CBI Technical Program:

Improving Energy Storage System

and Automotive Batteries
ELBC, 6-9 September 2022, Lyon, France

Presented by:
Begüm Bozkaya
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 Automotive KPIs – Start-Stop/Micro-hybrid

o Key Driver is DCA

o Reported values of 1.25
A/Ah in current products.
o Preliminary cases of DCA
above 2.0 A/Ah.

o High Temperature
Durability is an important
OE metric.
o Lead batteries currently
meet OE needs.
o HTE test development in
line with SAE J2801
performance.

o Performance of other
metrics must be sustained.
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 ESS KPIs
o The following KPIs are aggressive:
o Must be competitive with Li-ion.
o Federal stakeholders and utilities have set up
truly severe techno-economic drivers (US DOE
and EU commission)

o Operational cost and acquisition cost are

vital.

o Round Trip Efficiency primarily for renewable

energy such as load following applications.

o Productization is key – configure and

customize lead batteries to power conversion
and control systems.

o The 2030 targets align with many opportunities

from various governments for battery energy
storage

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CBI Technical Projects

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2019-2020 Technical Program
Project ongoings…

Fraunhofer ISC/WUST – “Investigations on the Effect of Carbon Surface Functional Groups on

Electrochemical Behavior of Lead Carbon Electrodes
Third progress report out.

UCLA - “Visualizing the Dynamics of Carbon–Enhanced Negative Electrodes in Lead Batteries”

Project is completed.

EAI – “Grid Energy Storage Performance Improvement Using Controlled Overcharge”

Project is completed.

Borregard Lignotech, East Penn, Cabot, Hammond – “Investigation into the Combined Influence of Carbon
Black and Organic Expander to Improve Micro-Hybrid Service of Enhanced Flooded Batteries”
Project is completed.

Fraunhofer ISC/TUB/Ford/Moll – “Improving Dynamic Charge Acceptance and High-Temperature Durability

in Automotive Lead Batteries”
Third progress report out.

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 Fraunhofer ISC/WUST
Investigations on the effect of carbon surface functional groups on
electrochemical behavior of lead-carbon electrodes Interaction between carbon and lignosulfonate

Project goal: impact of carbon surface functional groups on the

electrochemical behavior of lead-carbon electrodes in terms of DCA,
hydrogen evolution activity and CCA
Project overview:
o Modification of two amorphous carbons with high and low external
surface area to incorporate acidic (oxygen) and basic (nitrogen)
groups
→ 14 different carbons
o A comprehensive characterization of carbons to understand the DL capacitance obtained from RDE measurement
physical, chemical and electrochemical properties
→ XPS, EA, RDE, TGA, UV, pH, nitrogen and water sorption
o Preparation of negative electrodes and assembly of 2 V, 2.5 Ah
laboratory cells (2P1N)
o Electrical testing of 2 V cells
→ Capacity test, CCA, DCA, Cyclic voltammetry

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 UCLA
Visualizing the dynamics of carbon-enhanced negative electrodes

Project goal: observe for the first time the processes

that contribute to failure for lead batteries in PSOC
operation
Project overview:
o Conducting series of experiments to observe in
real time how the active material of lead batteries
changes in different duty cycles:
o Understanding dendrite growth.
o Carbon-lead interactions in NAM.
o Established new relationships between the positive
and negative that can contribute to premature
failure

Figure 5: (left) ADF STEM image of a thick layer of material plated onto a platinum electrode. 8
(right) EDS maps of four different elements present in the field of view. The platinum and titanium
edges in the ADF image are sharp; however, they are more jagged and blurred in the EDS. Multiple
 EAI
Grid Energy Storage Performance Improvement Using Optimized Electronic Control

Project goal: using alternative battery management principles

centered around controlled overcharge to maximize lead battery Typical approach for
management:
life in ESS applications 1. Requires equalization
2. Operates in 40-80%
Project overview: 3. Reduced available battery
o Selection of two commercially available batteries capacity

o AGM and thick plate gel batteries

o Determination of optimum overcharge
o Overcharge levels between 101% and 103%
o Construction of battery packs VS.
o 4 parallel 72 V nominal strings
EAI approach for
o Testing of battery strings and packs management:
1. Same SOC window –
o Execution of charge/discharge cycle with fixed overcharge per but higher in SOC,
string until EoD voltage (40% DoD cycle) 60-100%
2. 100% (101-103%) has
enormous positive
benefit on battery life.
3. Total capacity available.

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 Lignotech, East Penn, Cabot, Hammond
Investigation into the Combined Influence of Carbon Black and Organic
Expander to Improve Micro-Hybrid Service of Enhanced Flooded Batteries

Project goal: optimization of carbon and lignosulfonate additives to

understand what ratios improve DCA, PSoC endurance, water loss and
corrosion
Project overview:
o Preparation and analysis of carbon/lignosulfonate combinations
o 13 different combinations in accordance with DOE principles
o Evaluation of paste properties to understand physical and chemical
characteristics
o TGA, SEM and EDS
o Conducting electrical tests on 12 V batteries
o Capacity tests (C20, RC)
o DCA (EN) test (Ic, Id, Ir and IDCA)
o Endurance cycle (EN) test (17.5 DoD at 50% SoC)
o Cold cranking (EN) test (CCA at -18 °C)
o Corrosion test (SAE J2801 at 75 °C)
o Water consumption (EN water loss at 60 °C)
o Micro-hybrid (EN) test (MHT) 10
 Fraunhofer ISC, Technical University of Berlin,
Ford Motor Company, Moll Batterien
Best practices of cell testing for EFB regarding DCA and high-temperature
durability

Project goal: improving cell-level test methods for water loss, high 2 V cells in water bath for overcharge tests
temperature durability (nKLT) and DCA
Project overview:
o Overcharge tests on 2 V cells to determine water loss and gas
flow to validate tightness

o Validation of EN water loss and nKLT tests on 2 V cell-level for

different layouts (full scale, acid-, negative-, and positive limited New key-life test (nKLT, HTE)
cells)

o EIS measurements at different SoC (ranging from 50% to 90%)

during charge and discharge history of cells to establish a
correlation between EIS parameters and DCA

o DCA and high temperature testing of cells containing carbon

additives with different external surface area

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2021 Additions
Project ongoings…

Gridtential Energy/EAI – “Bipolar Lead Batteries for Energy Storage Systems Applications”
Third progress report in review.

Hammond Group/East Penn/Eclipse Energy– “Examination of the Effects of Surfactant Coatings & Particle
Size of Barium Sulfate on the Structure Changes and Overall Performance of NAM in Energy Storage
Systems (ESS) Application”
Second progress report out.

INMA/Exide Technologies – “In-operando Neutron Scattering Analysis of the Charge/Discharge Processes

inside the Battery Electrodes”
Second progress report out.

University of Warwick/Loughborough University – “HALO-SMART-ESS-LAB: Health And Lifespan

Optimization with Smart Management Algorithms & Recuperative Testing of ESS of Lead Acid Batteries”
Second progress report in review.

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 Gridtential Energy, EAI
Bipolar Lead Batteries for Energy Storage Applications

Project goal: improving the performance of small bipolar battery

packs in residential ESS type service
Project overview:
o Development of high voltage bipolar batteries
o U1-sized batteries in 6 V, 12 V and 24 V
o Testing for optimization of the BMS for renewable energy
storage applications
o Baseline testing
o Optimization of overcharge
o PSoC testing
o Determination of baseline performance of bipolar batteries for PV
time-shift according to IEC 61427-2
o Tear down analysis for failure determination

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 Hammond Group Inc., Eclipse Energy, East Penn
Examination of the Effects of Surfactant Coatings & Particle Size of Barium Sulfate on the Structure
Changes and Overall Performance of NAM in Energy Storage Systems (ESS) Application

Project goal: understanding the influence of particle size and surface/surfactant

treatment of barium sulfate on its ability to function as a nucleation agent in
lead batteries under PSoC cycling (IEC61427-2)
Project overview:
o Determination of the key properties of BaSO4 materials
o Different commercially available BaSO4 materials
o Characterization via sedimentation particle size analysis, SEM, BET and TGA
o Investigation of surface-treated BaSO4 on the NAM characteristics
o Preparation of paste mixes
o Characterization of cured NAM via XRD, SEM, BET and free Pb%
o Manufacturing 2 V test cell
o Evaluation of cycle life test (based on IEC61427-2)
o Tear down analysis of electrodes
o Confirmation of 2 V cell results with full-scale battery testing

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 INMA, Exide Group
In-operando Neutron Scattering Analysis of the Charge/Discharge Processes inside the Battery Electrodes

Project goal: analysis of the charge and discharge processes of

battery electrodes in-operando by neutron scattering experiments
Project overview:
o Manufacture lead cells for in-situ neutron diffraction experiments Cell setup for neutron experiments
o Neutron diffraction experiments using volume gauge procedure
o VULCAN instrument at SNS-ORL
o Proof of principle experiments to obtain crystallographic information
o Obtaining diffraction information from inside the positive electrode
in real operating conditions
o Concentration maps of fresh and cycled cells at different SoC
o Developing a new generation cell by using full commercial plates
o Imaging experiments at PSI

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 University of Warwick, Loughborough University
HALO-SMART-ESS-LAB: Health And Lifespan Optimization with Smart Management
Algorithms & Recuperative Testing of ESS of Lead Acid Batteries

2 V cells connected in series

Project goal: improving the cycle life and operational health of lead
batteries in ESS by testing various battery types under different cycling
conditions
Project overview:
o Overcharge tests on identical cells (2 V, 2.5 Ah) including different
number of PSoC cycles between overcharge to improve capacity
decline over cycling
o Design of experiments (PCB, printed circuit board) to monitor the
Overview of a setup to produce ripple current
balance of the cells and batteries connected in series during cycling and
overcharging
o First aspects of applying a ripple current (online-EIS) to monitor
battery´s state of health during operation → using hardware in the
circuit
o Development of online-EIS measurement setup

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Thank you!