Asian Battery Conference - 2013

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Inside track view onmain themes of the event

Life outside the meetings: Singapore's other side

September 10 to 13, 2013 15th ABC, Singapore

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www.batteriesinternational.com Batteries International • 15th ABC Show Guide • Summer 2013 • 1

EDITORIAL

Pollution has a price tag. And that price — as one of the major themes that the 15th Asian Battery Conference will explore — comes in various shapes and forms.

Air pollution in northern China is, according to a recent study, shortening the average life of its citizens by fi ve years. According to another study, this time by the Chinese, the annual cost of environmental degradation was $230 billion in 2010. Not cheap.

But another price tag is the competitive advantage for ignoring the environment altogether.

While European and North American fi rms have steadily cleaned up their acts, they’ve also paid a price tag. For them the present low levels of lead in the blood of their workers could easily add another $10 to the cost of making their automotive batteries.

For a long time Asia as a whole — and China in particular — paid scant attention to the environment in their mad dash for growth. It made little sense to be ecologically diligent when you are creating industrialized economies from scratch.

It was the price you willingly paid to put yourself on the economic map. In China’s case to create a middle class of half a billion people in a bare couple of decades.

This new middle class has a political clout totally different from its agrarian roots. People aspire to the standards, values and health of the west.

So at a certain point the economics of disregarding the environment no longer make sense politically. Or economically too. Recent studies show that one can take around four percentage points off China’s gross domestic product fi gure as the price the country pays — from the massive strains on health care, to the tens of millions of days of work lost, to providing clean drinking water and much more — for this explosive growth.

All this means is that Asia’s energy storage industry is having to face up to tremendous challenges in the way that it does business. Importantly, every indication is that the environment has steadily moved up regional governments’ agenda in terms of its importance.

In China’s case, the crack-down on battery manufacturers two years ago, was just the

fi rst shot across the bows in an engagement that, in the end, only the government can win. Tighter legislation is being drawn up, a rethink of how resources will be used is resulting in a dramatic shift to renewables.

The country could be self-suffi cient in electricity by 2030 just from wind generation, or some studies say.

Within a generation Asia has become the most important battery manufacturing region in the world, the challenge is to maintain that lead as well as maintain the clean up.

Mike HallsEditor

Environmental issues to set the agenda for Asian battery industry

2 • Batteries International • 15th ABC Show Guide • Summer 2013 www.batteriesinternational.com

CONTENTS

LEAD ACID — UNSTOPPABLE, THE INDUSTRY MARCHES ONThe 15th Asian Battery Conference in Singapore between September 10-13 — and the preceding

3rd International Secondary Lead Conference on September 9-10 —could well be the most

popular lead events in Asia this side of the new millennium.

In our special pre-conference guide we look at the editorial agenda and interview many of the

luminaries that will be presenting or chairing the sessions.

EDITORIAL 1Environmental issues to set the agenda for Asian battery industry

SINGAPORE 4Where to go in the Lion City

VIEW FROM THE CHAIR ... AND THE SPONSORS 7

OVERVIEW 14Driving global growth figures

Asia is increasingly driving lead pricing

Exponential growth forecast for India

SECONDARY LEAD 20The upcoming revolution: disbelieve it at your peril

TECHNOLOGICAL ADVANCES 16Accelerating the pace of development

Ultrabattery comes to the rescue of renewables

A is for additives, B is for battery

Stop-start technology is go-go-go

EXHIBITORS: WHO’S WHERE 18

BATTERY HEROES 34, 44Jun Furukawa and L Pugazhenthy

REGULATORY 38Breathe deep and tell us you feel better!

ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT 40Legacy issues — dealing with past malpractice

More osculatory than regulatory but both have their part to play 38

New lexicography for advanced lead acid batteries 33

Where high fliers in Singapore perch between presentations 4

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EXHIBITION GUIDE, 28-32

Our comprehensive listing of exhibitors in the main

hall includes a full run down of sponsors of this pre-

conference guide and an alphabetical and numerical

list of which firm can be found —and where!


Reasons to be fearful — part 1

If you suffer even the merest hint of vertigo, this surely the one experience in Singapore that you’ll want to avoid (or failing that wear a blindfold). The Singapore Flyer is a huge Ferris wheel some 42 stories high — roughly half the height of the Empire State Build-ing and the tallest Ferris in the world.

Although Feng shui masters decid-ed in 2008 that the wheel direction should be reversed — clockwise has so much better “vital qi” — the Flyer has had a troubled fi nancial history and although open for business was last heard of as being in receivership.

Where to fi nd itThe Singapore Flyer is located near the shore of Singapore’s Marina Bay. 30 Raffl es Avenue. Nearest MRT, Promenade

Early birds, worms and tai-chi

Jet lagged and don’t know what to do at 5am? Join the earliest of early risers with a visit to Singapore’s Botanic Gardens. The gardens are open from 5am-midnight.

On the main boardwalk it is still possible to wander through swathes of virgin rainforest —some six hectares in size which predate the creation of the park in 1859.

Other fun is to identify some of the huge trees, the Terminalia Subspathulata is close to 50 me-tres high, or enjoy the delights of local joggers ruining the start of the day in style.

Don’t forget to look in at the Na-tional Orchid Garden — entrance fee S$5 but open 8.30am to 7.00pm — which boasts 1,000 different types of orchid.

The entire 74 hectare park is 2.6 kilometres at its longest.

Where to fi nd it1 Cluny Road, MRT station Botanic Gardens is the main entrance to the park.

Shop till you drop

Two of the hottest spots for shopping — Funan Digitalife Mall and Sim Lim Square — are the places to go for pos-sibly the widest range of electronic products in the world. These two massive multi-storey emporia offer the most bewildering range of hand-

Where to go in the Lion CityWelcome to Singapore— a

glittering space where Asian and international wealth and

wisdom meet in a spectacular fashion. The shopping is some of the best in the world, attracting top brands at highly competitive prices.

It’s also a place to eat well. This ranges from fi ne dining — including the best of Eurasian fusion cooking —

There are four offi cial languages: English, as a legacy of its history as a former UK colony but also refl ecting its international dimension, as well as Malay, Chinese and Tamil. Roughly three quarters of the population are

of Chinese extraction.Although Singapore’s towering

skyscrapers refl ect its modern culture, the earliest settlement on the spot dates back to the second century but the greatest part of its history dates back to the arrival of Thomas Stanford Raffl es in 1819 and its sale to the British fi ve years later. Here are three places that we’d recommend.

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15th ABC Show Guide • Summer 2013 • 5

cams, portable DVD players, mo-bile phones, hi-tech cameras, MP3 players and laptops in just about every imaginable confi guration.

The prices are usually about 10% to 20% cheaper than at other com-mercial outlets.

Remember to bargain though! At Sim Lim Square especially,

good deals can be had with some serious haggling, and many retailers will knock off a few extra dollars if you pay in cash.

Where to fi nd itFunan Digitalife Mall: 109, North Bridge RoadFive minute walk from City Hall MRTOpen 10am-10pmSim Lim Square, 1 Rochor Canal RoadFive minute walk from Bugis MRT and Little India MRTOpen daily 10.30am-9.00pm

Singapore has an excellent bus

and underground (MRT) service.

Travel is cheap and frequent. The

best ticket for visitors is probably

the Singapore Tourist Pass — S$10

(US$8) a day or S$20 for three

days.

One quirk of the system is that

a deposit system operates. You

deposit S$10 for the pass and get

this back when you return it.

The nearest MRT station to the

conference hotel, the Shangri-La,

is on Orchard Road. It’s about a 10

minute walk.

For iPad, iPhone and iPod touch, the free Singapore app is well worth a look. Billed as the ultimate travel app for tourists visiting the island state this has comprehensive information of over 1,000 things that you can see and do in Singapore. It also provides you with maps, route suggestions, travel fare estimation and quick dial taxi booking!

The app was developed by the Singapore Tourism Board.

There are further free apps for Singapore including those for use of the MRT (underground) and the bus service.

There’s also offi cial iPhones apps for Singapore largest IT and electronic shopping mall! It features the latest highlights and promotions from Sim Lim Square and provide a detailed fl oor maps with of all of the contacts of the shops.

Advice to all visitors to Singapore? Leave your chewing gum at home.

The import, sale and manufacture of chewing gum has been against the

law since 1992.

Although a single packet may squeeze through — presumably for

consenting adults to chew in private — bringing in more will land you in trouble.

There was even a time in the early 1990s when chewing gum smuggling was big

business for what the Singapore government called “delinquents” from Malaysia.

Don’t worry if you need nicotine gum, however. That’s perfectly legal but remember to

take some ID to the pharmacy!

Singapore laws — and remember the city-state is a democracy — can certainly be

quirky. But oddly enough they make a kind of sense in the end. Clearing up chewing

gum from the underground, where it was clogging up train doors, was costing tens of

millions of dollars.

Face painting, even for children, is forbidden as is wearing “any form of disguise”.

Don’t even think about bungee jumping (illegal) as is walking around naked in your own

home (pornographic).

And don’t forget! Failure to fl ush a public toilet can result in hefty fi nes. True!

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VIEW FROM THE CHAIR

Attendance is already looking good for the 15th Asian Battery Confer-ence being held in Singapore in Sep-tember. Mark Stevenson, the organ-izer says more than 500 delegates have registered with two months to go. “These are very positive numbers and I believe it will be extremely well attended,” he says.

He says 118 booths have already been sold and fi ve are on a waiting list – illustrating the popularity of the event.

“It could be a record for the event in terms of delegates and other things – we will have to see. But it is not about that. It is just enjoyable to put on a conference of this type and see everyone get something out of it.”

Stevenson, otherwise the technical manager for Asia for Ecobat Tech-nologies, the world’s largest pro-ducer and recycler of lead says the origins of the origins of the event started in 1987.

This was through an organization called the Zinc and Lead Asian Ser-vice, which was a collection of Aus-tralian and other Asian-based compa-nies involved in smelting and related industries. Their main objective, he says, was to promote learning and education around the use of lead.

The conference was launched in its current format in 1997. Many things have changes since them, Stevenson says.

“The event back then was very technical,” he says. “It has changed a lot since then. Although there are still many very technical papers, we try to ensure these are mixed in with more commercial themes and net-working.

“People want more of a blend from an event such as this. Some papers are very sector specifi c and highly technical and super scientifi c – oth-

ers are not. That works well for us and delegates seem to like it.”

Personal contactsHe says that many delegates use the event to improve their knowledge and brush up their skills and un-derstanding in certain sectors. They also use it to maintain and establish personal contact with industry peers and to touch base with suppliers and customers in one event.

He believes one of the reasons this event is proving so popular is because of the quality of speakers and papers already lined up. It is the strongest for a long time, he says, adding that there is also a waiting list of speakers. “People come for the presentations but also to have a yak and do business,” he says.

“Twenty years ago, the event was far more sedate. Now, people enjoy, they have a good time and they also learn and often understand certain things better as a result of some of the presentations. It is particularly satis-fying to me when people come and say ‘wow, I learned so much from that presentation. I had forgotten some of the technical detail around something but now I get it again. To be, that is the mark of a good presentation and a good conference.”

In terms of the major themes of the event, he says it is tough to pin down a small number of themes, due to the diversity of presentations. But he also observes a discrepancy be-tween the big issues as observed by companies and individuals based in Europe and the US compared with

what Asian forms see as the issues.For example, he says that stop-

start technology is not as big an is-sue in Asia as it is in Europe and the US. He says that cultural differences results in Asian-based companies be-ing more pragmatic about such tech-nologies.

“When the technology is ready, manufacturers out here will just fi t it in,” he says. “They will just get on with it without all the fl uff and gruff you get in the west. All they are in-terested in is selling cars – if it helps or if they have to introduce it, they just get on with it.”

He says a similar dynamic oc-curred with the introduction of elec-tric bikes, which have exploded in popularity in some Asian countries. “It is because they just got on with making the most of the technolo-gies available,” he says. “In the UK there would have been committee after committee over analyzing their usage. Asian countries can be much more fast moving in that sense.”

continued on page 10 >

A word from the conference chairman

Despite the name of the event and the fact it is always held in Asia, the conference is effectively a world event with executives from many countries attending.

Mark Stevenson, the conference organizer and chairman of the Asian Battery Conference, bids a warm welcome to delegates, exhibitors and speakers at the event.


GROWTH: THE BIG PICTURE

The global stationary batteries market in 2012 grew by just 1.2% from 2011, to $6.2 billion. But explosive growth is on its way, according to the Power Supply & Storage Components divi-sion of IHS Electronics and Media in a new report called Stationary Batteries – World 2013.

The increase — of some $7 billion — that the report projects from 2013 to 2017 is driven by the need for energy storage from renewable applications and the continued strong demand for telecommunications infrastructure with battery reserve power. The mar-ket is forecast to grow to $13.8 billion in 2017.

While growth is predicted in the established market for lead-acid bat-teries, penetration of lithium-ion and sodium-based batteries is predicted to accelerate over the next fi ve years, with particularly strong adoption in certain applications.

Europe the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) was estimated to account for 25% of global revenues in 2012, while The Americas was estimated to ac-count for 28% and Asia for 47%. This is projected to change slightly in 2017 with EMEA accounting for 24%, The Americas for 26% and Asia for 50%.

“The increase in Asia is largely due to the forecast adoption of batteries for renewable energy storage systems,” the report says.

In the EMEA region, the largest por-tion of the market was accounted for by western Europe in 2012 with an estimated 72% of the market. Strong-est growth is forecast for Middle East and Africa due to the demand for tel-ecommunications infrastructure with reserve power and strong demand for installations of renewable energy sys-tems with battery storage systems to-wards the end of the forecast, suggests the report.

The largest proportion of The Amer-icas market in 2012 was accounted for by North America and Canada with 73% of the market. This is predicted to increase to 74% in 2017. Growth in all three regions of the Americas pre-sented is forecast to be accelerated by adoption of renewable energy systems with battery storage.

Japan is identifi ed as the dominant region of the Asian market, accounting for 61.1% of revenues in 2012. This is projected to increase to 62.2% in 2017. The Japanese market is largely served by manufacturers based in Japan.

Growth in India is predicted to be

strong throughout the forecast as in-vestments in telecommunication infra-structure and renewable energy sys-tems accelerates. Meanwhile, China will also deliver strong growth, the report says (see graphs). continued on page 10 >

Driving global growth fi gures

Strong growth is forecast globally for the stationary batteries market over the next fi ve years – up by $7 billon between 2013 and 2017. But Asia will be leading the way in this expansion.

“The increase in Asia is largely due to the forecast adoption of batteries for renewable energy storage systems”

2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017

Source: IHS

Revenues $m

8,000

7,000

6,000

5,000

4,000

3,000

2,000

1,000

0

— EMEA — Americas — Asia

Predicted growth in the world market for stationary batteries by region

2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017

Revenues $m

5,000

4,000

3,000

2,000

1,000

0

— Japan — China — India — Other Asia

Predicted growth in the Asia market for stationary batteries by major region

Source: IHS

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VIEW FROM THE CHAIR (continued)

> continued from page 7

Seizing opportunitiesHe also notes that this dynamic means it can be hard for US and European companies to exploit op-portunities in Asian markets. “The local companies are usually one step ahead,” he says.

Despite the name of the event and the

fact it is always held in Asia, the con-ference is effectively a world event with executives from many countries attend-ing. “It just happens to be in Asia,” he says. “Most of the presentations and is-sues are global in their nature.”

One theme he agrees will be a big talking point and papers covering it well attended, is around the supply and demand of lead in the region

and how this links into the global dynamic around the price of and availability of lead.

“It will be a big topic of conver-sation that week,” Stevenson says. “There are a number of papers cov-ering this issue and I am looking for-ward to seeing some of those.”

Some of these papers include ‘Status and Outlook of the Lead Market in China’ by Xia Cong, assistant engineer at Antaike; ‘Trends and Issues in the Global Lead Market’ by Neil Hawkes, lead consultant with CRU Interna-tional; and ‘The Development of Lead Acid Battery in China’ by Dong Li, chairman and chief executive of Leoch Battery Shenzhen Corp.

“People want more of a blend from an event such as this. Some papers are very sector specifi c and highly technical and super scientifi c – others are not. That works well for us and delegates seem to like it.”

> continued from page 7

The report covers all types of sta-tionary batteries. In 2012, lead-acid batteries (fl ooded and VRLA com-bined) accounted for an estimated 89% of the market. This is projected to change dramatically over the next fi ve years as lithium-ion and sodium-based technology is adopted. The share of lead-acid in the stationary battery market is projected to decline to 64% in 2017.

In 2012, the application account-ing for the largest proportion of the market was telecommunications with 38%. UPS was estimated to account for 22% of the market and energy and infrastructure for 21%.

Explosive growth is forecast for the market for stationary batteries in en-ergy and infrastructure. Its share is predicted to increase to 55% in 2017 owing to projected explosive growth in demand for renewable and energy storage applications. Despite this, the UPS and telecommunications market are also predicted to remain strong throughout the forecast.

Networking and the exchange of knowledge and ideas are always the two biggest drivers of the Asian Battery Conference and this 15th event will be no different. Organizers promise this event will be a must for those seeking to network with customers, expand knowledge, contacts, stay up to date with new and emerging technologies and

focus on business improvement.“The main reason I attend events

such as this is to make and nurture relationships with clients and industry players,” says Geoffrey May, director of FOCUS Consulting who will give a speech entitled ‘The competitive position of lead-acid batteries for stop and start and micro-hybrid applications.’

NETWORKING AND BIG TALKING POINTS

A word from the conference chairman


A VIEW FROM THE SPONSORS

Underpinning the 15th Asian Battery Conference is the commitment of a number of corporate sponsors. These companies use the event to connect with clients old and new and, variously, invest in brand awareness within the international battery community.

John Opie, the managing director of Goonvean Fibres, a company that is one of Europe’s largest technical fi bre manufacturers supplying high quality precision fi bres, which are used in many types of batteries around the world, is one of the sponsors along with Beijing Rongxintong (stands 12 & 21).

He describes the event as possibly the premiere conference on the lead acid battery calendar. “Quite simply, anyone who is anyone in the battery industry will attend, so it is a great place to net-work and meet friends old and new, fi nd out about the latest technology, ex-hibit goods and of course share knowl-

edge with the global battery commu-nity,” he says.

Opie believes the main themes of the event will be the price and availability of lead and lead alloys; the latest devel-opments in terms of battery technol-ogy; and challenges facing the lead-acid battery community such as environ-mental issues.

GlobalizationOne of the key challenges that he be-lieves will be discussed at the event is around the expansion of Asian com-panies into the global market.

“Historically, growth has been local-ized to service the home market but as demand at home slows Asian suppliers will look to increase their share of in-ternational markets,” he says. “Advan-tages such as lower manufacturing base costs and in some cases government subsidies may give these countries the

edge. Import duties/taxes for foreign goods can make entry into the Asian markets diffi cult.”

But this dynamic has another side and also offers opportunities, he says. “Companies can also come to Asia, manufacture and supply locally so that your company can compete on a level playing fi eld,” he says. “Many have al-ready done so and many more will fol-low. Add lower costs to high levels of quality and the advantage will swing back towards the ‘implant’ company or joint venture.”

Kevin Campbell, vice president of international business development at Digatron based in Aachen, Germany, illustrates this point. He explains that his business has strong roots in Asia and sees many opportunities there for future development and growth.

“This year, Digatron celebrates 20 successful years since setting up a sales, design and manufacturing operation from a dedicated Digatron China facil-ity in Qing Dao,” says Campbell.

“We view the Asian Battery Confer-ence as the single most signifi cant show on the Asian battery calendar. We be-lieve that the event is very well organ-ized, it has a focus on signifi cant tech-nology improvements and the technical calibre of attendees from all around the Asian region is excellent.”

He says the company is seeing a sig-nifi cant increase in requests from the Asian battery community for state-of-the-art technology, and energy saving testing equipment.

“We believe so strongly in the Asian region that in addition to the Digatron China (Qing Dao) manufacturing op-eration, we are about to embark upon an additional new manufacturing facil-ity in Pune India, through a joint ven-ture with our long-time Indian repre-sentatives Ador Powertron, which is a respected as a world class equipment manufacturer,” he says.

L Pugazhenthy, executive director of the India Lead Zinc Development As-sociation (another event sponsor) and

Lead, lead, glorious lead … there’s nothing quite like it

“We view the Asian Battery Conference as the single most signifi cant show in the Asian battery calendar.”

Expectations for another fascinating and useful conference are refl ected in the major themes that the conference sponsors expect to see this year in Singapore.


A VIEW FROM THE SPONSORS

who won the International Lead Award at the ABC in Macau, China in 2009, says the importance of the Asian mar-kets to both the supply and demand of lead production mean the conference sits at the heart of the industry’s future growth.

“The ABC takes place in a region in the globe where both lead demand as well as lead battery demand are grow-ing continuously,” Pugazhenthy says. (He is also profi led later on in this sup-plement see page 44.)

“China, India as well as countries in south-east Asia are witnessing a steady growth in the automobile sector, the biggest market outlet for lead batteries. Other sectors like telecom and com-puters are also expanding, where lead battery is an essential component as a standby. New emerging markets like renewable energy and electric mobil-ity indicate more opportunities for lead batteries.

New technologies and designs“Today, while we are fully aware of the health and environmental im-plications of lead and its products, the focus is more on safe lead usage practices. The ABC will also highlight new battery making technologies and design, weight reduction, high per-formance etc. Over a period of time, ABC has truly become the biggest lead battery event in the world, with the highest participation.”

Meanwhile, Christophe Thuet, busi-ness director for Daramic-Asia Pacifi c, will have two hats on at the Asian Bat-tery Conference (ABC) in Singapore. As director for the Asian region, he will be coordinating activities for Daramic at the event, but he will also have one eye on overseeing the overall ABC con-ference as a member of the organizing committee.

He says he is anticipating a well at-tended event this year as the ABC con-tinues to grow and go from strength to strength as a conference. He says that while part of this is due to the central location and easy accessibility of Singa-pore as a location, it also refl ects the in-creasing importance of the Asia Pacifi c region to the development and growth of the battery industry overall.

“The market for lead acid is grow-

ing very quickly in Asia and there is a lot of interest in this event as a result,” he says. “It is a chance to meet all the Asian manufacturers and understand their concerns and needs. This level of interest combined with the easy acces-sibility of Singapore means we could have record attendance”.

Daramic is one of the event’s spon-sors. He explains why the event is im-portant to the US-based global compa-ny. “For us, the ABC is only every two years and it is a must-attend event. It represents a great opportunity for us to meet customers. All the major bat-tery manufacturers will be there and it is an opportunity for Daramic to make announcements about our recent inno-vations and our technological develop-ments.”

He says it is important to understand the market demand and expectations in Asia. The region’s diversity also means it requires a tactical approach that takes into account the differences be-tween countries.

“Asia is the most challenging market to operate in because it has such a wide diversity of battery types and a vari-ety of markets,” Thuet says. “Even in China and India alone, you have very different markets, each with their own specifi cities and product demand.

There is a lot of development and innovation happening in Asia and a growing percentage of overall battery production is moving towards Asia.

“In part, this is driven by very strict environmental standards in the west,” he says. “But you would be making a mistake to say that Asian governments do not care about these issues. China in particular is leading the way in terms of its environmental agenda. It has had a big clean up in terms of its lead acid industry in recent years. They want to reach a world standard in terms of environmental standards. And other countries are following suit.”

Thuet says that at the last ABC, held in India two years ago, many of the pa-pers delivered by lead specialists had at least one section dedicated to environ-mental matters. “That could well be the same this year,” he suggests. “Everyone is interested in how companies can be greener, more effi cient and increase re-cycling while reducing waste.”

Returning to the theme of marketing and business development strategies in Asia, he says that his key piece of ad-vice would be to be versatile. He says that broadly speaking, battery manu-facturers in Asia can be categorized into several tiers, each with unique and separate needs and requirements.

He sees state-of-the-art battery man-ufacturers which are very sophisticated and moving technology forward con-stantly, playing on an international ground. But also manufacturers who are more focused on local demand, not as advanced technically but they are learning fast.

Focus and claritySmaller regional battery manufactur-ers with a much smaller capacity are focused on servicing niche or local markets. They serve the after-market very well and are very focused on pro-ducing quality products but less on technological advancements.

Each of these segments need to be treated according to their needs with an emphasis on different levels of technical support as required.

Thuet says. “Versatility is critical and each country in Asia should be ap-proached differently to refl ect cultural variations and market demands. This region is so diverse and must be tackled with that in mind”.

He says another big theme at the con-ference will be new technology for elec-tric vehicles, micro-hybrids and start-stop technology. “There are a number of new technical concepts that we will see presented and discussed,” he says.

He also notes that although he is not personally presenting a paper, his col-league Kevin Whear, vice president of technology at Daramic will present a paper entitled: ‘The Uniqueness of the Asian Market and the Resultant Novel Separators.’

“Quite simply, anyone who is anyone in the industry will attend the ABC”

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The market for lead acid is growing very quickly in Asia and there is a lot of interest in this event — it’s a chance to meet all the Asian manufacturers and understand their concerns and needs

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OVERVIEW

Neil Hawkes lead analyst at CRU, a London-based commodity research consultancy, will present a talk called Global Trends and Issues in the Lead Market. Hawkes is responsible for CRU’s lead market analysis and he is the main author of the company’s quarterly Lead Market Outlook and monthly Lead Monitor.

Hawkes says he will start by cover-ing some of the issues around supply and demand, with a slant on the more interesting supply side of things and in relation to Asia where relevant.

He says demand for lead globally is both steady and reliable and has been relatively immune to the global eco-nomic downturn. Despite some chang-es in technology and other factors, he

expects growth to remain robust for some time to come.

He says that all the big question-marks around lead pricing lay on the supply side. And central to the equa-tion is the role of China in the lead markets.

“It is a very important part of this market as it continues to drive a lot of lead demand and supply growth at the

moment,” Hawkes says. “Asia is cer-tainly the main driver of demand. It now represents around two thirds of total lead demand. It has been the ma-jor growth story of the past 10 years.”

Hawkes notes that changing regula-tions in China could adversely affect this demand, however. He says that a proposal to introduce a 5% tax on lead acid battery manufacturing is de-signed to slow the market’s growth.

But demand remains strong in China as it does in India, which is growing fast, South Korea and Thailand. The Japanese market is slow on the de-mand side in comparison, Hawkes says.

Korea moving inSouth Korea in particular has been quite aggressive in recent years in building up a solid industry around lead smelters and is increasingly win-ning the intense competition around competing for lead scrap metal – of-ten taking scrap from other countries, including Japan and the US.

Other countries are increasingly competing in this market, however. Australian smelter Nyrstar looks close to securing a substantial investment that would make it far more competi-tive in this sector.

He says that he does not expect new technologies and the growth of the electric and hybrid electric vehicle market to change the broader dynamic in terms of lead demand.

“My view is that this represents a very tiny percentage of the total num-ber of vehicles made globally and the

Asia is increasingly driving lead pricing

A major theme of the conference will be how Asia as a region has become the focus for major trends in the production of lead acid batteries and the challenges it faces as a consequence. Wyn Jenkins reports.

“The biggest negative of all is the macro-economic picture, especially in Europe. But against that, China, the rest of Asia and the US are all faring well. On the demand side, it is all very positive and it is tough to see too much of a downside at the moment.”

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OVERVIEW

Klaus-Dieter Merz is a consultant at Abertax Technologies, an independent business within the Abertax group of companies that was formed to research, design and produce innovative products. He previously worked for Exide for 28 years.

Its main focus is developing battery monitoring systems that can be monitored and controlled remotely via the internet. In this event, however, he will focus on battery energy storage systems.

Merz worked on the EUROBAT taskforce looking at batteries for smart grids and rural electrifi cation applications. He says this technology will play a vital role in both the development of a decarbonized power system in Europe and the emergence of power systems in emerging countries across Asia.

“They are a fundamental in terms of the electrifi cation of rural and remote areas,” he says. “In many developing countries such as India, there is no access to main power supplies.

“Electrifi cation is a very important step forward and likely to use wind or solar technologies. But the use of the correct battery technology will make the difference in terms of how effective that is.”

EUROBAT recently published a study examining the potential contribution of battery energy storage at all levels of the electricity grid: generation, transmission, distribution and customer. The paper reviews the four main battery technologies commercially available — lead, lithium, nickel and sodium-based batteries — and makes a series of recommendation for how their mass-market utilisation can be facilitated at a European level.

Another publication issued by EUROBAT recently focuses on increasing energy access in isolated rural areas, including in developing countries but also in small islands. The guidance document was drafted to help installers, operators of rural electrifi cation systems, as well as public authorities, selecting the best

battery technology for use in off-grid and mini-grid systems.

“The document aims to enhance the knowledge about the combination of functions that lead, lithium, nickel and sodium-based batteries can provide across different types and sizes of rural electrifi cation system, and across varying environmental conditions,” Merz says of the report. “We hope the paper will provide authorities in rural areas with concrete data to help them make an appropriate selection.”

He says Abertax is already supporting several companies in India which are rolling out this technology. “In some parts of India there are big power shortages. They might lose power for fi ve or six hours at a time every day. This technology can help manage the electronics around these power storage systems. The focus is on managing that fl ow of power whether it is generated from solar or wind and complementing the grid.

“Battery energy storage (BES) is an effective solution, and has already been implemented in numerous off-grid, mini-grid and hybrid installations across the world,” he says. “Unlike other storage technologies, BES systems are highly fl exible and can be adapted to high power and high energy applications.”

He says that in the paper he is presenting, the authors propose a novel smart battery system that will make the battery an independent energy storage system. “This idea will enable the use of existing grid connected equipment thereby making it suitable for both off grid and on grid applications,” he says.

“This will create a solution that will meet such a variety of applications will also make it more affordable especially for the ever increasing demand to provide energy in rural areas. The project will demonstrate how smart energy storage can contribute to society and help with the global drive towards ‘Energy for All’,

especially in isolated rural areas and small islands.”

He says that this emerging global scenario has become much more interesting in recent years especially with the drop in PV prices. “These possible energy storage solutions offer a very good perspective for the lead acid battery industry and a potential new emerging market is being created. The challenge is to provide standard modular plug and play components that will allow different system setups,” he

says.“This is a new and growing

business area for the batteries industry,” he says. “Many governments are not doing enough to solve these problems. But there are some very good solutions out there. Subsidies are being given in some areas and many of the big battery manufacturers anticipate big growth.”

Merz adds that he expects this to be a big talking point at the conference more generally.

SMART BATTERIES AND RENEWABLE ENERGY

In some parts of India there are big power shortages. They might lose power for fi ve or six hours at a time every day. This technology can help manage the electronics around these power storage systems.

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OVERVIEW

vast majority of those use lead acid batteries,” Hawkes says.

“But while electric vehicles grab the headlines, other growth areas for lead go unnoticed. You also have increasing demand on the back-up power side for things like mobile phone and comput-er networks, many of which use lead acid batteries.”

Sectoral pressuresHe says: “You also have unique pock-ets of demand, such as electric bikes in China for example — that is a huge market that is still growing, albeit at a relatively more restrained pace than before. All this means that despite some distributive new technologies and chemistries, demand typically grows each year.”

Another reason for lead’s attraction to investors is that the market is expect-ed to grow by between 2% and 4% a year. “And I expect it to continue to grow at that pace. It is stable (if not ex-plosive) growth and investors like that.

“The biggest negative of all is the macro-economic picture, especially in Europe. But against that, China, the rest of Asia and the US are all far-ing well. On the demand side, it is all very positive and it is tough to see too much of a downside at the moment,” Hawkes says.

“It is a more attractive commodity at the moment because of some of the dynamics around supply and espe-cially the very secure demand story. Whether the lead and lead-acid bat-tery industry likes it or not, investors are looking at it, not only as part of a broader commodity portfolio, but in some cases drilling down into the specifi cs of lead compared to other metals. And given lead’s positive out-look, on the LME, lead’s price typi-cally falls less and rallies more quick-ly than most other metals through the daily/weekly gyrations of the metals complex.”

Alongside healthy demand growth, a number of disrupting factors on the supply side has meant that the price of lead is sitting at historically high levels, though it has become marooned, rarely straying far from $2,000/t. “You do see some fl uctua-tion in line with the wider commodi-

ties markets but lead is less affected by these changes than other metals,” Hawkes says.

One of the key supply dynamics is that the price of ‘scrap’ or ‘spent’ lead-acid batteries has risen dramatically in recent years as the scrap industry has cottoned to the higher value of lead contained within spent batter-ies. They have increased their selling prices, putting pressure on smelters’ profi t margins, in turn.

In terms of pricing, Hawkes believes LME lead prices will remain fairly stable this year. Prices started the year rallying to $2,400 per tonne and al-though the price has subsequently re-treated closer to its $2,000 ‘anchor’ he does not anticipate any dramatic fl uc-tuations this year.

“You can never predict pricing in the short term, but in the medium term it will be relatively stable and trade mostly above $2,000 for the rest of this year,” he says.

Next year, however, he believes the price could increase further. “In the longer term, especially if Europe re-covers and Asian demand remains on a fi rm upward path, prices could push above early 2013 highs. And although

I see that as a trend for next year, if investors anticipate that dynamic, they could move ahead of an further improvement in lead’s own industry fundamentals. Long term, I am fairly bullish about the market.”

“And given lead’s positive outlook, on the LME, lead’s price typically falls less and rallies more quickly than most other metals through the daily/weekly gyrations of the metals complex.”

One of the key supply dynamics is that the price of ‘scrap’ or ‘spent’ lead-acid batteries has risen dramatically in recent years as the scrap industry has cottoned to the higher value of lead contained within spent batteries.

Another big talking point at the event is likely to be improvements and the latest design breakthroughs in stop-start technology. A number of presentations are scheduled that will focus on this including:• Mild-HEV Performance at Micro-

Hybrid Cost: A Low-Voltage Advanced Lead–Acid Battery Approach, presented by Allan Cooper from ALABC;

• The Competitive Position of Lead–Acid Batteries for Stop–Start and Hybrid Electric Vehicle Applications, presented by Geoffrey May from FOCUS Consulting;

• and Development of the UltraBattery for Micro-Hybrid Electric Vehicle Applications, presented by Jun Furukawa from

The Furukawa Battery Company.“Hybrid vehicles will be a big talking point as will stop-start technology,” says Ellis. “Temporary power storage is also a big thing in Asia with big opportunities. The grid is not stable and that could be a good thing for the battery industry.”

A number of presentations will also focus on these issues. Two such presentations are: • A Smart Battery System for Self

Consumption of Renewable Energy by K-D Merz from Abertax; and,

• Integrating Renewables into the Grid: Applying UltraBattery Technology in MW-Scale Energy-Storage Facilities for Continuous Variability Management by John Wood, from Ecoult.

PRESENTATIONS TO LOOK OUT FOR

18 • Batteries International • ABC supplement • Summer 2013 www.batteriesinternational.com

REGIONAL OUTLOOK

The market in India for lead-acid bat-teries is set for exponential growth in the next decade representing many opportunities for global batteries fi rms — but global players must strive to understand the nuances of doing business in India if they are to make the most of this opportunity.

That is the thrust of a speech that will be given by Vinod Dumra, busi-ness adviser Rahimafrooz Batteries, looking at the opportunities and chal-lenges in the Indian market.

He forecasts some startling growth fi gures for the country that will make global players sit up and take notice.

Future valuesDumra believes the lead-acid mar-ket in India could be worth between $9 billion and $10 billion by 2020, a huge increase for a market worth around $4 billion to the sector now. “This is likely to be a very fast grow-ing market with many opportunities,” he says.

India as an economy will increas-ingly represent a challenge and op-portunity to western business, which must learn how to tap into its poten-tial.

“The country has a general election

next year so expect some political tur-moil but nothing too severe.

“The economy is the third largest in the world and growing rapidly. Inter-national businesses cannot afford not to be involved in such a big and fast growing economy.” The battery mar-ket specifi cally is very healthy.

He explains that there is a huge young population in India, a large percentage of which have access to world media and are aspirational and ambitious as a result. India is such a big country that even small segments of the population are still bigger than the total population of some coun-tries.

And the growth potential is huge. At present, only 12 people in every 1,000 own a car. And the total power avail-ability in the country is some 10% to 12% short of total demand.

“You can see there is huge potential for the battery industry specifi cally as a result,” Dumra says. “Renewable energy specifi cally offers huge poten-tial. But it needs battery technology to fully harness it.”

Aside from this presentation it is worth remembering that the Indian market is essentially duopolistic. Two companies, Exide Industries [no rela-

tion to Exide Technologies] and Am-ara Raja Batteries have around a 90% market share. Due to the tremendous brand recall by these companies, most original equipment manufacturers use batteries manufactured by them.

The passenger vehicle space is dom-inated by the two companies is also due to their strong tie-ups with rec-ognized international players. Moreo-ver, power concentration being in the hands of these two players, the pric-ing power remains strong for the in-dustry.

The high effi ciency with which lead acid batteries can be recycled has re-sulted in several recyclers entering the battery business. Since it is easier to make a recycled lead-acid battery than to manufacture a new one, most players fi nd it more convenient to en-ter the battery recycling business.

Dumra forecasts a huge explosion in infrastructure growth over the next decade. He says it needs investment and this will boost the economy fur-ther.

Foreign investmentDespite the vast pool of talent already in the country, India still requires for-eign investment and expertise. But companies need to understand how to navigate specifi c rules and regulations within the market.

“The customers and import duty agreements can be complex,” he says. “We import from Bangladesh because a trade agreement is in place but if goods come in from another country it can be expensive and time consum-ing. Exporters can get baffl ed by the rules.

Certainly, as this magazine remem-bers from the previous ABC in Hy-derabad in 2011 that the import of some 3,000 magazines and directories to India was fraught with diffi culties. It required a whole day at various cus-toms offi ces to bring our material in. A rival publication, for example, was unable to provide magazines at the event by the same customs blockade.

“But the marketing is the same,” Dumra says. “I have seen many west-ern companies get it wrong because

Exponential growth forecast for India but business stilldominated by the top two

“The economy is the third largest in the world and growing rapidly. International businesses cannot afford not to be involved in such a big and fast growing economy.”

www.batteriesinternational.com Batteries International • ABC supplement • Summer 2013 • 19

REGIONAL OUTLOOK

they misunderstand Indian culture. It is also very diffi cult for an outsider to understand what happens in a supply chain in some cases in terms of where taxes apply and the nuances of that.”

He recommends that foreign com-panies starting operations in India al-ways employ a local chief executive, marketing manager and operations manager. “The CFO can be an ex-pat but in terms of some of the other more people orientated roles, it is very

easy to get it wrong,” he says. “You need to understand what we actually mean when we say certain things and how the systems and business proce-dures work out here. The timescales can be completely different.”

There are many examples of global companies that have succeeded in India such as Johnson Controls and Chloride India (Exide). “Others will follow and the opportunities are huge but cultural differences need to be ac-

counted for,” he says.Dumra will also touch on the green

agenda in India in his speech. “There is a dichotomy between what the in-dustry needs to do in environmental terms and seeking growth,” he says. “In the battery industry specifi cally, improvements need to be made. There is still a long way to go there.”

“I have seen many western companies get it wrong because they misunderstand Indian culture. It is also very diffi cult for an outsider to understand what happens in a supply chain in some cases in terms of where taxes apply and the nuances of that.”

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SECONDARY LEAD

One of the best attended speeches at the conferences could be by Timo-thy Ellis, vice president of research & development, RSR Technologies, who will be presenting some revo-lutionary fi ndings on new technolo-gies the company has developed that can, he claims, create secondary lead with lower levels of contaminants than primary lead — a breakthrough that could have huge signifi cance to a number of industries.

Ellis explains the background to and reason for the research being conducted. “Basically the issue is that there are two types of lead that are used in manufacturing: recycled lead and primary lead. Over the years there has always been a natural ten-sion between the two types of produc-ers about the relative strengths and weaknesses of the lead and which is best for various functions,” he says.

“Ultimately, it boils down to the levels of various contaminants in the lead and the effect that has on various functions when it is used in different type of batteries.

“The Advanced Lead Acid Battery Consortium (ALABC) funded a study a few years ago to look at this and specifi cally the effect contaminants have on gassing or over charging. They discovered there were negative effects. Eventually, the wrong levels can mean a battery becomes drained of its properties such as water and eventually stops working.”

He explains that historically, most sources of primary lead have been low in the specifi c elements that cause gas-sing whereas many types of secondary lead have had problems getting rid of contaminates. This has become in-creasingly problematic, however, for certain industries.

“The ready supply of scrap batteries along with environmental concerns has motivated the present domination of secondary material from recycling facilities allowing lead to have the

highest recycling rate of any of the commodity base metals,” Ellis says.

“This makes sense from an eco-nomic and environmental standpoint. But in some applications such as UPS and telecoms applications there are big long-term gassing issues and they need to use primary lead.”

He says that exacerbated by the recent closure of smelters in North America, this is now causing a prob-lem. “It means there are now no producers of primary lead in North America at all.”

RSR Technologies has been working on a solution to this problem. It has been working with NorthStar, which makes high performance lead-acid batteries for Telecom Power Systems, Uninterrupted Power Supply (UPS) and Engine Start applications to de-velop a new type of secondary lead they have labelled ‘supersoft’ lead.

“It is a very high purity lead compa-rable in its properties to primary lead,” Ellis says. “It is a highly refi ned second-

ary lead with very low levels of impuri-ties to reduce gassing in batteries.”

He says that grey and red oxide have been produced from this highly refi ned secondary material and VRLA batteries were fabricated using these oxides as a replacement for the con-ventional primary lead. This material contains up to 50 ppm silver (Ag) and up to 200 ppm bismuth (Bi).

“Tests of the VRLA batteries has shown that water loss, gassing and cycling characteristic are identical to those for using very low impurities primary lead,” he says. “RSR in North America and EcoBat facilities in Eu-rope and South Africa have developed the capability to produce this material in normal operations.

“That opens many new markets up to secondary lead and changes the market dynamic on its head. It is a very important development because high purity lead is expensive and it saves shipping it in from countries such as China.”

The upcoming revolution: disbelieve it at your peril

The promoters of our Singapore conferences offered us ‘a week of lead in glittering Singapore’ but one talk will be more about the ‘glittering’ opportunities from new refi ning techniques.


SECONDARY LEAD

In terms of the response he expects to receive in Singapore, he admits that a great deal of scepticism exists around how good the end product can really be. He says the accuracy and reliability of the research being carried out will win through.

“The problem is this technology has the potential to turn the dynamics of the market on its head,” he says. “In

Asia, people will be very sceptical and this technology will raise a few eye-brows. It is a very technical subject but the upshot of the data is that is a very revolutionary material.

“In the tests we have been doing with NorthStar, this actually performs better than primary lead — whether people want to believe that or not is another thing.”

Tranquillity. The Port Prie smelter was built in 1889 for processing early Broken Hill lead concentrates. Since then it has become the largest primary lead smelter in the world. Its blast furnace limits its capacity to 245,000 tonnes a year, however, other parts of the facility have a capacity of approximately 270,000 tonnes. The zinc production facility was commissioned in 1967 and the lead smelter in which gold and silver are largely recovered was rebuilt in 1998.

Australian lead smelter Nyrstar appears to be inching closer to securing a $350 million upgrade of the lead and zinc smelter at Port Pirie to a cleaner operation.

An advanced poly-metallic processing and recovery facility will be built, which the South Australian government says will secure the long-term future of more than 2,500 jobs.

It said the upgrade would substantially reduce lead emissions in the Port Pirie area by replacing the ageing century old smelter with a much cleaner metal processing operation. Nyrstar will put in $200 million for the redevelopment and the federal government will be the guarantor for private equity investment for the rest of the funding.

The planned work is now subject to feasibility studies, but the transformation is expected to lead to a signifi cant improvement in air quality in the regional city.

NYRSTAR INVESTS $350M IN SMELTER UPGRADE


TECHNOLOGICAL ADVANCES

One of the big themes underlying the 15th ABC meetings can be summed up under the umbrella phrase: im-proving lead acid batteries and look-ing at what are increasingly becoming called advanced lead acid batteries.

Pavel Toser from the Brno University of Technology will be presenting a talk entitled ‘The Infl uence of Conductive and Non-Conductive Additives on the Properties of Negative Electrodes of Lead Acid Battery in PSoC Regime.’ He presented previously at the 13th ELBC conference in Paris and sees this paper as a follow up.

He will focus on the negative elec-trode, especially on additives mixed to the negative active mass (NAM). “Our research team has worked with conductive and non-conductive ad-mixtures for many years and we have a lot of experimental data,” he says. “We tried to improve the lifetime and durability of negative electrodes.”

He says the team has been seeking an optimal or ideal combination of various additives. They tested the cells under specifi c test conditions and dis-

covered several mechanisms via which lead acid batteries can fail.

“The partial state-of-charge (PSoC) mode of operation is very demanding, particularly at high rates of charge/discharge, and sets extraordinary de-mands on the properties of the nega-tive active-material,” says Toser.

Better charging“The carbon particles have one of the biggest benefi ts in NAM because the ability of the electrode to accept high rates of charge is better in common with the growth of sulfate crystals.”

He says he believes additives to NAM will be one of the main topics at the 15th Asian Battery Conference. “In

my opinion we have to comprehend all of the processes in lead acid batter-ies. We have to use all the information from our more experienced colleagues and research teams. The best way to do this is to participate in this confer-ence. Can we improve lead acid bat-tery? The answer is: ‘yes’,” he says.

Another paper in a similar vein is called ‘The Properties of Lead acid Negative Plates Built Around Carbon Felt Micro-Scale Current Collectors’ which will be presented by John Abra-hamson, chief technology offi cer and Stuart McKenzie CEO of ArcActive, a company that uses its proprietary car-bon material, AACarbon, to improve the performance of batteries.

Improving lead acid batteries has been the industry’s goal since the days of Gaston Planté. But the latest generation of alternative battery chemistries has accelerated the rate of lead acid development. And, as various ABC presentations will highlight, huge advances are still being made.

But while both NiMH and Li-ion battery technologies have met, or exceeded, the technical performance requirements, neither system has succeeded in achieving the costs targets necessary for a widespread economic success of NiMH and Li-ion industries and consumer acceptance of EVs/HEVs

Accelerating the pace of development



ArcActive is also following on from 13ELBC where it discussed the de-velopment of novel negative plates based on coherent connected carbon fabric for the lead acid battery. These electrodes showed promise for higher DCA suitable for stop-start and regen-erative-braking functions in hybrid vehicles, at an acceptable price.

“An update of this development will be given here,” says Abrahamson. “We report on results from a broader test-ing schedule, including more severe DCA tests. Some discussion will be given of why such stable long-term cy-cling is found.”

Greater role for carbonA related talk will be given by Subhas Chalasani, head of R&D at East Penn Manufacturing who will give a paper entitled ‘Mini Cell Testing for Ad-vanced Lead Acid Battery Research’. “Addition of carbon to the negative electrode has sparked renewed inter-est in lead acid battery technology,” he says. “This lead-carbon technology is well suited for micro/mini automo-tive hybrids and for grid energy stor-age applications.

“Numerous types of carbons are being developed for this purpose. Screening such a large number of car-bon additives along with other non-carbon additives is a daunting task for battery manufacturers. Usually, the evaluation of these additives is done by constructing 12V batteries which consumes a lot of manufacturing time and resources. This often leads to small sample size, which deleteriously affects the reliability of test data.

“To circumvent these problems, a mini cell design was developed and standardized for screening large amount of variables at R&D, East Penn. This drastically reduced the testing time from months to days and weeks.” In his presentation, he will discuss mini cell testing methodology in detail. The usefulness of this meth-odology will also be demonstrated with few examples of newly devel-oped technologies.

Subhash Dhar, the founder and CEO of Energy Power Systems, will present a paper called ‘High perfor-mance advanced lead acid batteries for emerging markets’. He will argue that despite the hype surrounding the potential of other battery chemistries in recent years, lead acid could well still present a central solution.

Nickel metal-hydride batteries were introduced in the early 1990s for use in consumer electronic products and

the technology was further developed and commercialized for use in hybrid electric vehicles. Furthermore, lithium-ion battery technology was introduced in the mid-1990s to power consumer electronic products and it continues to dominate the energy-storage market for portable applications, he says.

“But while both NiMH and Li-ion

battery technologies have met, or ex-ceeded, the technical performance re-quirements, neither chemistry has suc-ceeded in achieving the costs targets necessary for a widespread economic success of NiMH and Li-ion indus-tries and consumer acceptance of EVs/HEVs,” he says.

“In the meantime, global concern

Possibly one of the most upbeat talks of the conference could be given by Edward Benjamin, the chairman of the Light Electric Vehicle Association, a trade group that represents about 250 members, mostly companies involved in electric bicycles, motorcycles, or scooters. Benjamin is also the senior managing director of eCycleElectric Consultants, which provides consulting services to the Light Electric Vehicle Industry.

His talk, entitled ‘Light Electric Vehicles — a Major Battery Market with a Brilliant Future’ will argue that this market is rapidly growing and, because early adoption has been so great ion parts of Asia, companies from this region could dominate production and technology going forward.

More than 150 million people are riding battery electric two-wheelers in Asia, Europe and the Americas, he says. About 30 million new vehicles will be sold this year, and

the market will grow in both product type and numbers to about 130 million vehicles per year by 2025. The markets of today are China, Europe, south and south-east Asia, Japan, and the US, he says.

“But the markets of the future include the entire world. Asian vehicle manufacturers will dominate this market, and will buy most batteries from Asian battery makers. The chemistries purchased will include VRLA, LiMa, LiFePO

4, and others yet

to be commercialized,” he says.“Challenges that face the battery

makers, today, are to produce consistent reliability at appropriate prices, to produce batteries that will not burn or explode under abusive conditions, and to produce batteries that can operate and last when used in the high ambient temperatures of India, and south east Asia. These challenges only limit future growth, as the batteries available today are suffi cient for the existing large market and user group.”

BULLISH ON LIGHT ELECTRIC VEHICLES

Energy Power Systems says it has designed and developed a battery system based on lead-acid chemistry that has achieved an unprecedented pulse power of over 1500W kg-1 and a cycle-life of over 1000 cycles at 100% DoD at 2C/2C charge/discharge rates



over energy effi ciency and the air quality in our environment continues to grow at an unacceptable pace and has prompted the industry and gov-ernments to continue the search for alternative solutions.”

He says that recently legislated fuel economy, new emissions standards, and the already high cost of vehicle electrifi cation have forced the indus-

try to develop partial electrifi cation of vehicle power-trains by deploying signifi cantly more compact stored-energy systems on-board.

Mild hybrid solutionsPartially electrifi ed vehicles with mild-hybrid or start-stop functions are expected to become a dominant segment of the passenger vehicle

population by 2020. Such a transition will save more fuel than all of the EVs and HEVs on the road today.

“But to be economically viable, mild-hybrid and start-stop vehicles re-quire inexpensive batteries with high power to energy ratios rather than batteries with high specifi c energy that are needed for acceptable driving range.

A number of papers at the ABC will cover micro-hybrid technology advancements and stop-start technology. Allan Cooper, the European project coordinator for the ALABC, will present a paper called ‘Mild-HEV Performance at Micro-hybrid Cost: a Low Voltage Advanced Lead Acid Battery Approach’.

With wide acceptance of stop-start vehicles in Europe, the industry is looking for ways to increase the functionality of these systems to obtain lower emissions to meet future standards, but at minimum extra cost, he will say.

As such, the effect of engine-downsizing coupled with performance boosting by combining electric supercharging and turbocharging has been explored as this offers a signifi cant reduction in carbon dioxide emissions without loss of performance — and at an affordable cost. Controlled Power Technologies and the ALABC commissioned AVL Schrick to convert a vehicle to the mild-hybrid system proposed, namely, the current model VW 1.4L TSI Blue Motion Passat. “

The work was completed in early 2012 and the performance results were impressive,” he says. “The vehicle achieved a CO

2 reduction of

7% over the base car but has similar performance to the 1.8L version with 19% lower CO

2 emissions. As against

a naturally aspirated 2.0L saloon the emissions are 26% lower with better acceleration.

“The vehicle uses lead-carbon batteries and offers CO

2 reductions

at quarter of the cost per % than conventional hybridization techniques. “Given the very aggressive CO

2

emission standards being set in Europe, the car manufacturers are seeking extra functionality from a relatively low-voltage network. This has been set at a nominal 48V to allow for a top-of-charge voltage

not exceeding 60V — a normally accepted upper limit where additional safety and isolation measures are required.

“At this voltage, a much higher level of regenerative power becomes available (8kW-10 kW) that will allow for additional functions such as direct engine assist and engine switch-off in cruise (sailing) mode. To explore the possibilities for advanced lead-carbon batteries in this application, a new vehicle is being built to this standard.”

Covering a similar theme, Jun Furukawa one of the pioneers of advanced lead acid batteries and the UltraBattery from the Furukawa Battery Company, will present a paper entitled ‘Development of the ultra-battery for micro-hybrid electric vehicle applications.’

“There is growing concern over global warming and the limited supply of fossil fuels,” he says. “This has resulted in a strong push for automobiles with reduced carbon dioxide emissions and improved fuel economy.”

He too touches on the emissions limits being set in Europe. “With such requirements, clearly micro-hybrid electric vehicles (micro-HEVs),

which have new features that include idling-stop and regenerative braking in addition to alternator control, will become the main stream in the near future,” he says.

Similar to the conventional automobile, the micro-HEV has only one 12V lead-acid starter battery, he saus. Nevertheless, there are great differences in the service conditions of the battery between these two vehicles. “The 12V UltraBattery, which is a combined lead-acid and supercapacitor energy-storage device, has proven to have excellent high-rate, partial state-of-charge durability,” he says.

At the 14th Asian Battery Conference in Hyderabad, India, Furukawa presented the performance of the fl ooded version of the UltraBattery for micro-HEV applications. In this coming presentation, the charge-acceptance and cycling performance of the fl ooded UltraBattery will be discussed since the UltraBattery is expected to be favourable to the micro-HEVs because of excellent dynamic charge-acceptance compared with the enhanced fl ooded lead acid counterpart.

STOP-START — BUT WHICH TECHNOLOGY?

Who wants to see the car when you’ve got batteries like these?



“Energy Power Systems has de-signed and developed a battery system based on lead-acid chemistry that has achieved an unprecedented pulse pow-er of over 1500W kg-1 and a cycle-life of over 1000 cycles at 100% DoD at 2C/2C charge/discharge rates. To-date, the EPS batteries have undergone over 55,000 start-stop cycles with no meas-urable drop in performance.

EPS batteries are undergoing third-party testing for mild-hybrid duty cy-cling (US06 and NEDC) and grid ap-plications.”

Paolina Atanassova, R&D project manager at Cabot Corporation, will present a paper called ‘Performance additives for advanced lead acid bat-tery applications’.

“New applications such as micro-hybrid cars, remote telecommunica-tions and energy storage for renewa-

bles are placing strong demands on lead acid batteries for improved charge-acceptance and cycleability under partial state-of-charge condi-tions,” she says.

“Carbon additives have pronounced effect on reducing negative-plate sul-fation and for promoting a signifi -cant improvement in cycleability and charge-acceptance, both for valve regulated lead acid and fl ooded lead acid batteries.”

Cabot Corporation has developed

several new grades of carbon ad-ditive with controlled surface area, morphology and surface properties that are targeted to improve charge-acceptance and cycle-life while mini-mising the negative impact on water loss and high-rate discharge.

“The presentation will describe new model and test data that demon-strate how to balance water loss and high-rate discharge characteristics for high-carbon batteries, while pre-serving the benefi ts of high-charge

Given the very aggressive CO2 emission standards

being set in Europe, car manufacturers are seeking extra functionality from a relatively low-voltage network. This has been set at a nominal 48-V to allow for a top-of-charge voltage not exceeding 60 V

MAC Engineering & Equipment has released two new products to add to its existing battery manufacturing lines — an Inline AGM COS machine and an Industrial Fixed Orifi ce Paster.

The Inline AGM machine was fi tted at Crown Battery in August and should be fully operational by early September. The purchase of the machine by Crown shows a new direction for the US-based battery maker, which provides an extensive range of both mainstream and specialized batteries but, as to date, has only made fl ooded lead acid batteries.

The Industrial Fixed Orifi ce Paster went into testing with a leading US manufacturer in August and is expected to be fully functional by September. After the R&D testing is complete, MAC will be ready to bring this machine to the market.

“Each of these machines provides a signifi cant step forward in the quality of battery manufacturing machinery that we make,” says Doug Bornas, vice president of sales and marketing at MAC. “The Inline AGM machine, in particular, is a cutting edge product and designed specifi cally for high quality AGM battery making.”

The Inline AGM machine’s main advantage over other machines is that it gives consistent and accurate compression to each cell of the absorbent glass mat — either too little or too much compression limits the power output of the battery and

also makes it susceptible to other external factors such as vibration.

Two cells will be loaded at a time in one of 12 group holders and moved out to start the process. Another holder will move in and be loaded with two cells as well and so on. Each cell will have the lugs aligned as well as be individually compressed to a set amount.

After compression and turnover, each holder will go over a brush station, into a fl ux station, then a tin station, before heading for one of the three molds which make up a six cell battery. Each mold casts two cells with independent heating for each one. With the smaller molds, varying temperatures are easier to control which helps give consistent quality casting from cell to cell.

From casting the cells will be

automatically unloaded and placed into a case stuffer where all cells will be inserted at once into each case.

“The two cell casting arrangement – whereby we fi ll one of (12) 2-cell group holders (rather than 6-cell or 12-cell group holders) is such that we provide a faster production process. This two cell arrangement gives us shorter cycle times (around 20 seconds per mold) but moreover by dealing with only two cells at a time, we have greater control of casting temperature and hence higher quality of the casted cell,” says Dan Duffi eld, vice president of pperations at MAC.

The In-Line AGM can handles plates as tall as 11” (280mm) and a cell width of up to 6” (152mm). We expect the cycle times to vary due to size but are expecting a 60 second cycle per battery for the average.

The Inline AGM COS machine is designed to meet the growing sophistication of AGM battery manufacturers who now distinguish their companies on ever-higher specifi cations on the quality and life of their products.

The Industrial Fixed Orifi ce Paster produced by MAC now benefi ts from the ability to apply a layer of paste on the underside of the normal cotton belt paster at the same time as the paste is applied on the upper surface.

“This provides a signifi cant upgrade in terms of quality,” says Bornas.

MAC ENGINEERING UPGRADES INLINE AGM MACHINE, FIXED ORIFICE PASTER

Bornas: new MAC products



John Wood, the chief executive offi cer of Ecoult, will look at how certain Ul-traBattery technology can be used in MW scale energy storage solutions for continuous variability management.

Wood is unusual in the batteries in-dustry in that his background includes experience launching technologies in a number of other sectors globally including security, identity, payment technology and telecommunications. He joined the energy storage commu-nity in 2008.

As chief executive of Australian company Ecoult, he is now focused on the commercialization of the UltraBat-tery storage solutions.

“It’s probably the biggest question to solve to eventually move into a renew-able cycle, rather than remaining in a consumption cycle of burning fi nite re-sources and accumulating by-products like CO2. Solving the storage issue will accelerate this end,” says Wood.

While this has been an issue for some time, current storage solutions are simply not cost effective, and price renewable energy out of the market compared with fossil fuels.

“In dollar terms, it costs around 3¢-4¢ per kWh to produce power from coal and 6¢ to 20¢ per kWh for energy from renewable sources.

“But once you’ve harnessed energy from the wind or sun, it can cost a fur-ther 10¢ per kWh to store and retrieve it using energy storage, and even then you don’t get everything back as pow-er is lost in that transfer.”

He believes the conditions are now right to solve the storage issue. The availability of improved storage, at lower cost, will effectively integrate intermittent renewable energy sources such as wind and solar power into the electrical grid.

He says that electricity providers are increasingly investing in solutions that can integrate variable renewable gen-eration with the existing portfolio and the electricity grid. To operate reliably and stable, grids need to continuously balance supply and demand — a task complicated by the intermittency of renewable energy.

The variability of renewable output is a major hurdle to large-scale inte-gration of renewables.

“Energy storage is a key enabler for accelerated adoption of renew-able energy. It has the ability to con-trol ramp rates of renewables output before presenting it to the grid and to

store energy for times of unfavourable weather conditions or peak demand times, making renewables reliable and dispatchable,” he says.

Wood says his presentation will out-line the successful implementation of the UltraBattery technology in MW scale projects in Australia and the US, delivering: ancillary services; wind and solar smoothing and energy shifting; and diesel effi ciency optimization on standalone power systems.

Further, a novel solution to the in-creasing need for short-term variabil-ity management will be discussed: the largely idle and underutilized backup infrastructure of data centre and tel-ecom operations, which is — with the support of UltraBattery energy storage — able to balance the discrepancies between supply and demand on the electricity grid (ancillary services), at the same time as delivering 100% reli-able UPS service. This results in an im-

proved economic model for operating the data centre power backup services.

“Power systems are only used for grid ancillary services when the grid is available and used to supply backup in case the grid fails. We call this ‘dual purpose’ energy storage,” he says.

Ecoult’s work is supported in vari-ous ways by corporate, government and research partners across the plan-et, including US-based parent East Penn Manufacturing, which produces the UltraBattery.

In Australia, Ecoult’s research part-nership with CSIRO is maximizing the potential of the storage system via smart algorithms that can utilize analysis of weather pattern history to prepare the storage system in advance for weather conditions. In Japan, a technology alliance was formed with Furukawa Battery, which works with the CSIRO to the development of the UltraBattery solution.

Recent studies on the lead-acid battery negative plate have indicated that the optimization of the grid design can bring substantial improvements in the battery performance under high rate partial state of charge applications. Angel Kirchev, project manager, storage systems, Laboratoire de Stockage de l’Electricité, will look at the potential options available to replace this traditional design and its advantages.

“Positive and negative plates employing carbon honeycomb grids with several types of metal coating are being tested at high rate partial state of charge conditions,” he says.

“The hexagonal honeycomb structure with cell size in the range 2.5-2.6mm in combination with conductive additive to the negative active material (milled carbon fibre with poor specific surface area and high-aspect ratio of the particles) allows a minimizing of the effective electric resistance of the grid.”

He says this also improves the utilization of the active materials by up to 65%-70% for plates with thickness 3.5mm. The High Rate Partial State of Charge (HRPSOC) cycling of positive plates with

honeycomb grids proceeds without signifi cant active mass degradation and irreversible sulfation.

However, a Faradic effi ciency of about 99% limits the number of micro-cycles achieved at these conditions.

The HRPSOC cycling of negative plates proceeds with Faradic effi ciency close to the one of the positive plates.

Thus the negative plates go in sulphated state after about 50 capacity turn-overs (equivalent cycles).

However the sulfation of the negative active material was completely reversible and the capacity of plate was completely recovered even after fi ve HRPSOC series applying several deep cycles.

The grid technology was scaled-up from 3Ah-4Ah to 16Ah-18Ah electrodes with the size of the typical SLI plate ensuring easy integration in the typical AGM-VRLAB assembly scheme.

“The results show the new grid technology is promising for full and plug-in hybrids where high energy and power density are required under combined deep cycling and micro-cycling conditions,” Kirchev says.

CARBON HONEYCOMB GRIDS

UltraBattery rescues renewables


15th ABC FLOORPLAN

MAC Engineering

Stands 61-63

MAC Engineering supplies the

lead acid battery industry with

high quality downstream battery

making equipment since 1965.

We offer complete systems

for feeding, pasting, fl ash drying and stacking any

continuous or gravity cast plate making technology.

From motorcycle and automotive batteries, to

industrial and traction, we have equipment to handle

any size of battery production.

New equipment solutions are now available

for punched grids. MAC also offers fi nishing line

equipment for automated Cast on Strap, acid fi lling,

leak testing, heat sealing and more.

Contact us today for more information on what we

can do for you.

Contact details:

Doug Bornas

Tel: +1 269-925-3295

E-mail: [email protected]

www.mac-eng.com

ITS

Stand 65

The Battery Manufacturing Division of International

Thermal Systems engineers energy effi cient

equipment for the Lead Acid Battery Industry.

With over thirty-fi ve years of experience and

expertise serving, International Thermal Systems

offers innovative design in equipment to maximize

production effi ciencies and minimize energy

consumption.

Approaching each project as a partnership, the goal

of our Engineering Staff is to share the customer’s

vision to produce the best solution for the application.

Providing a distinct competitive advantage,

International Thermal Systems offers a number of

patent protected processing solutions.

Our Technical Service Department provides

international support for ALL makes/models of thermal

processing equipment to keep the heat processing

equipment running effi ciently.

Contact details:

Susan Hoffmann

Tel: +1 414.902.5309

[email protected]

www.internationalthermalsystems.com

Bitrode

Stand 55

BITRODE CORPORATION, a leading manufacturer of

battery manufacturing equipment, is known for its

extensive product line of formation and laboratory test

machines, battery simulation, software, and automation

tools appropriate to all battery chemistries and

applications. Best known for its laboratory equipment

for cell, module, and pack level testing and production,

the company has become the go-to source for

innovative solutions in the advanced chemistry sector.

Clients across the battery, automotive, and

battery test laboratories value Bitrode for turn-key

collaborations and ongoing service. With their new line

of formation and Lithium production and automation

equipment, manufacturing has never been more

effi cient.

From nano-amps to megawatts of power, Bitrode

delivers standard-setting excellence in accuracy,

reliability, innovation, and engineering.

Contact details:

John Grimm

9787 Green Park Industrial Drive

St. Louis, MO 63123

USA

Phone: +1 636 343 6112

Email: [email protected]

www.bitrode.com

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15th ABC FLOORPLAN

Oak Press Solutions Inc

Stands 61-63

Oak Press Solutions Inc., Booths 61-63 will be highlighting

their lineup of Battery Grid Punching Systems.

Oak punching systems can be confi gured for

production volumes from 500,000 to 5,000,000,000+

batteries per year. Oak systems can produce lug-in

strip or lug-out panels for SLI applications, multi-panel

strips for E-Bike or motorcycle applications. The

battery grid punching tooling from Oak incorporate

many exclusive features including the patent pending

embossed border tooling, quick change tooling and

independently adjustable tooling stations.

Oak has been designing and building high speed

punching systems for over 50 years at their facilities

in Sturgis, Michigan, USA. In addition to the facilities

in Sturgis they also have technical support facilities in

China, Europe and India.

Oak’s experience in the battery industry consists of

16 battery grid punching systems and 35 battery grid

punching dies to date. (more than all other battery

equipment suppliers combined)

Stop by Booths 61-63 to learn more about the fi eld-

proven Battery Grid Punching Systems from Oak.

Contact details:

Oak Press Solutions Inc.

Contact: Kent Lancaster

Offi ce: +1 269-651-8513

Mobile: +1 269-268-3116


BM Rosendahl

Stands 71 & 72

BM Rosendahl provides manufacturing solutions for

all lead acid battery types to the battery industry. They

cover four fi elds of expertise - enveloping and stacking,

cast-on-strap, assembly and plate sleeving and

stacking. Their core business unit - assembly lines for

starter batteries - provides entry to high-end assembly

to battery manufacturers worldwide.

BM Rosendahl’s product portfolio covers production

equipment for the manufacturing of automotive,

motorcycle and industrial batteries in all technologies

with PE-, AGM or leaf type separators, and they develop

solutions for E-Mobility projects. They offer ahead of the

curve technology with the most advanced machinery,

equipment and service and the highest quality standards.

Customer-focus is a central value at BM Rosendahl.

In order to cope with today’s and tomorrow’s demands,

they always strive for the right solution with the

best service to fulfi l customers’ needs for different

applications. To ensure a quick and reliable reaction

to continuously changing market requirements, BM

Rosendahl has installed a worldwide network with

sales, service and logistic centres in Austria, the USA,

South Korea and China.

Contact details:

Rosendahl Maschinen GmbH

Schachen 57, 8212 Pischelsdorf, Austria

Phone +43 3113 5100-222 Fax +43 3113 5100-59

[email protected]

www.rosendahlaustria.com

Sitz: Pischelsdorf, FN 74318 t, Landesgericht Graz

Kae Lii

Stand 95

Kae Lii Machine Mfg. Co., Ltd. was established in

1991 and is recognized as a leading and experienced

manufacturer of lead acid battery assembly machine,

equipment, injection mold, injection battery casing and

tooling in Taiwan. We have enjoyed a good reputation for

over 20 years in this fi eld. We execute good management

systems and own the latest technology for keeping our

high quality. We also hold ISO 9001 certifi cate.

We are confi dent that you will fi nd KAE LII a reputable

and reliable brand in the international battery industry. We

would be pleased to meet you at our booth — you can

also call us to arrange meetings outside exhibition hours.

Contact details:

Chih-Yen Lin (Mr.), Vice Manager of Business Department

Phone:+886-4-22753611

No.2 Lane 24, Her Lih St Tai Ping District, Taichung City,

41144, Taiwan , R.O.C


www.kaelii.com.tw

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15th ABC FLOORPLAN

Inbatec GmbH

Stand 35

Formation systems with acid recirculation technology

The Inbatec Modules – We form your batteries

Inbatec is the world leader in formation systems

with acid recirculation technology with more than

200 systems in operation worldwide. Our formation

modules are reliable and proven and are used by

many lead-acid battery manufacturers around the

world.

Your benefi ts:

• Closed formation system allows complying with

MAC values and environmental regulations

• Precise acid gravity and temperature control

results in very uniform cell-to-cell voltage

• Shorter formation time means higher productivity,

less space requirement and lower work in

progress / inventory

• Self-contained and independent modules – to

be supplied only with concentrated acid,

demineralised water, compressed air, electrical

power

• Whole acid management is done inside the

module

• Production capacity grows step-by-step

The Inbatec formation process combines uniform

and repeatable quality with high productivity and

environmental compatibility. The Inbatec modules –

the benchmark for lead acid battery formation.

Contact details:

Inbatec GmbH

Konrad-Adenauer-Ring 40

58135 Hagen

Germany

Tel.:+49 (0)2331 39650-0

Fax:+49 (0)2331 39650-29

E-Mail:[email protected]

Web:www.inbatec.de

Källström Engineering AB

Stand 49

Källström Engineering AB is a well known supplier to

the battery industry. We specialise in custom designed

equipment for fi lling of all kinds of lead acid batteries,

fi lling of capacitors, gel and acid mixing and acid

handling.

Recent developments include:

• Triple headed fi lling machine for SLI batteries

• Compact continuous acid mixing unit

• Filling equipment for AGM motorcycle batteries

• Filling equipment for bi-polar batteries

• Filling equipment for capacitors (acid or alkali)

• Four headed fi lling machine for VRLA batteries

• Gel mixing and gel fi lling

• Database for process monitoring

Our range or products also includes; acid proof

conveyors, weighing equipment, storage tanks and

rotary unions.

Our after-sales support includes commissioning,

maintenance, spares, repairs and equipment upgrades.

Källström has its headquarters in Sweden, serving

the whole world

Contact details:

Bo Johansson

Phone: +46 40 671 1206


Web: www.kallstrom.com

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15 ASIAN BATTERY CONFERENCE AND EXHIBITION10-13 September 2013

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15th ABC FLOORPLAN

Batteries International

Batteries International has been serving the energy

storage and battery industry for over 20 years and

has come to be regarded as the defi nitive source of

unbiased news reporting, taking an authoritative stance

on all aspects of the business. Batteries International’s

editorial team has a reputation for fairness, integrity and

impartiality — it’s in the business of trying to serve the

$30 billion energy storage industry rather than simply

work it for its own good.

The batteries business is in a state of fl ux. All the

previous certainties are being challenged. Geographically,

manufacturing has moved away from its traditional base

in North America and Europe. The work horse of the

industry — the lead acid battery — is increasingly being

threatened by rapidly developing chemistries funded by

governments trying to fi nd out where they can domestic

industries a new competitive edge.

In this environment there are business opportunities

— as well as dangers — galore. Keeping abreast of this

rapidly changing world is a must, which makes Batteries

International’s fair-minded reporting compulsory reading

for the energy storage executive.

Batteries International is provided by independent

publisher Mustard Seed Publishing.

Contact details:

10 Temple Bar Business Park, Strettington, West

Sussex, PO18 0TU

United Kingdom

Phone: +44 (0) 7792 852 337

Web: www.batteriesinternational.com


Sorfi n Yoshimura Group

Stands 61-63

Sorfi n Yoshimura is the largest independent trading

company serving the worldwide lead acid battery

industry.

Sorfi n Yoshimura has offi ces in the USA, Japan,

China, France, and Brasil in addition to agency

cooperation in several other countries around the

world.

We are a global company sourcing the best

machinery, materials, and technical services for your

battery factories specifi c needs.

Sorfi n Yoshimura offers our customers the

benefi t of our decades of lead acid battery industry

experience. We serve hundreds of customers

throughout the world each year and customize our

services for each and every factory.

We are constantly combing the world for the

latest innovations in both materials and machinery;

seeking to add vendors to our already vast network.

When you choose Sorfi n Yoshimura, you will quickly

identify the unique combination of commercial savvy

and engineering know-how that has enabled us to

become the company that we are today.

We look forward for you to contact Sorfi n

Yoshimura, The Source of Power!

Contact details:

Sorfi n Yoshimura NY

Contact: Paul Fink, President

email: sorfi n@sorfi n.com

Tel: + 1 516 802-4600

Fax: + 1 516 802-4601/4602

Website: www.sorfi nyoshimura.com

Sorfi n Yoshimura Tokyo

Contact: Tom Yoshimura, President

email: tokyo@sorfi n-yoshimura.jp

Tel: + 81 03 5575-3111

Fax: + 81 03 5575-0826

Sorfi n Yoshimura Qingdao

Contact: Ms. Lisa Li; President

email: qingdao@sorfi n-yoshimura.cn

Tel: + 86 532 8597-1191

Fax: + 86 532 8597-1192

Sorfi n Yoshimura Europe

Contact: Pierre de Costa Lobo

email: paris@sorfi n-yoshimura.fr

Tel: + 33 01 7815-2715

Fax: + 33 01 7841-6778

Sorfi n Yoshimura Brasil Ltda.

Contact: Mr. Mauricio Ferrentini

Email: saopaulo@sorfi n.com.br

Tel: +55 11 3152-2223

Fax: +55 11 3151-2225

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15th ABC FLOORPLAN

KEY — BY COMPANY NAME

KEY — BY STAND NUMBER

COMPANY STAND NUMBER

Abertax Quality Ltd 91

ACCUMA 76

Accumalux 38

Accurate Products 53

Akumsan Plastik 58 & 59

AlfaKutu 73

Alpha Beta Fiberglass Product Company 107

Alpha Industrie-bedarfs 4

Amer-Sil S.A. 70

Anpei Enterprise Co. 39

Associated Battery Products 73a & 74

Batek Makina 11

Battery Technology Solutions (BTS) 69

Battery Technology Source Co. 10

Bernard Dumas 32

BFS Batterie Füllungs Systeme 92

Bitrode Corporation 55

Boading Fengfan Rising Battery Seperator Co. 46

Borregaard 13

China Jiangsu Jinfan Power Technology Co. 87

Chloride Technical and Trading Limited 101

Chongqing Yuanfeng Machinery Co. 82

Chongqing Zaisheng Technology Corp. Ltd. 57

CMWTEC Technologie 75

D.M. France Engineering 1

Daramic LLc 22 & 33

Digatron Industrie-Elektronik GmbH 32a

DSC Company 98

Eastman Auto and Power Ltd

ADDO empowering lives 23

EBC Korea Co. 7 & 8

Ecobat Technologies Ltd 31

Engitec Technologies 66 & 67

Entek International 77

FRÖTEK-Kunststofftechnik GmbH 60

Flow-Rite Controls 102

Gang Lih Industrial Co. 43

Glatfelter Gernsbach GmbH & Co 78 & 79

Golden Sunlight Power Equipment Technology Co.,Ltd 96

Goonvean Fibres 12 & 21

Hadi Maschinenbau GmbH 37

Hollingsworth & Vose 34

Inbatec GmbH 35

International Thermal Systems 65

Jayachandran Alloys 27 & 28

Jiangsu CEMT Energy Equipment Co 44 & 45

Jiangsu Epoch Technology Co 18

Jiangsu Sanhuan Industry and Commerce Co. 81

Junechen Mec. Co. Ltd. 40

Kae Lii Machine Manafacturing 95

Källström Engineering AB 49

KE-Technical Textiles Pvt. Ltd 104

Kraft Powercon 64

Leoch Battery Shenzhen Corp. 19

Lham Accurate Mold Co 90

MAC Engineering 61-63

Manika Moulds 29 & 30

Maschinenfabrik Gustav Eirich 36

Nanjing Zhongguan Machinery & Electronics Co. 41

Nippon Sheet Glass Co. 48

Oak Press Solutions 61063

O.M. Impianti Srl 23a

Owens Corning 97

P.C. di Pompeo Catelli s.r.l. 14

Oak Press Solutions Inc 61

Polyworld Sdn Bhd / Mitahpoly Sdn Bhd 17

Porex Technologies 25

Putz Group 47

Quanzhou Yazhi Battery Machinery Co. 5

Quanzhou Yucry Traffi c Appliances Co, Ltd. 100

Quanzhou Zhisheng Rubber Pastic and Gangxin Muld Co. 15

Raman FibreScience 24

ROSENDAHL Maschinen GmbH 71 & 72

Rover & Rover GmbH 26

Shandong Jinkeli Power Sources Technology Co 51

Shandong Pufa Electrical and Mechanical Equipment Co. 16

Shenyang JUGU Equipment Manufacturing Co. Ltd. 88

Shingania Services 94

Sinoma Science and Technology 6

Sorfi n Yoshimura 61-63

Sovema SPA 54

SSRL Battery Directory 93

Starlit Power Systems Limited 9

Tahtong Vanguard corporation 80

TBS Engineering 68

Termar S.r.l. 56

Thai United Industry Co., Ltd. 3

Wirtz Manufacturing 84 & 85

Wu Han Hilans Automation Machine Co. 42

Yingkou ARD Machinery & Electronic Equipment Co. Ltd 89

Yingkou Zhongjie Shida Seperator Co., Ltd. 76a

Zesar Battery Technologies Co. 99

Zibo Xinxu Mechanical &Electrical Co., Ltd 83 & 86

Zhejiang HuangyanJuxing Mould Factory 50

1 D.M. France Engineering

3 Thai United Industry Co., Ltd.

4 Alpha Industrie-bedarfs

5 Quanzhou Yazhi Battery Machinery Co.

6 Sinoma Science and Technology

7 EBC Korea Co.

8 EBC Korea Co.

9 Starlit Power Systems Limited

10 Battery Technology Source Co.

11 Batek Makina

12 Goonvean Fibres

13 Borregaard

14 P.C. di Pompeo Catelli s.r.l.

15 Quanzhou Zhisheng Rubber Pastic and Gangxin Muld Co.

16 Shandong Pufa Electrical and Mechanical Equipment Co.

17 Polyworld Sdn Bhd / Mitahpoly Sdn Bhd

18 Jiangsu Epoch Technology Co

19 Leoch Battery Shenzhen Corp.

21 Goonvean Fibres

22 Daramic LLc

23 ADDO empowering lives

23a O.M. Impianti Srl

24 Raman FibreScience

25 Porex Technologies

26 Rover & Rover GmbH

27 Jayachandran Alloys

28 Jayachandran Alloys

29 Manika Moulds

30 Manika Moulds

31 Ecobat Technologies Ltd

32 Bernard Dumas

32a Digatron Industrie-Elektronik GmbH

33 Daramic LLc

34 Hollingsworth & Vose

35 Inbatec GmbH

36 Maschinenfabrik Gustav Eirich

37 Hadi Maschinenbau GmbH

38 Accumalux

39 Anpei Enterprise Co.

40 Junechen Mec. Co. Ltd.

41 Nanjing Zhongguan Machinery & Electronics Co.

42 Wu Han Hilans Automation Machine Co.

43 Gang Lih Industrial Co.

44 Jiangsu CEMT Energy Equipment Co

45 Jiangsu CEMT Energy Equipment Co

46 Boading Fengfan Rising Battery Seperator Co.

47 Putz Group

48 Nippon Sheet Glass Co.

49 Källström Engineering AB

50 Zhejiang HuangyanJuxing Mould Factory

51 Shandong Jinkeli Power Sources Technology Co

53 Accurate Products

54 Sovema SPA

55 Bitrode Corporation

56 Termar S.r.l.

57 Chongqing Zaisheng Technology Corp. Ltd.

58 Akumsan Plastik

59 Akumsan Plastik

60 FRÖTEK-Kunststofftechnik GmbH

61 Oak Press Solutions, Mac, Sorfi n Yoshimura



64 Kraft Powercon

65 International Thermal Systems

66 Engitec Technologies

67 Engitec Technologies

68 TBS Engineering

69 Battery Technology Solutions (BTS)

70 Amer-Sil S.A.

71 ROSENDAHL Maschinen GmbH

72 ROSENDAHL Maschinen GmbH

73 AlfaKutu

73a Associated Battery Products

74 Associated Battery Products

75 CMWTEC Technologie

76 ACCUMA

76a Yingkou Zhongjie Shida Seperator Co., Ltd.

77 Entek International

78 Glatfelter Gernsbach GmbH & Co

79 Glatfelter Gernsbach GmbH & Co

80 Tahtong Vanguard corporation

81 Jiangsu Sanhuan Industry and Commerce Co.

82 Chongqing Yuanfeng Machinery Co.

83 Zibo Xinxu Mechanical &Electrical Co., Ltd

84 Wirtz Manufacturing

85 Wirtz Manufacturing

86 Zibo Xinxu Mechanical &Electrical Co., Ltd

87 China Jiangsu Jinfan Power Technology Co.

88 Shenyang JUGU Equipment Manufacturing Co. Ltd.

89 Yingkou ARD Machinery & Electronic Equipment Co. Ltd

90 Lham Accurate Mold Co

91 Abertax Quality Ltd

92 BFS Batterie Füllungs Systeme

93 SSRL Battery Directory

94 Shingania Services

95 Kae Lii Machine Manafacturing

96 Golden Sunlight Power Equipment Technology Co.,Ltd

97 Owens Corning

98 DSC Company

99 Zesar Battery Technologies Co.

100 Quanzhou Yucry Traffi c Appliances Co, Ltd.

101 Chloride Technical and Trading Limited

102 Flow-Rite Controls

104 KE-Technical Textiles Pvt. Ltd

107 Alpha Beta Fiberglass Product Company

www.batteriesinternational.com Batteries International •15th ABC Show Guide • Summer 2013 • 33


Paolina Atanassova, research & de-velopment project leader at Cabot Corporation, a global specialty chemicals and performance materials company, will present a paper entitled ‘Performance Additives for Advanced Lead Acid Battery Applications’ at the conference.

The trust of the paper, says Atanass-ova, will be around the technological developments that are allowing lead acid batteries to better deal with some of the growing demand on them as a result of their use in new applications such as micro-hybrid cars, remote tel-ecom and energy storage.

“These new applications such as micro-hybrid cars, remote telecom and energy storage for renewables are placing strong demands on lead acid batteries for improved charge acceptance and cyclability at Partial State of Charge (PSoC) conditions,” she says.

A conventional car battery may see only a few charge-discharge cycles a day, whereas a start-stop battery must withstand dozens. To compen-sate, micro-hybrid manufacturers typically double the size of the bat-tery and use the more robust valve regulated lead-acid (VRLA) battery design. This approach solves the cy-cling issue, but adds more weight, cost and space requirements to the vehicle, all of which are detrimental

to creating smaller, fuel-effi cient cars.Cabot launched its new PBX51

carbon performance additive just over a year ago. The product is de-signed to improve lifetime and per-formance for lead-acid batteries in micro-hybrid vehicles.

In 2011, automakers sold an es-timated 5 million micro-hybrids worldwide. By 2017, this number is expected to grow to 39 million ve-hicles, representing a market of $6.9 billion in sales, according to a report by Lux Research.

Cabot claims that its PBX51 per-formance additive is designed to en-able new automobile batteries to last as long under start-stop conditions as conventional car batteries, without today’s several-fold increase in cost and size. In addition, when added to VRLA batteries for micro-hybrids, the PBX51 performance additive has been shown to improve battery life-time and the ability to recharge using braking energy. It also prolongs bat-tery life by reducing negative plate sulfation - the major cause of short battery lifetimes in micro-hybrids.

“The challenge of the start-stop bat-tery market, which soon will be half the global automotive battery mar-ket, has been to develop cost-effective batteries that can withstand repeated start-stop functions,” said Greg Rom-ney, director of new business, Cabot

New Business Segment in a statement at the time. “Cabot’s PBX51 performance additive has been extensively tested to enable the auto industry to accel-erate the adoption of micro-hybrid technol-ogy.”

Atanassova’s paper will look in detail at how carbon additives can be used within the battery to improve its performance.

“Carbon additives have pronounced effect on reducing negative plate sulfation and for signifi cant improve-ment in cyclability and charge acceptance, both for VRLA and fl ooded lead acid bat-teries,” he says.

“At the same time other properties such as high rate dis-charge and water loss can be negative-ly impacted by carbon addition. There is strong evidence that decreased high rate discharge and higher water loss are due to partial adsorption of ligno-sulfonate on the carbon surface.”

She explains that this could limit the availability of lignosulfonate at the lead surface in the negative ac-tive mass. The presence of lignosul-fonate at the lead surface is consid-ered critical for high rate discharge performance due to the formation of a porous lead sulfate layer during dis-charge. When the overall concentra-tion of lignosulfonate in the negative plate paste is appropriately adjusted, the high rate discharge performance and water loss can be restored to the desired level.

Cabot has developed several new grades of carbon additives with con-trolled surface area, morphology and surface properties targeted to improve charge acceptance and cycle life while minimizing negative impact on water loss and high rate discharge.

“The presentation will describe new model and test data on how to balance water loss and high rate dis-charge characteristics for high carbon batteries while preserving the benefi ts of high charge acceptance and im-proved cycle life,” he says.

Improving charge acceptance and cyclability are the twin goals driving the push for better lead acid batteries in start-stop applications.


ASIAN BATTERYMEN: JUN FURUKAWA

It was an unusual background for an unusually gifted man. Jun Furukawa, Japan’s battery research giant, was born on April 14, 1957 and unusually for the country at the time, into an in-ternational context. His father, Kiyoji Furukawa, worked for a US bank in Yokohama, while his mother Chieko and two aunts were fervent Catholics. The result was that the entire family was raised as Christians, uncommon in Japan.

His education too was also very different from the norm. During the 1970s, Furukawa was schooled at The Eiko Gakuen, a prestigious Catholic preparatory and high school.

In 1976 he entered the chemistry de-partment at Aoyama Gakuin Universi-ty’s Faculty of Science and Engineering.But a key infl uence in setting his future direction came in his senior year and an encounter with professor Osamu Matsumoto, in charge of graduation work. He is a prominent scholar for his studies into electrochemistry and plasma-chemistry, and known for his educational enthusiasm and rigor.

And on Matsumoto’s recommenda-tion, he obtained a job in the R&D department of the Furukawa Battery Co — a coincidence of fate since Jun Furukawa is entirely unrelated to the family that ran the company.

His duties were varied when he start-ed in the spring of 1980 — his fi rst task was the research and development of lead-acid batteries for electric buses of the Kyoto Municipal Transporta-tion Bureau. In following year, he re-searched a method of manufacturing a Pb-Ca-Sn alloy strip for lead-acid bat-teries through continuous cast rolling, its aging characteristics, and its applica-tion to batteries.

But life didn’t consist of just work and in May 1982 he married Ranko

Miyoshi, at his regular church, the Yamate Sacred Heart Cathedral in Yo-kohama. His fi rst child, a son, Yuki was born in 1985 and his daughter Saki was born in 1988.

But early on in his career it was clear that his research would be played out on a larger more international stage. In April 1983, Furukawa was assigned to the Space Technology Department, where he was involved in the fabri-cation of a fl ight model in the devel-opment of the space Ni-Cd battery (commissioned by the National Space Development Agency of Japan) and in its qualifi cation tests at NASDA’s Tsukuba Space Center. The developed batteries were loaded on satellites such as the MOS-1 and the ETS-5.

Just over a year later, he worked on the R&D of a ceramic seal terminal by the Active Metal method (Ti-Ni al-loy) for space alkaline batteries such as Ni-Cd and Ni-H2 (commissioned by NASDA).

The next challenge was to occupy three years of his mind: the develop-ment of the space high-capacity Ni-Cd battery (commissioned by NASDA) and the research and performance improve-ment of a Ni slurry sintered plaque for Ni-Cd batteries, as well as the develop-ment of manufacturing processes and equipment. “Our achievements were

applied to consumer batteries and are still used,” he says.

From April 1988 to March 1993, Furukawa, now based at his compa-ny’s R&D centre in Iwaki city, led a Ni-MH Battery Development Group. Having innovated a misch metal-Ni hydrogen storage battery, with its nega-tive electrode being a modifi cation of spherical nickel hydroxide, a positive electrode, and a separator, the Japanese team developed sealed Ni-MH batter-ies integrating these components and processes for manufacturing electrodes and batteries.

Having succeeded in putting small consumer Ni-MH batteries into pro-duction, Furukawa was transferred to a commercialization team.

During this period, Furukawa and his associates had co-developed Laves phase alloy with professor Wakao at Tokai University’s Faculty of Science. He also had to deal with the response to domestic and international problems concerning intellectual property rights.

From April 1993 to March 1999, Furukawa stayed with nickel metal hy-dride. These were frustrating years as solid improvements were made during a deteriorating commercial environ-ment. “As a development director for performance improvement of Ni-MH batteries, I’d been working to improve the positive and negative electrodes and the battery structure, and successfully achieved, for example, an increase in the capacity of double A-sized batter-ies by about 30% from 1100mAh to 1400mAh.

“However, we decided to withdraw from the business because our com-petitors had increased the production and Li-ion batteries, made smaller and lighter than Ni-MH, had led to a drop in prices.

“It was bitter for me to withdraw

Jun Furukawa — Japan’s R&D king

Although CSIRO’s Lan Lam can be credited with a great deal of the R&D in the development of the UltraBattery, he could not have achieved it without the dynamic and innovative assistance of Jun Furukawa of Japan, holder of more than 100 patents for alkaline and lead-acid storage batteries.


ASIAN BATTERYMEN: JUN FURUKAWA

from the Ni-MH battery business in which I had been engaged between 1988 and 1999. We launched the de-velopment of new Ni-MH batteries in 1988 and I was in charge of the de-velopment. Sanyo, Matsushita (now Panasonic), and Toshiba had already started their development nearly fi ve years earlier, but we also managed to commercialize our products two years after the commercialization by these three leading companies.

“During our development, we spent a lot of time avoiding infringement of these leading company’s patents, but we could not bypass all of them and had to enter into licensing agreements. Payment of these licensing fees imposed a heavy burden on our business.”

Indeed for a while after the commer-cialization, the fi rm’s Ni-MH battery business had been successfully growing and, at one time, it had even produced four million batteries per month and a market share of nearly 10%.

“Our business then focused on mov-ing into the black, which was not long before the big three, Sanyo — Mat-sushita, and Toshiba — boosted their production several times,” he says. “In addition, Li-ion batteries began to be produced on a commercial basis. This resulted in the market price of Ni-MH batteries dropping to almost half and hence our business becoming unprofi t-able rapidly.

“In March 1999, we fi nally had to withdraw from the Ni-MH battery business. As it turns out, I was both cre-ator of our Ni-MH batteries and also witness to the demise of our Ni-MH battery business. We managed to over-come this diffi culty but it took years to recover from this.”

With the growth in demand for Li-ion batteries, all battery manufactur-ers except Sanyo and Matsushita were forced to withdraw from their Ni-MH battery businesses.

At this point, arguably, some of his most important research work was to happen by his switch away from Ni-MH.

“While most of researchers and de-velopers who had been engaged in their Ni-MH battery businesses moved into the research and development of Li-ion batteries, I was charged with the research and development of lead-acid batteries, which were at the opposite extreme of state-of-the-art Li-ion bat-teries, though one of our key business-es, where I had a chance to encounter the UltraBattery.”

The next few years, until 2006 saw the Japanese battery innovator turn his

mind to the challenge of the day: VRLA He was assigned to Technology De-

velopment Department and appointed the leader of MV Team and Iwaki De-velopment Centre’s Second Group. The challenge was the improvement of 36V valve-regulated lead-acid batteries for next-generation 42V-system automo-biles, which meant examining positive and negative electrodes, battery struc-ture, evaluation test methods, and heat dissipation mechanisms.

“With a view to enhancing the high-temperature durability, we had also co-researched and developed Pb-Ca-Sn-Ba alloy for positive electrode sub-strates with Toho Zinc and successfully achieved 1.5 times longer life than be-fore and put it into practical use.”

Next in this glittering chain of re-search achievements, Furukawa con-centrated on strengthening mechanisms for Pb-Ca-Sn-Ba alloy (collaborating with the Iwaki Meisei University) as well as a method of suppressing sulfa-tion of lead-acid batteries and BCM, a lead-acid battery and super capacitor module.

Since 2004, in collaboration with CSIRO — Australia’s national sci-ence agency (Commonwealth Scientifi c and Industrial Research Organisation) Furukawa has been part of the team questing for that Holy Grail: the Ultra-Battery.

The UltrabatteryThe UltraBattery is a revolutionary technology invented by Lan Lam from CSIRO, in which an ultracapacitor-based electrode is incorporated in a negative electrode of a lead-acid stor-age battery to achieve a much higher operational durability under the PSOC conditions, which had been considered to be diffi cult with conventional lead-acid storage batteries. This technology paved the way for the practical realiza-

tion of storage batteries for next-gen-eration hybrid automobiles and smart grids.

“CSIRO’s Lan Lam and I had started our collaborative development and completed a prototype UltraBattery FTZ12-UB with a size of lead-acid bat-tery for motorcycles in mid-2006, just a little more than one and a half year into the collaboration,” he says. “We then participated in the ALABC’s in-vehicle test project on a Honda HEV known as Insight.

“The in-vehicle test had started at the end 2006 and gone smoothly to achieve our original target of 50,000 miles in just a half year.

“We had continued the test with a doubled target of 100,000 miles and also achieved this target in January 2008.” This was a fi rst in the history of lead-acid storage batteries.

In March 2009, Furukawa and Lan Lam won the 2009 Technical Develop-ment Award of the Electrochemical So-ciety of Japan for the Development of the Ultra Battery.

In 2008 the UltraBattery was licensed to East Penn Manufacturing one of the top lead-acid battery companies in the US. During this period, Furukawa was appointed the leader of 1st and 2nd Groups, Technology Development Department in April 2006 and, after-wards, of Development Department 1 in 2009.

Furukawa is now engaged as a di-rector in the development of lead-acid storage batteries for automobiles and industrial applications as well as Ultra-Batteries for next-generation automo-biles and smart grids.

At the same time, he has been the leader of the UltraBattery commer-cialization project team from 2011 and more details of which will be given in his presentation at the ABC meetings.

Since 2004, in collaboration with CSIRO in Australia, Jun Furukawa has been part of the team developing the UltraBattery. Here pictured with Lan Lam, the guiding force behind the project who retired earlier this year.



As the former group director of tech-nology for Hawker Batteries (now En-erSys) and then chief technology offi c-er for Fiamm, Geoffrey May has been an established member of the batteries business community for many years.

“The need for fuel economy for cars and light vans is driving a rapid change in vehicle drive trains starting with simple start and stop systems and moving through full hybrids to plug-in hybrids and electric vehicles,” says May. “These vary in cost and com-plexity with start and stop or micro-hybrids providing signifi cant reduc-tions in emissions at least cost.”

The background to the speech, he says, is the various targets around ve-hicle emissions that the European Un-ion has set, the fi rst deadline for which comes into force in 2015. He notes that while the rest of the world is not yet committed to such high standards, the buying infl uence of EU-member countries will mean that manufactur-ers all over the world are now grap-pling with this problem.

“The adoption of stop and start or micro-hybrid technology is rapidly becoming universal in Europe and the majority of new cars produced will have advanced lead-acid batteries in-stalled by 2015 to enable vehicles to meet strict emissions requirements,” he says.

“In Europe the requirement is to meet carbon dioxide emissions of no more than 130g/km as a fl eet average by 2015 and this will reduce to 95g/km by 2020. There are similar require-ments in North America but the time-scales are more extended and in other parts of the world.”

“But the fact is that manufacturers based in Europe will have to comply and any company that wants to export into the US or Europe must also com-ply,” May says.

“That means that Japan and South Korea are going to have to adopt these

changes in the cars they export and it seems likely to be they will end up sell-ing the same technology to their own markets by default. New technology usually becomes adopted fairly uni-versally in my experience. It is unlikely they will make two different models.”

He says that some countries in Asia are more proactive than others. He says although the Chinese govern-ment is promoting a green agenda in some ways, it is tempered with reticence. “But if they want to be exporting, they must comply.

“China is now rapidly be-coming the largest market in the world for lead acid bat-teries. Stop-start technology is at the heart of that.”

He notes that lead-acid batteries with valve-regulat-ed lead-acid and extended life fl ooded designs have been devel-oped that will allow some recovery of energy by regeneration but the dy-namic charge acceptance of these bat-teries needs to be improved to reach higher levels of recovery.

Adding to the mix“This has resulted in proposals to use other energy storage devices such as supercapacitors and lithium-ion bat-teries in conjunction with lead-acid batteries but these add substantial costs to the vehicle,” says May. “Fur-ther improvements to lead-acid bat-teries are under development that will extend the capability of the system.

“A simple stop and start system pro-vides signifi cant reductions in emis-sions at a low cost but the duty cycle for the battery is much more intensive than in a conventional vehicle. VRLA batteries work well in this application but there is a cost premium,” he says.

“ELF batteries have a lower cost premium and various design changes as well as the use of additives in the active materials have improved perfor-

mance. “In the future, however, the need

for continuing improvements in fuel economy is putting a lot of pressure on battery systems as higher levels of energy recovery are needed.”

The key parameter here is dynamic charge acceptance — the current ac-cepted by the battery at a reference voltage. Higher charge acceptance allows more energy to be recovered. Lead-acid batteries are continuing to be developed to provide higher DCA and the low cost of this chemistry compared to lithium-ion and super-capacitors will provide a strong incen-tive to invest in research in this area.

May will discuss recent progress in lead-acid batteries for stop and start and micro-hybrid applications and the competitive position of lead-acid with other energy storage technolo-gies. Market forecasts for the adop-tion of different levels of hybridization of vehicle drive trains will also be pre-sented.

Covering what is likely to be one of the most pertinent themes of the conference, Geoffrey May, director of FOCUS Consulting, will give a speech entitled ‘The competitive position of lead-acid batteries for stop and start and micro-hybrid applications.’

Stop-start technology is go-go-go

14th European Lead Battery Conference and Exhibition Edinburgh I Scotland I September 2014

14ELBC Conference Secretariat: Maura McDermott

International Lead Association,

Bravington House, 2 Bravingtons Walk, London N1 9AF United Kingdom

Tel: +44 (0) 20 7833 8090 | Fax : +44 (0) 20 7833 1611 | E-mail: [email protected]

14ELBC will provide an ideal opportunity for anybody involved with the global lead battery industry to review and discuss the most recent technical advances associated with lead-acid batteries, especially in the areas of emerging new automotive and renewable energy systems.

Technical presentations at the Conference will bring delegates right up-to-date with the latest research and development information from around the globe, and will be of keen interest to both manufacturers and users of lead-acid batteries, as well as to the scientific community. An extensive Exhibition – expected to involve over 100 exhibitors - by suppliers to the industry of equipment, materials and technology, will also take place.

Since the first meeting in Paris in 1988, the European Lead Battery Conferences have developed a reputation for high quality presentations on the design, manufacture, performance and use of lead-acid batteries. Over 600 delegates and 100 exhibitors attended 13ELBC in Paris in 2012, and similar numbers are confidently expected in Edinburgh.

The International Lead Association is pleased to announce that the 14th European Lead Battery Conference (14ELBC) and Exhibition will be held at the Edinburgh International Conference Centre, Scotland on 9-12 September 2014.

ADVANCE NOTICE


THE REGULATORY DEBATE

Asia is already the global centre of battery production and the infl uence of some of the world’s fastest grow-ing economies is now growing rapid-ly. The region is increasingly driving other areas of the market due to its rapidly growing demand for batteries — and so sgtarting to set the agenda in other areas such as the regulatory arena — as well as areas such as lead pricing and these issues will be big talking points in terms of the offi cial programme and outside it.

Hand in hand with a quickly grow-ing batteries industry, however, goes other issues. Environmental issues and the regulations that accompany this issue are likely to be a major dis-cussion area, predict many delegates.

“Environmental issues will be a big talking point,” says Timothy Ellis, vice president of research & develop-ment, RSR Technologies. He says the way that emerging economies such as

China and India decide to regulate the batteries industry against a back-drop of environmental concerns will be critical to the way the industry de-velops in such places.

There is, for example, a huge dispar-ity between the way environmental issues are being treated in countries around the world with many regula-tors in Europe and the US over-react-ing to environmental lobbyists, thus making it hard for the energy storage sector to compete.

“Our technology is at the forefront of the environmental side of things but I do worry about the way regula-tions are going overall,” he says.

“It is one thing for the industry to be responsible for the levels of lead in the blood of a factory worker, for ex-ample, but for us to be held account-able for the levels in the rest of society is another matter again.”

He also says that the way the indus-

try deals with the emerging economic might of countries such as China will determine the shape of the battery in-dustry — and many other industries — in the future. He says it concerns him that so much of the industry’s production is now based in Asia, a situation he is not sure is healthy for western economies.

“How to deal with China is an in-teresting issue and potentially a big stumbling block,” he says. “They have taken our technology and are selling the products back to us. As a result, in western Europe there are almost no battery manufacturers left.

“That worries me. I am not sure we can all be web designers! It is impor-tant western economies maintain that expertise in manufacturing. In Asia in particular these guys are now very smart with very big and very sophis-ticated economies and fi nancial mar-kets. It is a false impression they are

Environmental issues and their regulation will be an important theme during the conference mostly because higher standards in the west have put Asia at a competitive advantage.

Breathe deep and tellus you feel better!


THE REGULATORY DEBATE

lagging behind us in some way.”Geoffrey May, director at FOCUS

Consulting, agrees: “China is increas-ingly where the centre of gravity re-ally is in the industry. It is dynamic and growing fast but also in need of technical support.

The challenges and opportunities that presents will be a huge talking point,” he says.

Environmental issues and the regulations that go hand in hand with this issue is likely to be a big talking point, predict many delegates.

One of the bigger talking points among certain delegates at the conference is likely to be recent proposals by China’s central government to introduce a new 5% tax on lead-acid battery manufacturing.

It is a move that manufacturers fear will damage the industry and are calling for the tax to be withdrawn or delayed.

The consumption tax will not only affect batteries. It targets products with high resource consumption that cause pollution or environmental damage, as well as some high-end consumer goods. At present 14 commodities including cars, cigarettes, alcohol, cosmetics and some jewellery are subject to the tax.

The logic behind China introducing the tax are twofold, says Neil Hawkes, lead analyst at CRU, a London-based commodity research consultancy. He says the move is partly driven by environmental concerns and partly by a desire on the part of the Chinese government for manufacturing in the country to move up the value chain.

The Chinese government has been getting increasingly concerned over the impact of pollution on human health. Air quality has been under the spotlight and more specifi cally fi ne particulate matter that reduces visibility and causes the air to appear hazy when levels are elevated.

“In part this is driven by concerns around environmental issues,” says

Hawkes. “They need to tackle some of these big issues such as air pollution and this represents a start.

“But it is also partly because they do not regard batteries as a value added product. They want to be moving up the production chain and they would rather export a car than the battery to go in it.”

And he says fears on the part of some manufacturers that the tax would hinder their ability to compete in the international markets could be

well founded. It is specifi cally feared by some that they will lose out to other south-east Asian manufacturers not affected by high tax levels and this could lead to manufacturing relocating outside of China.

“If anything, it does mean an opportunity for other countries and manufacturers elsewhere in Asia to step into that market and fi ll a gap, making for stronger lead demand outside rather than inside China,” he says.

CHINA LOOKS TO TAX LEAD ACID EXPORTS

AIRPOCOLYPSE NOW

Press reports around the globe have carried news stories about the recent terrible smogs in Beijing.

As long ago as 2007, the World Bank indicated that the combined health and non-health cost of outdoor air and water pollution for China’s economy was around $100 billion a year, or 5.8% of the county’s GDP.

Northern China’s smog — fed in part by the burning of coal for

heat and electricity — has been shown to shorten average life expectancy by more than fi ve years, according to a recent study by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and three other universities.

China’s pollution will inevitably have an impact on its business climate as a lower quality of life deters skilled workers from moving to China and Chinese ex-pats from returning home.

Some of the presentations that will touch on environmental issues such as these in some ways and should be worth attending include:• An Update on the Indian Market

presented by Vinod Dumra from Rahimafrooz Batteries;

• A New Method of Making In-dustrial Lead-Acid Battery in an Environmentally Friendly Way, presented by Ming Zhang from the Tiger Hi-Tech Industrial R&D Center;

• How NOT to run a Lead-Acid Bat-tery Factory, presented by Doug Lambert from WIRTZ Manufac-turing Company; and,

• Status and Outlook of the Lead Market in China, presented by Xia Cong from Antaike.


ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT

Given the increasing predominance of environmental issues as a talking point at any battery conference these days one of the better attended papers could be that given by Brian Wilson, program manager with the Inter-national Lead Management Center (ILMC). His talk will be called: ‘The three R’s — remediation, recovery and recycling.

Wilson is responsible for the design and implementation of multi-stakeholder regional and national lead risk re-duction programs. Before joining the ILMC, he worked for 15 years with the oil industry fol-lowed by 18 years with MIM Holdings in a career that has spanned produc-tion, industrial relations and human resource man-agement.

His talk, as the title sug-gests, will cover safety is-sues around the use of lead acid batteries and the work being done to improve this and the extent to which they are recycled but also how the industry can work together to solve historical contamination issues.

Green but dirty“Unfortunately, in many de-veloping countries and some nations in transition, the recy-cling of used lead acid batteries has not been, and is not always, undertaken in a safe, hygienic or the most environmentally sound manner,” Wilson says.

“Over time these practices have

left us with a multitude of toxic hot spots and a legacy of lead contamina-tion, acid pollution and population lead exposure issues. Resolving the issues of remediation, recovery and recycling presents unique challenges that not only embraces scientifi c methodologies, but will include a so-

cial dimension to ensure a sustainable future for communities adversely af-fected by poor lead management.”

His presentation will explore how the academic world, the NGO com-munity and the lead industry have worked together to produce a model approach for community-based solu-tions for the environmentally sound and sustainable recycling of ULAB.

The ILMC works with inter-govern-mental organizations such as

the UN Lead Zinc Study Group and the Basel Secretariat, the Lead Industry, Industry As-sociations such as the

China Non-Ferrous Metals Industry Asso-

ciation and the India Lead Zinc Development Associa-tion, national governments and NGOs such as the Blacksmith Institute on the implementation of regional and national projects for the environmentally sound re-covery of used lead acid bat-teries.

Wilson’s talk will be given in collaboration with the New York-based Blacksmith Institute, an organization that works with local communi-ties, national governments and international organizations to clean-up pollution problems af-fecting children’s health in low and middle-income countries.

He will be presenting alongside, two other speakers: Meredith Block, programme director at the Blacksmith Institute, and Jack Car-

avanos, a professor at City Universi-ty School of Public Health at Hunter

College in New York who also sits on

Legacy issues — dealing with toxic malpractice from the past

Recent international initiatives from BCI, Eurobat, ALABC and the ILA have prepared the ground for greater awareness of fi nding a balanced approach to dealing with lead safety.



the technical advisory board of the Blacksmith Institute. The three will also be presenting separate but simi-larly themed papers at the 3rd Inter-national Secondary Lead Conference, a co-joint hosted event that takes place on September 9 and 10.

International experienceBlock has worked directly with the governments of Senegal, Ghana, Ni-geria, Mozambique, Tanzania, Kenya, Indonesia, India and China resulting in the implementation and delivery of decontamination and remediation projects across Africa, Latin America, Russia and Asia. She has also worked directly with many international non-governmental organizations includ-ing: the World Health Organization, the Basel Secretariat, Médecins sans frontières, UNICEF and the UN In-dustrial Development Organization.

“The Blacksmith Institute is not just interested in lead — we identify toxins and chemicals that have and are having an impact on the health of children where ever in the world that may be and explore ways of solving that problem,” she says.

“We identify where these sites and are then look to implement projects to stop this being a problem any more. We have worked at thousands of sites all over the world over the years but the most common toxin we work with is actually lead.”

She explains that it is important that the Blacksmith Institute is able to work with companies directly when attempting to solve these problems and that the organization does not look to name and shame or blame companies involved.

“We appreciate that many of these companies are not huge and are also often big employers in the local com-munities. The best approach is almost always to work with these businesses to solve the problem and stop fur-ther exposures happening. We do not

point fi gures or allocate blame; we do not litigate against companies; we want to work with the industry.”

Industrial collaborationShe says that the Blacksmith Insti-tute’s collaboration with the Interna-tional Lead Management Center il-lustrates this point while it also looks to work with government and other

organizations where helpful and ap-propriate.

“We need to work with the indus-try for many reasons. For us to start to remediate the contamination, we have to ensure that pollution is not recurring,” she says. “But that is why we are so thrilled to be able to present to the industry at conferences such as the ABC and the ISLC. We can speak

“The lead market has faced many challenges over the past few years, not least the increasingly stringent environmental regulations which govern the industry. It is also facing a declining supply from lead mines, competition for scrap batteries (which has driven prices higher), and the redistribution of output between China and the rest of the world,” says Helen Matthews (pictured right), the head of base metals markets for UK-based energy, metals and mining consultants Wood Mackenzie.

She argues that the outlook remains positive despite these issues, but the strength of the growth in lead demand is vital to the success of the industry. She notes that many alternative battery technologies have been mooted over the years but as yet there is little real competition to the lead–acid battery.

New opportunities have arisen via the advent of stop–start battery technology and the rollout of 3G and 4G telecommunications technology across the globe.

Stop–start technology is already widely available in some of the developed economies such as Japan and Europe, and it is gaining traction in the US, where 26% of all new vehicles are predicted to use this technology by 2025. It provides a cost-effective method for automotive manufacturers to meet vehicle emissions targets and lead–acid is currently the battery of choice for this application.

The telecommunications boom is unique because of the fast pace of technology development, which means that networks are requiring almost constant upgrades to the next generation.

The varying speed of adoption across different economies is also prolonging the impact on the

growth of lead demand. With many countries not yet fully embracing 3G networks — and with 4G still in its infancy — this promises to be a boom sector for the foreseeable future.

“The above factors may more than offset declines in non-battery uses of lead, but the rate of demand growth in China has also been a topic for debate recently,” she says.

“If the e-bike population is reaching saturation, but other vehicles remain unaffordable to the majority of the population, what will drive demand growth going forward? The inevitable slowdown in demand growth that accompanies every economy as it moves towards maturity will impact on China at some point.”

Matthews’ presentation will address the issues facing lead supply in the short-to-medium term, and evaluate the outlook for the global growth in lead demand.

Importantly, an assessment will be made of the likely impact on lead prices, together with a discussion of the extent to which investors will continue to infl uence prices going forward.

BALANCING SUPPLY AND DEMAND“Patents offer a major competitive advantage in this technology-intensive market, where industry consolidation to gain technology and market advantage is a strong possibility”



directly to the biggest industry players at these events and explain our aims and objectives.”

Avoiding confrontationBlock admits that many companies are initially wary of the work her or-ganization does. They are also wary of seeing data and case studies that illustrates how harmful lead can be. But she says once they also under-stand how fruitful collaboration can be, they are usually more willing to listen and work with the Blacksmith Institute.

The body is specifi cally seeking new partners to work with in China, India and Indonesia. Block says the organi-

zation already has good links to the governments of those three countries and is keen to complement this with partners from the private sector.

Wilson confi rms that many compa-nies are initially wary of working with such organizations — which is why it is so important they have a presence at events such as the ABC so that they learn that they are not a threat.

“The problem is that other groups such as Greenpeace have bashed away at industry for so long, it makes peo-ple wary and people think they will be pilloried and humiliated if they even start to work with such bodies,” he says.

“But that is not true when it comes

to the Blacksmith Institute. They can actually gain a huge amount from such partnerships.”

Caravanos, who is a specialist in lead poisoning, mould contamina-tion, asbestos and community envi-ronmental health risks, says it is in the industry’s interests to collaborate on such schemes for other reasons.

“The fact is that unless the health risks surrounding lead are managed, there is always the possibility that some governments will discuss a ban, which would make no sense at all,” he says. “The type of presentation I do focuses on case studies and exposure pathways.

“I look at where it comes from, how it gets into the soil, then into the body and what the health effects can be. Then we look at the chemical proper-ties of lead and how it can be man-aged as a substance.”

Common objectivesWilson acknowledges that the Black-smith Institute and the ILMC are far apart in many ways, yet even coming from different perspectives, their ob-jectives are aligned. “We are far apart in one sense yet are objectives are the same: we do not want lead to be mis-managed and to be causing problems in the environment. So it makes sense to work together.”

Wilson says that the lead industry in some parts of the world more than others has been so focused on growth and technical development, not enough attention has been paid to its effect on the environment and what would happen in the future especially in some emerging markets.

“Some of the material we have will be a real eye-opener for the industry but only good can come out of such dialogue. Big improvements can be made through changing small parts of the process rather than working in the way they have always done.”

He also notes that the collaboration has developed a benchmarking tool that could be used to measure the success of such projects, especially in the developing world where this can be diffi cult.

Block says she has an additional ob-jective at the event: “I would like to try and identify what it will take for the batteries industry to work more closely with the Blacksmith Institute,” she says. “How do we make this work and get people involved. No one wants to hear stories about how the industry has damaged the health of children or the environment but there

Resolving the issues of Remediation, Recovery and Recycling presents unique challenges that not only embraces scientifi c methodologies, but will include a social dimension to ensure a sustainable future for communities adversely affected by poor lead management

The market for lithium ion batteries across Asia is experiencing signifi cant changes across consumer, automotive and industrial segments, according to a recent report by Frost & Sullivan, which argues that one of the major contributing factors is the price reduction of lithium ion batteries due to industry over-capacity and competition.

“The proliferation of new consumer gadgets and rapid strides taken by the battery industry to keep up will also give a strong boost to the market.

“Electric vehicles, which have been on the cusp of strong growth for a while now, are expected to help triple the automotive lithium market. The industrial lithium segment too will grow on the back of stationary energy storage applications,” the report says.

Analysis from Frost & Sullivan in the Asia Pacifi c Lithium-ion Batteries Market, fi nds that the market earned approximately $2.21 billion in 2012 and it estimates this could more than double to $4.82 billion by 2017 due to the widening market and product scope.

“New energy storage applications in electric vehicles, grid-connected stationary energy storage, and the higher energy requirements of new consumer gadgets are expected to alter market dynamics. The lithium market has to make the most of these changes and fi nd usage in these application areas,” the report says.

It says that lithium batteries are the preferred energy sources for consumer gadgets such as phones, tablets, MP3 players, next-generation electrically propelled light motor vehicles, and many industrial and commercial applications. In emerging consumer applications such as smart phones and tablets, these are likely to generate high volumes but require technology upgrades to grow faster.

“Patents offer a major competitive advantage in this technology-intensive market, where industry consolidation to gain technology and market advantage is a strong possibility,” says Narain. “Technology battles leading to path-breaking products are anticipated to boost sales, reduce prices, and enhance volume demand.”

FACING UP TO THE CHALLENGE OF LITHIUM



are also some hard facts the industry should not shy away from.

“So what will it take to get them on board? We recognise the business we are in can cause these problems so how do we improve? There are challenges but how do we overcome these?”

Toxic assessmentAt the ISLC event precedign the ABC meetings, the three will present sepa-rately. Block’s presentation will be called ‘The Rapid Assessment of En-vironmental Health Risks posed by Secondary Lead Processing Sites us-ing the Toxic Sites Identifi cation Pro-gram (TSIP)’.

It will present the efforts to create a comprehensive and uniform global catalogue of waste sites with signifi -cant environmental health exposures.

The TSIP is operating in over 47 low and middle-income countries with over 2,000 sites in its database. While numerous chemical hazards and in-dustrial sites are represented, this pa-per will focus on the locations where there are signifi cant potential expo-sures and populations at risk from abandoned or poorly managed used lead-acid battery recycling facilities.

Caravanos’s paper to be presented at the ISLC will be called ‘Estimating of the Burden of Disease from Lead Exposures at Toxic Waste Sites in Seven Asian Countries.’

“Resources to remediate industrial sites need to be prioritized such that public health benefi ts are maximized. Using data from the Toxic Sites Iden-tifi cation Program, this paper will present methods used to predict ad-verse health effects from exposures at secondary lead plants and some abandoned used lead-acid battery re-cycling facilities,” he says.

“The application of scientifi cally based health outcome data is impor-tant to effi ciently apply scarce envi-ronment remediation resources. A total of 169 sites in seven Asian coun-tries have been assessed with varying environmental conditions.

“The global impact of lead exposure on children’s health will be presented

and discussed within a framework for the environmentally sound manage-ment of secondary lead processing facilities. The paper will also discuss the opportunities for the lead industry to assist in the work of the Blacksmith Institute.”

Wilson’s ISLC paper will be called ‘Benchmarking the Key Environmen-tal, Safety and Health Factors that contribute to the ESM of ULAB Re-cycling.’

“As consumers worldwide increas-ingly question the provenance of manufactured goods and government agencies step up their examination of

industry’s environmental, health, safe-ty and resource management creden-tials it is important for companies to identify the key environmental bench-marks pertinent to their business or operation and then focus on setting and maintaining their operations in a manner within those parameters,” he says.

“All too often the weight of the legis-lative burden, particularly in the lead industry, is such that it is not so easy to identify the key benchmarks from the protracted list of environmental standards, occupational health crite-ria, safety legislation and resource ef-fi ciency requirements.

“So this presentation will examine the various recovery phases of used lead acid batteries and identify the key environmental, safety and health factors that determine sound environ-mental management in a manner that will permit companies to benchmark their environmental performance against the industry norms.”

“Some of the material we have will be a real eye opener for the industry but only good can come out of such dialogue. Big improvements can be made through changing small parts of the process rather than working in the way they always have done”

“The global impact of lead exposure on children’s health will be presented and discussed within a framework for the environmentally sound management of secondary lead processing facilities. The paper will also discuss opportunities for the lead industry to assist in the work”


ASIAN BATTERYMEN: L PUGAZHENTHY

The US may boast lead recycling rates in the 95%+ range but in India the rate is close to 100%. Some joke and say 101%. The reason is simple. In a country where poverty is rife every re-source of value is cherished. And if it can be used again, it will.

The trouble is that recycling lead — for a long time at least — was likely to be done from a crude smelter in the back yard of a small factory rather than a installation that could ensure the safety and health of its workers.

The India Lead Zinc Development Association has been at the forefront of a campaign to stamp out these dangerous practices and L Pugaz-henthy, as head of the organization, has adopted a two-pronged strategy to do this.

The fi rst was to work with the Min-istry of Environment and Forests as well as the regulatory boards in in-troducing environmental legislations and guidelines for an organized col-lection of used lead batteries. The sec-ond has been working with the indus-try for eco–friendly recycling of these batteries.

Moving the government as well as the industry have proven to be long-term challenges but these initiatives have paid dividends; the recycling in-dustry is ever more streamlined.

L Pugazhenthy — ‘Pug’ to know him well — was born into a middle class, conservative south Indian fam-ily on June 5, 1949 in Erode, a pro-vincial city in Tamil Nadu.

“The ‘L’ in my name stands for my father Mr Lakshmanan. He worked in the commercial operations of In-dian Railways in the southern parts of the country,” he says. “My mother was a simple but a strict housewife. Both parents believed in giving their children a permanent asset: a good education. Admitting us into Chris-tian missionary schools in south India

‘Pug’ and the ILZDA’s crusade for safety

L Pugazhenthy — better known as “Pug”, among ILZDA’s members and friends in India and overseas — has for the past four decades been at the heart of the lead acid battery community in both his home country and internationally. Kevin Desmond reports.

“Converting natural resources into useful metals and alloys and articles of daily usage interested me greatly. So it was perhaps logical that I wanted to become either a metallurgical engineer or a materials scientist.”

Early days: ‘Pug’ in his 20s



gave us a value-based education and sound principles of moral science.”

“Every two years, Indian Railways used to transfer my father from one place to another within the state of Tamil Nadu and so we would change schools. Then in 1962, my father joined a government-owned company at Calcutta (now known as Kolkata) in the east of India.”

Pug recalls his daily walk through the colourful streets of Kolkata to reach the school and back home. He completed his high school education at this city in 1965, securing a pres-tigious state grade in the School Final Examination.

“The Ministry of Education gave me a National Merit Scholarship to fi nance me until my fi rst university degree. The school where I studied also awarded me with numerous priz-es. These stimulated me to more and more academic achievements.”

To collegeIn 1966, Pug joined the century-old Presidency College at Kolkata. Even today this college is considered the top institution within the state of West Bengal, admitting only the brightest students. That year, the col-lege was closed for several months due to violent, extremist attacks and strikes in that state.

“For me, this was a blessing in disguise,” Pug recalls. “I was able to spend long hours in the American Library, reading the latest overseas books on science, particularly natu-ral science, and geology as well as preparing for my examination from home.” Once again Pug attained the state grade in the pre–university exam. Such success spurred him on to even more achievements in studies.

“However, considering the violent situation in West Bengal, my father decided to send me to South India where peaceful conditions and excel-lent educational facilities existed.”

Also he now knew the focus of what he wanted to study. “Even from my schooldays, I had become fascinated by geology, mineralogy and crystal-lography: in particular the extraction of metals, ferrous and non-ferrous, us-ing thermal and electrolytic methods. Converting natural resources into useful metals and alloys and articles of daily usage interested me greatly.

“So it was perhaps logical that I wanted to become either a metallurgi-cal engineer or a materials scientist.”

Pug’s dream came true with his admission to read metallurgical en-

gineering at the prestigious Regional Engineering College (now known as the National Institute of Technology) at Tiruchi, in the state of Tamil Nadu.

Although he was keen on football and cricket and passionate about Car-natic music (the traditional music in south India) in the college, he had a more serious side. His hobbies were reading magazines and articles on international affairs, economic devel-opment, marketing management and case studies in management. He was

popular with the other students and eventually became vice president of the students association in the institu-tion of some 1,000 students

Pug’s obvious skill in helping other students with their grievances, caused them to invite him to become their president when he was in his fi nal year. Pug declined, preferring to spend more time pursuing his studies.

This paid off, and he secured a degree with merit in Metallurgical Engineering in 1972. His specialist

“Since there was a strong need for a cooperative market development as well as technical development in the lead–zinc using industry, I changed its name to the India Lead Zinc Development Association (ILZDA) and re– oriented its activities”

Part of his work at the ILZDA: to encourage, instruct, assist and lead the industry to a better understanding of the need for fi rst class standards



subject: the extractive metallurgy of non-ferrous metals.

But the world of work was already calling. “My father and his genera-tion had always preferred to work in a government-owned company since the jobs there were always secure,” he says. “Despite parental pressure, I had other ambitions. For me the private sector offered immense, fast-moving growth possibilities.

“As luck would have it, one fi ne evening I received a telegram for an interview with the India Lead Zinc Information Centre in Delhi. These were the days much before the inter-net. I went to the local offi ce of the Indian Institute of Metals to fi nd out more about the India Lead Zinc In-formation Centre and its technical activities.”

The centre liked him. So much so,

he was surprised when they asked him whether he had arrived with my belongings — ready to start work.

First days in Delhi“Of course I hadn’t so I made the return trip to Kolkata and back to Delhi — 1500km each way — and started work almost immediately as their technical offi cer. I really enjoyed my work — making technical pres-entations, writing specialist articles, preparing technical standard specifi -cations, visiting manufacturing units and giving advice to the member com-panies.”

In 1980, the Confederation of Brit-ish Industry selected him for a three-month advanced industrial training course in Essex, UK. “After this train-ing, in a galvanizing– cum– anodizing unit, I spent a nearly month visiting

several industrial zinc units using in fi ve European countries,” he says.

“I gained knowledge on advanced practices in die-casting, galvanizing, painting and the like,” he says. “Not long after this, I visited industrial units in Japan, Australia and New Zealand. Such opportunities were to prove invaluable and benefi cial back in India.”

Meanwhile, Pug had completed his post graduate studies in business management as well as marketing management through distance learn-ing. He also received the Advanced Post Graduate Diploma in Manage-ment from the All India Management Association.

MarriageBut love was in the wings. In 1982, he married general medical practitioner — Dr Pennarasi who is known as Dr Penny — at Chennai but she moved to Delhi after our wedding.

“Penny is a very understanding partner as well as a well meaning counsellor,” Pug says. “She is now attached to the obstetrics and gynae-cology department in a private sector hospital. We have two sons, Anand who’s 29 and a banker in Melbourne, Australia and Deepak, 25, who works in the insurance sector in an MNC at Delhi. Neither of the sons opted met-allurgy or medicine. Wise men!”

Between 1986 and 1989, Pug worked in Delhi as the marketing de-velopment manager of a zinc-coated steel sheets company called Nippon Denro Ispat (the company owned by the father of the well known steel gi-ant, L N Mittal).

He spent the next three years work-ing for Essar Steel and later became the director of a newly formed indus-try body, the Sponge Iron Manufac-turers Association in 1992 which he ran successfully until 1997.

But the ILZIC was still in his thoughts and when, that year, the chief executive of India Lead Zinc In-formation announced he was retiring, he invited Pug to take over.

“With my continuing fascination for lead and zinc as well as non-fer-rous metals, I was only too pleased to return to the centre. Since there was a strong need for a cooperative market development as well as technical de-velopment in the lead–zinc using in-dustry, I changed its name to the India Lead Zinc Development Association (ILZDA) and re–oriented its activities.

“These were turbulent times. Both the lead and zinc recycling units were

“With support from the Ministry of Environment and Forests, we conducted workshops on eco-recycling of lead batteries across the length and breadth of the country”

Pug with the president of India and leading industry fi gures

At one of the many functions that Pug helps represent



in the doldrums. This was largely caused by a supreme court ban on the import of used lead batteries and zinc recyclables. So I met the senior offi -cials in both the Ministry of Environ-ment and Forests as well as the Min-istry of Mines. I impressed upon them the reduced domestic availability of lead metal and zinc metal, in view of the closure of many recycling units.”

The gentle artAnd subtle persuasion was needed. “Zinc, unlike lead, is essential for hu-man health and nutrition,” he says. “So in my pocket, I used to carry a zinc-containing multivitamin pill called Becozinc. I showed this pill to the offi cials of these ministries, during our discussions, to prove the point!

“At the same time I also organized an International Conference on Recy-cling of Lead and Zinc and invited offi cials from institutions such as the Basel Convention secretariat, UN En-vironment Program and the like.”

These meetings proved highly effec-tive. “They opened the eyes of govern-ment offi cials and policy planners to what was needed,” he says. “We sug-gested to the government that they create a technical committee, to give authorization and registration to eco-friendly recycling units for import of lead and zinc recyclables, on a case-by-case basis.”

Pug’s suggestion was accepted. The technical committee came into exist-ence. The closed recycling units re-sumed their operations, and the avail-ability of lead and zinc also improved within the country.

ILZDA drafted rules for collection of used lead batteries, on the model of the notifi cation by the Internation-al Battery Council as well as other countries. The BATTERY (Manage-ment and Handling) RULES came into existence in 2001.

As part of this, auctions of used lead batteries by bulk consumers for railways, defence, transport corpora-tions and the like were also regulated so that these recyclables are processed by authorized/registered units only.

As a man with a mission, he soon found that he was needed out on the fi eld of the huge Indian sub-conti-nent “With support from the Min-istry of Environment and Forests, we conducted workshops on eco-recycling of lead batteries across the length and breadth of the country,” he says. “At Delhi, Jaipur, Kanpur, Chandigarh in the north, Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Coimbatore,

Cochin in the south. Kolkata, Bhu-baneswar, Jamshedpur in the east, and Nagpur, Bhopal, Indore, Gwalior in central India.”

Pug had to speak at all the centres, explaining the ministry of environ-ment regulations, guidelines and norms.

As time went by, the results started to be seen.

“Many lead recycling units, which were using coal-fi red furnaces, gradu-ally shifted to closed, rotary furnac-es,” he says. “And instead of the man-ual breaking of batteries, mechanized battery breaking systems were intro-duced in a number of units.

Through the seminars there is also a better awareness of occupational health precautions. Both the lead and zinc recycling sectors are on a sound footing now, with recyclables from overseas as well as within the country being processed safely.

Appreciating the success — and value — of these initiatives, the 2009 Asian Battery Conference at Macau, China awarded Pug with the Interna-tional Lead Award.

Since 1978, Pug has also been an active member of The Indian Institute of Metals India’s professional body of metallurgists which is similar to the American Society of Metals.

He was the honorary secretary and later vice chairman of the Delhi Chap-ter of the Indian Institute of Metals. For his signifi cant contributions to the nonferrous metals industry, the

Indian Institute of Metals awarded him the “Hindustan Zinc, Gold Med-al” in 2002.

Eventually he became the national vice president of the Indian Institute of Metals during 2005-2008 and in July 2008 he was elected as the na-tional president of this body; it was a prestigious appointment, previous presidents have been captains of in-dustry or leading academics. “This position was truly an honour to the good work done by ILZDA,” he says.

Still more to doBut Pug’s work is still unfi nished given that the Indian lead market is growing so rapidly. “This increases the need for awareness of safe lead usage practices,” he says. “We must convert the remaining lead recycling units into healthy and eco-friendly operators. We must educate the lead battery manufacturers, especially the SME sector, on new lead alloys, bat-tery technology developments as well as the exploitation of new applica-tions like renewable energy namely solar or wind power.

“I shall also continue with the same, vigour and initiative, to groom and guide my successor so that the ILZDA fl ag fl ies high.”

Four decades of continued work in lead and zinc have not diminished or dampened the spirit or passion of Pug, who quietly nods and says. “It has been truly a satisfying and re-warding journey.”

“I shall also continue with the same, vigour and initiative, to groom and guide my successor so that the ILZDA fl ag fl ies high.”

Pug receiving the International Lead Award at the 13th ABC in Macau

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Asian Battery Conference - 2013

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