The use of lead batteries in advanced hybrid and electric vehicles is likely to contribute significantly to carbon foot print reduction, according to Alistair Davidson of the International Lead Association (ILA).
Speaking at the Advanced Automotive Battery Conference in Mainz Germany this week, Dr Davidson, director of products and sustainability at ILA, explained that life cycle assessment of the use of lead batteries gave a doubled benefit to the environment in terms of 99% collection and recycling rate, coupled with reduced emissions from automobiles from technologies such as start-stop and micro-hybrid applications.
Start-stop and micro hybrid account for more than 80% of cars operating in Europe, virtually all of which utilise a lead battery. These applications have been shown to reduce CO2 emissions of up to 10%. In addition, work of the Advanced Lead Acid Battery Consortium (ALABC) has demonstrated that advanced designs of lead batteries such as 48 V applications can deliver savings of up to 16%.
Work carried out by Lynda Gains for the US Argonne National Laboratory has already shown that lead batteries have the lowest environmental impact during manufacture of all battery chemistries, said Davidson.
This coming year, the ILA will be carrying out further assessments that will be published in 2019.
“The combination of lead batteries having a significantly higher recycling rate than other battery technologies, a less energy demanding manufacturing process and being widely used in start-stop and micro-hybrid means they have a much lower environmental footprint than many imagine said Davidson. “We expect the work we are currently conducting to highlight this fact.”
