Life left in lead-acid batteries
Old-school lead-acid batteries to keep costs down in cheap and efficient mild hybrid systemsHumble old lead-acid battery technology has been improved to play a central role in a new low-cost mild hybrid system.
The Advanced Lead-Acid Battery Consortium (ALABC) and UK alternative-power technology specialist Controlled Power Technologies (CPT) used the weekend’s Vienna Motor Symposium to pull the wraps off a low-voltage, low-cost mild hybrid system based on updated lead-acid battery chemistry.
The ALABC describes itself as “an international research organisation comprised of lead producers, battery manufacturers, equipment suppliers and research institutions dedicated to improving lead-acid batteries for use in a variety of energy storage applications”.
It has more than 70 members, including CSIRO’s Energy Technology division. With development partner CPT, it will demonstrate the latest incarnation of their jointly developed LC Super Hybrid package in a 1.4-litre Volkswagen Passat.
The 48-volt system marries a lead-carbon battery pack with CPT’s existing SpeedStart mild hybrid motor-generator.
The companies claim 0-100km/h acceleration in less than nine seconds for the Passat, with CO2 emissions of just 120g/km.
The system follows on from a 12-volt package first shown at the 2012 Geneva motor show. The ALABC and CPT have been working for more than a decade on low-voltage hybrid systems, more recently taking advantage of dramatic power density improvements in lead-acid battery chemistry.
The partners say that extra carbon in the negative electrode helps boost energy density in the latest generation of such batteries, and that they show high resilience to the endless charge/discharge conditions in which hybrid power packs work.
Adding what their joint press statement describes as “significant additional functionality”, the latest-generation battery technology provides the petrol engine with a torque boost for launch and low-speed acceleration.
The electric motor boost allows the engine to run on leaner mixes, particularly during idle and freeway cruise conditions. On downhill runs it allows the vehicle to make the most of gravity using Volkswagen’s in-gear coasting system while also more efficiently converting kinetic energy from the regenerative braking systems into battery top-up power.
They expect to see a fuel economy improvement of between four and eight per cent over a similar vehicle using the 12-volt system which, they claim, already achieves 5.6L/100km and 130g/km on the NEDC New European Drive Cycle, with 2.0-litre performance from the 1.4-litre mill.
It’s also “now at a high level of technology and manufacturing readiness”, they add. Most significantly, they say, using 1kWh batteries allows manufacturers access to most of the benefits of full hybrid systems and even EVs at about a quarter the cost.
CPT chief Nick Pascoe said the package can effect CO2 reductions in the order of 30 per cent for as little as £1000 ($A1500), depending on the donor vehicle and hybrid system specs.
Having developed the systems in response to what they say was initial demand from German car-makers, they expect sales to take off from 2015 following tighter CO2 emission legislation.
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