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Development of Bipolar Lead Acid Battery for Renewable Energy Storage Applications

Subcategory (under Clean Energy): Cross Cutting
Technology Readiness Level (TRL): TRL 4 - Early prototype
Technology Outline (Process Description)

Various types of substrates such as carbon composites, metallic substrates, oxide coated metallic substrates, Silicon sub- strates and multilayered hybrid substrates are tested for the purpose of developing Bipolar Lead Acid Battery. The substrates were subjected to conductivity test, mechanical tests, corrosion test to find out the suitability of such substrates for bipolar application. The developed bipolar material was further characterized using Cyclic Voltammetry, Tafel analysis, EIS etc. tech- niques to get an insight of their electrical and electrochemical properties. 

Out of all those substrates tested, some exhibited good corrosion resistance, but poor electrical conductivity value and vice versa. Some manifested a very high electrical conductivity, but the substrates are not stable in positive voltage window of lead acid battery. In multilayered configurations using lead foil, solder paste and polymer mid-layer, the electrical conductive value varied with different types of solder paste. However, these hot-pressed substrates deformed due to heat and were not suitable for battery assembly. The spot-welded multilayered substrates were having electrical conductivity around 5500 S m-1 without any deformation and were finalized as substrate materials.

Salient Features/Advantages

  • The substrates were quite stable in the region and have quite high H2 and O2 over potential
  • Substrate assembly is stable in the potential window for Pb-acid battery
  • The compressive strength of the frame was found to be greater than 30 MPa, which is suitable to be used for framing bipolar plate

  • Good adherence of both positive and negative paste with the substrate was observed

Key Outcomes

  • The battery prototype successfully completed more than 40 charge-discharge cycles without significant capacity loss
  • The IR of the fully charged battery was found to be 30 mΩ
  • The Capacity of the prototype was observed to be 9.6 Ah @ C/30 when discharged up to 5.25 V
  • The specific energy of the prototype was 40 Wh kg-1 against 25-35 Wh kg-1 for conventional lead acid batteries

IP Protection details

  • Patent filed (Title, national/International): Nil
  • Patents Granted: Nil
  • Copyrights obtained /progress on commercialisation /Pl. specify connect with industry: Nil

Contact details (for more information)

  • Nodal Person name: Basab Chakraborty
  • Email ID: basab@see.iitkgp.ac.in
  • Organisation name (Relevant link/web page): IIT Kharagpur
Supporting Photographs/Images

Organizations involved in the development (logo/name)

Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur

Amara raja Batteries Ltd.

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