Lead-acid batteries costs

Because the nickel—iron cell system has a low cell voltage and high cost compared to those of the lead—acid battery, lead—acid became the dorninant automotive and industrial battery system except for heavy-duty appHcations. Renewed interest in the nickel—iron and nickel—cadmium systems, for electric vehicles started in the mid-1980s using other cell geometries. 

Batteries, both primary and secondary, have become very big business indeed, which moreover is growing rapidly. Salkind (1998) in a concise overview of the entire domain of battery types and technologies, estimates that in 1996, the world market in the two types of battery combined totalled ss 33 billion dollars, and that the ratio of secondary to primary battery sales is steadily edging upwards. In spite of its poor charge density per unit mass, the lead-acid battery still accounts for more than a quarter of the total, because it costs so much less than its rivals and lasts well. 

Lead-acid batteries remain popular because of their capability to seiwice high and low current demand, produce high voltage, provide capacity up to 100 A-h, and recharge well. Moreover, the lead-acid battery has important material and construction advantages, such as simple fabrication of lead components, the low cost of materials (lead is abundant and much less expen-... 

The energy costs of building vehicles must also be considered. For ICE vehicles, more energy is usually used in construction of the vehicle than -will be consumed in fuel for driving 100,000 miles. For the EV, the dynamics are even worse since the material and energy costs of batteries are considerable. Batteries are expensive since they entail a substantial amount of material (added weight) and often involve multiple complex construction. For example, the thirty-two advanced lead-acid batteries for the 1995 GM Impact weighed over 850 pounds. 

Small-format lead-acid batteries with immobilized electrolyte are still used in some applications such as hand lanterns. Low-cost six or twelve-volt batteries (e.g. 6 Ah size) are used in child-driven toy cars and other sizes in emergency-light or alarm systems, kept on trickle-charge. Efforts are being made to produce bipolar systems which give 30 percent improvements. 

In 1899, the nickel-cadmium battery, the first alkaline battery, was invented by a Swedish scientist named Waldmar Jungner. The special feature of this battery was its potential to be recharged. In construction, nickel and cadmium electrodes in a potassium hydroxide solution, it was the first battery to use an alkaline electrolyte. This battery was commercialized in Sweden in 1910 and reached the Unites States in 1946. The first models were robust and had significantly better energy density than lead-acid batteries, but nevertheless, their wide use was limited because of the high costs. 

Cost The cost of the battery is determined by the materials used in its fabrication and the manufacturing process. The manufacturer must be able to make a profit on the sale to the customer. The selling price must be in keeping with its perceived value (tradeoff of the ability of the user to pay the price and the performance of the battery). Alkaline primary Zn—MnOz is perceived to be the best value in the United States. However, in Europe and Japan the zinc chloride battery still has a significant market share. In developing countries, the lower cost Leclanche carbon—zinc is preferred. Likewise, lead acid batteries are preferred for automobile SLI over Ni—Cd with superior low-temperature performance but with a 10 times higher cost. 

Nickel-cadmium batteries with thin sintered plates are used for on-board power supplies in aircraft, helicopters, tanks and military vehicles where their excellent low temperature, high rate performance is an important attribute. Modern 40 Ah cells designed for airborne use can deliver 20 kW of instantaneous power at 25°C and over 10 kW at —30DC. Again, the high cost of this system compared with that of lead-acid batteries has restricted its use. 

By far the largest sector of the battery industry worldwide is based on the lead-acid aqueous cell whose dominance is due to a combination of low cost, versatility and the excellent reversibility of the electrochemical system, Lead-acid cells have extensive use both as portable power sources for vehicle service and traction, and in stationary applications ranging from small emergency supplies to load levelling systems. In terms of sales, the lead-acid battery occupies over 50% of the entire primary and secondary market, with an estimated value of 100 billion per annum before retail mark-up. 

In the case of lead-acid batteries, recycling of exhausted units is undertaken worldwide and the process is both efficient and cost-effective. It has been calculated that almost 90% of spent lead-acid batteries are sent back to recycling plants. This high return is explained by the large scale of lead-acid cell production, which makes recycling mandatory in order to control the price of lead on the world market. 

A commercial nickel-zinc battery is considered to be the most likely candidate for electric vehicle development. If the problems of limited life and high installation cost ( 100-l50/kW-h) are solved, a nickel-zinc EV battery could provide twice the driving range for an equivalent weight lead-acid battery. Work is developmental there is no commercial production of nickel-zinc batteries. 

The early electric cars used the old lead-acid batteries. Today s hybrids are provided with more robust nickel-metal units. The EVs of the future are likely to be provided with lithium-iron batteries, found in today s laptops and cell phones. Much work remains to be done in this area to increase safety and life span (to 100,000 mi of driving), while reducing their cost. Nissan and Mitsubishi are both making major investments in building lithium-ion battery mass production plants. 

Costs of the active materials and, in the case of D/A-systems, of the solvent/ electrolyte system, are for any practical case extremely important, for they are proportional to the charge to be stored. Cost aspects in batteries are comprehensively treated in [477]. The specific cost per Ah is reduced at high cycle numbers. Thus good cyclability is important, too. Graphite, H2SO4, or, with some restrictions, carbon blacks and carlmnaceous materials are inexpensive materials. PANI is an inexpensive ICP, but this does not generally apply for all other ICPs as erroneously stated in the literature [562, 563]. The pure material costs for a lead-acid battery are below 4 DM/ kWh. But it is nearly impossible to meet this cost level in the case of a polyacetylene battery, for the polymer should then be as cheap as < 0.3 DM/kg. 

The value of backup power is as much as three to four times the value of primary power on a kilowatt basis. For example, the lifecycle cost of the backup power systems found at the base of a cell tower, which now consists of a bank of lead acid batteries and a diesel or natural gas fired combustion engine, is between 3000 and 4000 per kW. Critical power facilities for data processing centers and the like are also in this cost range. The simple fact is that customers need electricity and will pay a considerable insurance premium to obtain assurance of uninterruptible power. In the case of cellular phone service providers, their federal FCC license may be at risk if they are unable to demonstrate adequate operating capability in the event of grid outages. 

If an insufficient amount of waste is generated onsite to make an in-plant recovery system cost effective, or if the recovered material cannot be reused onsite, offsite recovery is preferable. Some materials commonly reprocessed offsite are oils, solvents, electroplating sludges and process baths, scrap metal, and lead-acid batteries. The cost of offsite recycling is dependent upon the purity of the waste and the market for the recovered material. 

A lead-acid battery pack is used as electrical energy storage system, constituted by 4 units, each one of 12 V and 38 Ah. The choice of using lead-acid batteries is essentially motivated by its low cost and good efficiency [2]. The technical specifications of the battery pack are reported in Table 6.4. 

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