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Catalyst creator comes to rescue of lead-acid in cars

Will Jones, the battery entrepreneur who made a small fortune developing recombination catalysts for failing VRLA batteries in the ‘90s has come up with what he believes is a solution to premature lead-acid battery failure in mico hybrids— likely to be the dominant automotive technology in the next 20 years.

Jones, writing to BEST magazine, claims the problem isn’t with the fundamental chemistry but its charging regime.

batteries

VRLA

lead-acid

hybrids

Lead-acid stalwart honoured with medal

A chance phone call from a friend in 1977 culminated this week with Robert Nelson being awarded the International Lead Medal at the 16th Asian Battery Conference.

The former teacher marked his 38th year in the business by joining a list of medal winners dating back to 2003.

Robert Nelson

International Lead Medal

16th Asian Battery Conference

VRLA

lead-acid

Firms choose ABC to unveil latest products

New products were announced at the 16th ABC conference in Thailand, among them a grid and plate production system that was ‘the most advanced high-speed plate-making system in the world’, according to John Wirtz, CEO and president of Wirtz Manufacturing.

Italian battery manufacturing equipment maker Sovema was another one of a number of companies announcing new products at the Bangkok conference.

Francesco Capuzzo

VRLA

E bike batteries

YUASA unveils VRLA batteries at London conference

Battery manufacturer Yuasa Battery Sales unveiled its latest advanced nano-carbon valve regulated lead-acid (VRLA) batteries at the Data Centre World 2015 event in London.

The battery was designed for use in large energy storage and remote renewable power applications where frequent charge/discharge cycles are encountered.

Yuasa

VRLA

Data Centre World

Bangalore battery boom?

Base Batteries, a Bangalore-based VRLA (valve-regulated lead-acid) batteries manufacturer, is in the processing of adding a capacity of 130m ampere hours (Ah) a year at its Hosur plant in Tamil Nadu with an investment of Rs110 crore ($18m), said its chief operating officer, Aditya Arora.  

The 22-year-old, privately-held company has two manufacturing plants - one at Solan in Himachal Pradesh with an annual capacity of 45m Ah, and the other at Hosur with a current capacity of 100m Ah a year. The company has so far invested Rs 370 crore ($59.8m) in Phase-I of its Hosur facility.  

India

VRLA

lead-acid batteries

Bitrode launches IGBT lead-acid formation charger in North America

Bitrode High Density IGBT Formation Charger

US-based battery charging and test equipment manufacturer Bitrode has introduced an insulated-gate bipolar transistor (IGBT) formation charger in North America.

The HD-CR/CD is designed for charging SLI batteries (flooded and VRLA/AGM), motive power batteries and industrial cells. It operates at 16KHz and allows users to achieve efficiency and power factors of up to 99%, according to Missouri-based Bitrode.

Approval for Convergent VRLA battery storage

New York-based Convergent Energy + Power has won a contract to install a valve-regulated lead acid (VRLA) battery storage plant in Boothbay Harbor, Maine, US.

The battery storage system is to feed 500kWh continuously to the grid. The system will be part of Central Maine Power’s (CMP) plan to provide load reduction on its transmission line to the Boothbay region and to prevent outages during peak hours.

Narada to invest $16m in VRLA battery factory in Hubei

China’s Narada Power Source is to invest 97m yuan ($16m) to build a lead-acid battery plant in Hubei province.

Narada’s subsidiary Wuhan Narada New Energy will build the 10m kVAh new plant in Hubei's Gedian Economic & Technological Development Zone. The factory will primarily manufacture VRLA batteries, as lead-carbon batteries for stop-start vehicle applications.

Kenyan lead-acid firm ABM starts VRLA production

Kenya’s Associated Battery Manufacturers (ABM) has started production of VRLA car batteries following a KSh600m ($6.85m) upgrade of its Nairobi factory.

The first battery to roll off the production line is the Powerlast VRLA, a Chloride Exide branded battery.