Ah Lead-acid Battery Research Articles

A low-cost lead-acid battery with high specific-energy

Lightweight grids for lead-acid battery grids have been prepared from acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) copolymer followed by coating with lead. Subsequently, the grids have been electrochemically coated with a conductive and corrosion-resistant layer of polyaniline. These grids are about 75% lighter than those employed in conventional lead-acid batteries. Commercial-grade 6V/3.5Ah (C20-rate) lead-acid batteries have been assembled and characterized employing positive and negative plates constituting these grids. The specific energy of such a lead-acid battery is about 50 Wh/kg. The batteries can withstand fast charge-discharge duty cycles.

High Specific-Energy Lead-Acid Batteries Through Organic Metals

A novel room-temperature route to corrosion protect lead-coated plastic grids with an organic metal, namely, polyaniline, for producing commercial-grade high specific-energy 12 V/45 Ah lead-acid batteries is reported. The specific energy of these lead-acid batteries is found to be ca. 45 Wh/kg as against about 30 Wh/kg for conventional lead-acid batteries. It is believed that the study reported here will open up a new realm of possibilities for lead-acid battery development, and will contribute directly towards lowering the cost of both battery materials and manufacturing.

HEV battery heating using AC currents

Abstract A unique method has been developed for internally heating hybrid electric vehicle (HEV) batteries at cold temperatures using alternating current (AC). The poor performance of these batteries in cold climates is of major concern because they suffer a huge loss in capacity. Another symptom of this low performance is a dramatic increase in the series resistance of the battery, R B , as the temperature drops. Experiments were performed with both low and high frequency heaters, and several tests were conducted on both lead acid and nickel metal hydride (NiMH) batteries at different AC amplitudes, states of charge (SOCs) and cold temperatures. Low frequency 60 Hz heating was first tested on several different 38 Ah lead acid batteries. The feasibility of using high frequency heating was then tested using a 10–20 kHz inverter on a pack of 6.5 Ah nickel metal hydride (NiMH) batteries. A technique also was developed to estimate the internal battery temperature, T bat , by measuring the battery source resistance, R B .

Practical experience of a 50 kWp photovoltaic system supplying power to a dairy farm on Fota Island, Cork, Ireland

The Fotavoltaic Project is a 50 kWp photovoltaic system used to supply electrical energy to a 250-head dairy farm on Fota Island in Cork Harbour, Ireland. It is one of the fifteen pilot projects, ranging from 30?300 kWp, which have been built throughout Europe under the auspices of the Solar Energy Research and Development Programme of the EEC. The dairy farm was selected because its energy demand has the same seasonal variation as the output of a solar generator. The system consists of a 50 kW solar generator, a 600 Ah lead-acid battery, three 10 kVA self-commutated inverters which supply the dairy farm loads and a 50 kVA line-commutated inverter which delivers excess energy to the utility grid. The system operates automatically and is controlled by a microcomputer, which, in addition, monitors and records data for analysis. A VAX 11/780 computer at the National Microelectronics Research Centre continually displays the system's operation on a graphics terminal using data transmitted from Fota via a telephone link. The system began operating in June 1983 and data recording began in January 1984. During the peak milking period between March and August 1984, the PV array generated 20.52 MWh, 4.643 MWh was supplied to the dairy farm and 9.676 MWh was supplied to the utility grid. The paper describes the design of the system, the practical experiences gained and improvements which have been implemented since the system was installed.

Apparent Solar Control of the Effective Capacity of A 110-V. 170 Ah Lead-Acid Storage Battery in an 11-Year Cycle

Apparent Solar Control of the Effective Capacity of A 110-V. 170 Ah Lead-Acid Storage Battery in an 11-Year Cycle