Lead-acid battery maintenance problem

In the first half of the twentieth century, lead alloys with high antimony content were used for the manufacture of the plate grids for lead—acid batteries. These batteries lost water during operation and hence they needed maintenance. Significant efforts of battery seientists and technologists in the twentieth century were focused on resolving the water loss problem. 

A semiconductor mechanism was proposed for the electrocatalytic action of tin on the oxidation of PbO to PbO and Pb02. Tin has substituted antimony as an additive to the alloys for lead—acid battery grids. It is added in considerably lower concentrations than Sb and in combination with calcium which improves the mechanical properties of the alloys. Thus the interface problem of lead—calcium grids was resolved and the way was open for the manufacture of maintenance-free wet-charged batteries. 

At this stage of development, it is doubtful whether a flywheel incorporated in an electrical highway vehicle can replace lead acid batteries due to problems with vibration and safety, but the performance of a lead acid battery deteriorates in hot wet conditions, requires frequent maintenance and has a life expectancy of only about 4 years. The aim of US Flywheel Systems, however, is to drive a car with a flywheel system. It is reckoned that some 16 units would be required to fulfil this objective and adequate protection would have to be supplied, since, in the event of a wheel disintegrating, it would dissipate its energy into hot fluff and high speed dust. A very sophisticated computer control system is used to filament wind each wheel with a high fiber content of 86% w/w [89]. 

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. 

---