The ALABC’s Members and Contractors annual meeting held prior to the start of the 13th European Lead Battery Conference was one of the most highly-anticipated and well-attended meetings in recent memory.  A record number of attendees gathered for several presentations on current work, as well as a discussion on the focus of the upcoming 2013-15 research program.

After an opening by Technical Chairman David Prengaman and an overview by Program Manager Dr. Boris Monahov, the first day started with a progress report from Mr. Melchor Fernandez of Exide Technologies (Europe) on their 6V/10Ah VRLA spiral-wound battery with optimized negative active mix for mild hybrids (1012-M).  Then, Tony Ferreira of Moura provided a final report on behalf of Moura, Lignotech, and Hammond Expanders regarding automotive and photovoltaic advanced batteries with negative plates optimized for charge acceptance and cycling (1012-J).   That was followed by a progress report on 1012-KD by Norbert Maleschitz of Banner Batteries and Dr. Geoffrey May of Focus Consulting, and it covered the accelerated program to provide batteries for vehicle trials in a Honda Insight.

After a lunch break, the subject matter moved from battery development and testing to batteries for advanced HEV development.  At that point, Dr. David Stone of the University of Sheffield gave a final report on the EPSRC project (1012-D), which covered battery testing for the 12V LC Super Hybrid.  Then, Allan Cooper of the European ALABC provided a progress report on the HyBoost project and the LC Super Hybrid (1012-C), and referred to the LCSH vehicle that was to be on display at the ALABC booth in the ELBC exhibit hall later that week.  In keeping with the theme, Carsten Kaup of AVL Schrick provided a follow up report (1012-N) on the perceived need for a 48V boardnet and a parallel proposal to develop an ALABC demonstrator with it.  To close the Monday session, Don Karner of Ecotality North America gave a progress report (DP 1.8) on the testing of the UltraBattery-equipped Honda Civic that is currently in fleet duty at the Ecotality offices in Phoenix, AZ.

Dr. Monahov then closed the meeting temporarily for a brief break and later continued with the ALABC Steering Committee Meeting.  This meeting included a brief update from John Howes of Redland Energy on the ALABC’s federal affairs initiatives in the U.S. and then a presentation on the current Public Affairs and Marketing (PAM) committee activities from Doe Run’s John Likarish (PAM Committee Chairman) and ALABC marketing and communications manager Chip Bremer.  Meetings were then closed for the evening, giving way to the consortium’s 20th anniversary celebration dinner that night.

The next day, the M&C meeting continued with several presentations regarding in-vehicle testing and the influence of carbon on the battery’s negative plate.  The first was a progress report (1012-KB) from Provector’s Mike Kellaway on the principles of battery management systems in hybrid electric vehicles for battery protection.  Then, Aaron Feaver of EnerG2 gave a final report (1012-L) on activated carbons and hydrogen gassing in lead-acid battery negative plates.  Then, Professor Detchko Pavlov gave a final report (1012-G) on the additives to the negative active material of VRLA batteries and the mechanisms by which they suppress sulfation of the negative plate during high-rate partial state-of-charge (HRPSoC) operation.  Dr. Monahov then discussed briefly the prospectus for the new 2013-2015 research program, and then closed the ALABC session of the meeting.

The meeting continued with member information in the form of a presentation from Chen Jian of Narada on their current work in the Chinese market.  Then, Dr. Monahov took various questions regarding earlier presentations and discussions on the future program, and David Prengaman closed the meeting in advance of the meeting of the dynamic charge acceptance workgroup and the opening festivities of 13ELBC.

Members can download PDF copies of these presentations from the members section by clicking on the “Meetings & Conferences” link to the left of the page.
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