[en] Recent economic and political factors have had a strong influence on the lead/acid battery industry in both West and East Europe. Since the publication in 1989 by Batteries International and the Lead Development Association of a map of European battery factories, the number of battery companies has declined. By 1992, a significant shift had taken place in the share of the lead/acid battery market in Europe with the result that a few companies came to influence a major proportion of battery production and sales. The reasons for this relatively fast structural change are examined. Under the pressure from continuing internal and external forces, likely outcomes for battery business in Europe are proposed as the lead/acid industry changes to meet new challenges. (orig.)

[en] The scope of regulations in the battery industry is extensive and also complex. In the future, regulations will become more demanding and will encompass issues not currently considered. Increased focus on environmental issues by government bodies, environmental groups, local communities will result in more strict compliance standards. The USA is currently leading the world's battery industries in the scope and compliance level of regulations. By studying trends in the USA, the rest of the battery industry can prepare itself for the future operating environment. This paper reviews the most critical areas of air pollution, blood-lead levels and recycling. The paper concludes that the battery industry must adopt a culture of exceeding current compliance standards. (orig.)

No abstract available

[en] 1,4-Dimethoxybenzene derivatives are materials of choice for use as catholytes in nonaqueous redox flow batteries, as they exhibit high open-circuit potentials and excellent electrochemical reversibility. However, chemical stability of these materials in their oxidized form needs to be improved. Disubstitution in the arene ring is used to suppress parasitic reactions of their radical cations, but this does not fully prevent ring-addition reactions. By incorporating bicyclic substitutions and ether chains into the dialkoxybenzenes, a novel catholyte molecule, 9,10-bis(2-methoxyethoxy)-1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8-octahydro-1,4:5, 8-dimethanenoanthracene (BODMA), is obtained and exhibits greater solubility and superior chemical stability in the charged state. As a result, a hybrid flow cell containing BODMA is operated for 150 charge–discharge cycles with minimal loss of capacity.

[en] $\mathrm{\gamma <!--\; ??\; -->}$-Li${}_2$FeSiO${}_4$ is proposed as a promising candidate material for lithium ion batteries. The Fe atoms are tetrahedrally coordinated by Oxygen. Iron has the Fe${}^{2+}$ (S=2) oxidation state and is displaced from the tetrahedron center resulting in a electric field gradient caused by the distorted tetrahedral crystal field. The Mössbauer spectrum of the powder sample shows one dominant site exhibiting magnetic order at 2.1 K and a considerable quadrupole splitting as observed at room temperature. The magnetic hyperfine field of B = 14.7(4) T is oriented orthogonal to the largest principle axis of the electrical field gradient V${}_{zz}$ = -125(3) V/Å${}^2$. The isomer shift of $\mathrm{\delta <!--\; ??\; -->}$ = 1.1(1) mm/s is consistent with the high spin Fe${}^{2+}$ (S=2) state. We will discuss the implications of these findings on the actual magnetic structure in this system. The observed static order is in agreement with susceptibility measurements showing a transition to antiferromagnetic order below 17 K.

[en] Models that can describe the behavior of a lithium-ion battery are indispensable for product development as well as for the reliable control of the battery operation by a battery management system. In this work a model is developed, parametrized and validated that can predict the electric behavior of a lithium-ion cell throughout its entire lifetime.

[en] This paper reviews the rapid progress in the field of high-throughput modeling based on the Materials Genome Initiative, and its application in the discovery and design of lithium battery materials. It offers examples of screening, optimization and design of electrodes, electrolytes, coatings, additives, etc. and the possibility of introducing the machine learning method into material design. The application of the material genome method in the development of lithium battery materials provides the possibility to speed up the upgrading of new candidates in the discovery of lots of functional materials. (topical review)

[en] In this study a grey extended Kalman filter and a novel open-circuit voltage model for the estimation of the state of charge of lithium-ion batteries are presented. To eliminate the influence of truncation error, this study utilizes a grey prediction model to deal with the state prediction problem. In order to further improve the accuracy of state of charge estimation, a novel open-circuit voltage model based on cubic-Hermite interpolation is also proposed to update the state estimate. Moreover, the accuracy of the proposed open-circuit voltage model is verified in terms of the following two aspects: capacity estimation and state of charge estimation. The accuracy and convergence of the grey extended Kalman filter is analyzed for different types of dynamic loading conditions, including the Urban Dynamometer Driving Schedule and the New European Driving Cycle. The experimental results show that the proposed approach offers good accuracy for the estimation of the state of charge. The experimental results show good agreement with the estimation results, and the proposed method can effectively improve the accuracy of extended Kalman filter. - Highlights: • A novel open-circuit voltage model is proposed. • A new grey extended Kalman filter is proposed. • The proposed open-circuit voltage model is validated from different perspectives. • The proposed grey extended Kalman filter against varying loading profiles is evaluated by statistical methods.

[en] This work presents a risk analysis performed to stationary Li-ion batteries within the framework of the STABALID project. The risk analysis had as main objective analysing the variety of hazards and dangerous situations that might be experienced by the battery during its life cycle and providing useful information on how to prevent or manage those undesired events. The first task of the risk analysis was the identification of all the hazards (or risks) that may arise during the battery life cycle. Afterwards, the hazards identified were mapped in the different stages of the battery life cycle and two analyses were performed for each stage: an internal problem analysis and an external peril analysis. For both, the dangerous phenomena and the undesirable events resulting from each hazard was evaluated in terms of probability of occurrence and severity. Then, a risk assessment was carried out according to a predefined risk matrix and a preliminary set of risk mitigation measures were proposed to reduce their probability of occurrence and/or their severity level. The results obtained show that it is possible to reduce the probability of occurrence/severity of all the risks associated to the battery life cycle to acceptable or tolerable levels. - Highlights: • Methodology for a detailed risk analysis of stationary Li-ion batteries. • Various hazards and dangerous situations are analysed with high detail. • Useful information on how to prevent or manage the undesired events is provided. • Measures to reduce probability of occurrence/severity of the risks are presented

[en] The battery technology literature is reviewed, with an emphasis on key elements that limit extreme fast charging. Key gaps in existing elements of the technology are presented as well as developmental needs. Among these needs are advanced models and methods to detect and prevent lithium plating; new positive-electrode materials which are less prone to stress-induced failure; better electrode designs to accommodate very rapid diffusion in and out of the electrode; and thermal management and pack designs to accommodate the higher operating voltage.