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Atraverda Limited Achieves Milestone Towards Development of 42V Ebonex® Bipolar Lead-Acid Automotive Battery Prototype
Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, January 21, 2003. Atraverda Limited, a material development company, today announced that it has started manufacture of a prototype bipolar battery in preparation for testing in a 42-Volt automotive application. The Ebonex® bipolar arrangement allows the battery to deliver more than 9kW of peak power with a significant weight reduction, approaching 50%, compared with conventional lead-acid designs. Further, bipolar lead-acid technology is a cost-effective solution to the power storage requirements of future vehicles and with a shorter, more uniform current path will improve the battery life.
Atraverda`s first prototype 12-Volt sealed bipolar lead-acid batteries were manufactured in September 2002 and are undergoing testing with extremely promising results at the Mansfield facility. Further prototype cells will be produced in due course for feasibility testing as a part of the ASTOR project (Assessment and Testing of Advanced Energy Storage Systems for Propulsion and Other Electrical Systems in Passenger Cars), a European Commission funded programme involving eight European car manufacturing companies.
The electrical systems of automobiles changed in the 1950`s from a 6-Volt system to the present 14-Volt system (battery voltage is 12-Volts but charging system is 14-Volts). In the 1990`s, as the power requirements of modern vehicles increased, the automotive industry looked at the implementation of the higher 42-Volt systems to meet these demands. The change in the electrical system voltage allows the addition of more electrically powered systems and will improve fuel efficiency, reduce emissions including Carbon Dioxide and give customers a quieter, better performing, lower maintenance vehicle. The first commercial 42-Volt passenger cars are in production in Japan and will be followed by automotive manufacturers in Europe and the USA in the next few years. Existing Pb-acid technology is heavy and the cost of NiMH and Lithium batteries are prohibitive.
Atraverda`s Chief Executive Officer, Dr Andrew Loyns, said, " A bipolar battery construction has been the "Holy Grail" of the lead-acid industry and our Ebonex® technology has made this a reality. The first 12-Volt prototype represents a significant milestone in the dedicated product development work carried out by the Atraverda team and will demonstrate the feasibility of the bipolar concept in a range of applications including 42-Volt automotive systems."
