Safety, Reliability, and Disposal Requirements for Ag-Zn Batteries

This section briefly discusses other performance features of the Ag-Zn battery, such as safety, reliability, and disposal requirements. Ag-Zn batteries do produce small amounts of gases during their operation, and these batteries must be housed in the vented enclosures to maintain high operational safety. 

This particular battery is best suited for aerospace and defense applications because it offers the highest power (watts) and energy (watt-hours) per unit volume and mass. This battery has demonstrated its suitability for aerospace, defense, and manned suborbital flight applications, for which severe operating conditions exist. The weight of an Ag-Zn battery is roughly 50% of an Ni-Cd battery and close to 25% of a SLAB. This battery has demonstrated high reliabihty in space environments. The battery cell has demonstrated a reliability of 99% or better in aerospace and defense applications. 

Some secondary batteries such as Ag-Zn batteries are not disposed of but are claimed at the end of their useful life. The battery manufacturers offer a service for reclamation and precious metal can be recovered. A trace amount of mercury is embedded with the zinc oxide if the AG-Zn cell is used to suppress outgassing during normal battery operation. There are disposal requirements for certain secondary batteries deployed in aerospace and military programs, and readers or battery designers must be aware of such requirements. 

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