Ever Resource Ltd., Cambridge, United Kingdom, has been awarded grant-funding under Innovate UK’s ‘Sustainable Innovation Fund’ framework to produce lead oxides for enhanced lead-acid batteries.
The lead-acid battery is the world’s most successfully recycled commodity product. Its success is mainly due to recyclability and sound economics. However, since the 1880s when the lead battery entered mass production, the industry has adopted a ‘one size fits all’ approach to the lead oxide.
“Our objective under this project, is to selectively produce nanostructured variants of each oxide phase – litharge, massicot, red lead etc – to improve and to optimise battery performance, company says. Our method, which is scalable to meet market volume, enables control of the crystal structure (phase) which leads to improvements in the energy and power densities, charge acceptance, cycle life and more. This innovation will support the world’s switch to clean energy with storage that does not rely heavily on critical/mined raw materials”.
“Our project partner is the University of Cambridge, where Dr Vimalnath Selvaraj, Senior Researcher at Ever Resource, will lead research efforts in partnership with Professor Vasant Kumar at the Department of Materials Science and Metallurgy. In partnership with iQ International AG, a sustainable technologies company that manufactures and distributes highly efficient lead-acid batteries, we will test the nanostructured phase-optimised oxides in commercial batteries”.
