Advanced Lead-Acid Battery Consortium ALABC

The beneficial effect of compression in extending the cycle-life of VRLA batteries was confirmed in a project carried out by the Advanced Lead-Acid Battery Consortium (ALABC) [17]. The work also showed that the composition of the micro-fine glass separator has an important influence on cycle-life, namely, a higher... 

When attention focused on pure-electric vehicles (EVs) at the beginning of the 1990s, it was clear that the VRLA battery could not deliver the desired service-life. Within a decade, however, the industry, supported by the extensive research programme mounted by the Advanced Lead-Acid Battery Consortium (ALABC), had made the necessary investment in research and development to achieve a ten-fold increase in deep-cycle life. The VRLA battery was then able to compete with alternative chemistries (e.g., nickel-cadmium, nickel-metal-hydride, lithium-ion) as an acceptable power source for EVs. 

Investigations were performed, with the financial support of the Advanced Lead—Acid Battery Consortium (ALABC), aimed to identify which structural components of the plate were affected by antimony in the grid alloy. 

NE Bagshaw. A Battery Technologist s Guide to Metallurgical Structures and Alloy Properties, Advanced Lead Acid Battery Consortium (ALABC). Research Triangle Park, NC, ILZRO Inc, 1994. 

In the United States, the development of batteries for EVs and HEVs has been mostly earried out under the auspices of the USABC since the early 1990s (see Sec. 37.1.1). In addition to the USABC, the Advanced Lead-Acid Battery Consortium (ALABC) was formed by the International Lead Zinc Research Organization (ILZRO) and the lead-acid battery industry to develop that technology for EV applications. 

USABC has set the goal so high that lead-acid batteries have been put out of the question for this application [29]. This led to an initiative by the lead-acid battery industry and their suppliers to set up the Advanced Lead-Acid Battery Consortium (ALABC) with the goal of fostering development of the lead-acid battery for use in electric vehicles, at least for an interim period until more powerful batteries with higher energy density will become available. Here a series of complex technical problems have to be solved [30]. Of course, such electric vehicle batteries have to be maintenance-free, that is, of sealed construction the resulting use of lead-calcium alloys and thus the premature capacity loss have already been touched on. 

L.T. Lam, H. Ceylan, N.P. Haigh, T. Lwin, C.G. Phyland, D.A.J. Rand, D.G. Vella, ALABC Project N3.1, Influence of residual elements in lead and expander materials on the oxygen- andjor hydrogen-gassing rates of lead-acid batteries. Semi-annual Report 1 July to 31 December 2001, Advanced Lead-Acid Battery Consortium, Research Triangle Park, NC, USA, 2001. 

R.F. Nelson, J.B. Olson, E.D. Sexton, A.A. Pesaran, M.A. Keyset, ALABC Project No. B-007.2, Development of improved cycle life by design of charge algorithms specifically aimed at VRLA batteries. Progress Report 21 July to 20 September 1999, Advanced Lead-Acid Battery Consortium, Research Triangle Park, NC, USA, 1999. 

ALABC Advanced Lead-Acid Battery Consortium... 

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