid batteries arent well suited to small portable applications requiring low energy-to-weight ratios, like cell phones, laptops, cameras and Kindles that need a light, uninterrupted power supply away from the wall socket. But for the high power output, stability, safety and life-cycle cost required for applications like electric vehicles or grid energy storage solutions, a new class of lead acid batteries may be difficult to beat. Lead acid batteries major drawbacks have always been that they perform poorly in hot climates and rapidly deteriorate when power is repeatedly drawn from them in a partial state of charge. But amazingly, after over 100 years of lead acid battery use, these limitations were recently overcome with the discovery of a new class of lead acid battery that can be continuously charged and discharged with very little deterioration. Traditional lead acid batteries work by placing two electrodes one lead the other lead-dioxide into a bath of dilute sulfuric acid. If the electrodes become connected by a conductor the resulting chemical reaction gradually drags the sulfur out of the acid and deposits it onto both electrodes. Lead-sulfate is created at the electrodes, the bath becomes closer to pure water, and huge numbers of electrons migrate along the conductor. We exploit these migrating electrons as our electrical power. In 1859 French scientist Gaston Plant's stroke of genius was to recognize that this battery could also work as an energy storage solution that is, if we produced electricity elsewhere, and those electrons were forced through the battery in the opposite direction, the chemical reaction would reverse: the bath would revert to sulfuric acid and the two electrodes would once again become lead and lead-dioxide respectively. However under consistent charge and discharge, the deposition and recovery of sulfur on the negative electrode tends to become less and less efficient as the lead sulfate crystallizes and inhibits operation. The new breakthrough technology still looks like every other 12 volt battery, but is in fact a hybrid battery/capacitor which is highly efficient, long lasting, readily recyclable and does not suffer from significant lead sulfate crystallization. Hence it can provide an uninterrupted power supply in any state of charge exactly the technology required for large scale grid storage and electric vehicle production.

__________________________________________________________________________________ Resource Box/Author Box: Ecoult delivers complete energy storage solutions and modules powered by the breakthrough UltraBattery technology a hybrid lead-acid energy storage device containing both an Ultracapacitor and a battery in a common electrolyte. Ecoults storage solutions manage intermittencies, smooth power and shift energy in a safe, reliable and environmentally sound way the energy storage of choice for grid ancillary services, wind and solar farms, remote Microgrid Energy Storage, dual purpose and diesel microgrid efficiency applications. For more details regarding our energy storage solutions visit our website or call us at our toll free number +61 (02) 9241 3001.