Lead-Acid Batteries for Future Automobiles provides an overview on the innovations that were recently introduced in automotive lead-acid batteries and other aspects of current research. Innovative concepts are presented, some of which aim to make lead-acid technology a candidate for higher levels of powertrain hybridization, namely 48-volt mild or high-volt full hybrids.
Lead-acid batteries continue to dominate the market as storage devices for automotive starting and power supply systems, but are facing competition from alternative storage technologies and being challenged by new application requirements, particularly related to new electric vehicle functions and powertrain electrification.
Jürgen Garche, graduated in chemistry at the Dresden University of Technology (DTU) in Germany in 1967. He was awarded his PhD in theoretical electrochemistry in 1970 and his habilitation in applied electrochemistry in 1980 from the same university. He worked at the DTU in the Electrochemical Power Sources Group for many years in different projects, mainly related to conventional batteries, before he moved 1991 to the Centre for Solar Energy and Hydrogen Research (ZSW) in Ulm, where he was, until 2004, the Head of the Electrochemical Energy Storage and Energy Conversion Division.
He was Professor of Electrochemistry at Ulm University and Guest Professor at Shandong University – China, 2005, Sapienca University Roma - Italy, 2009, 2013, 2016, and 2023, TUM-CREATE – Singapore, 2014, 2015, 2016- 2016, Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics - China, 2016, CNR Institute for Advanced Energy Technologies, Messina - Italy, 2019. After he retired from the ZSW he founded in 2004 the consulting firm Fuel Cell and Battery Consulting (FCBAT). Since 2015 he is senior professor at Ulm University. He has published more than 300 papers, 10 patents, and 11 books, among others as editor-in-chief of the first edition of Encyclopedia of Electrochemical Power Sources. He is listed in “World’s most Influential Scientific Minds” by Thomas Reuters (2014) and in the book “Profiles of 93 Influential Electrochemists” (2015).
Eckhard received his diploma in Physics 1995 and his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering 2001 from RWTH Aachen University of Technology with projects on CAE modeling and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy of lead-acid batteries. Having spent two and a half year as senior engineer at ISEA Institute for Power Electronics and Electrical Drives of the same university, he joined Ford Motor Company in the newly established Research and Innovation Centre (RIC) Aachen. He has been focusing on batteries for low-voltage power supply, micro, and mild hybrid applications. As a Technical Specialist, he is working closely with Ford’s global engineering centres and has been involved in the conceptual work, specifications, and component verification plans for the enhanced flooded batteries, battery sensors, and charging strategies that went into Ford’s first generations of micro-hybrid vehicles. He is an active member of German, European, and international standardization working groups for stop/start and micro-hybrid batteries.
Pat was awarded a Ph. D. for crystal structure analysis in 1968 by the University of Durham, U.K., and a D. Sc. for research publications in materials science, by the same university, in 1994. He worked for 23 years at the Harwell Laboratory of the U.K. Atomic Energy Authority where he brought a background of crystal structure and materials chemistry to the study of lead-acid and other varieties of battery, thus supplementing the traditional electrochemical emphasis of the subject.
From1995 he was Manager of Electrochemistry at the International Lead Zinc Research Organization in North Carolina and Program Manager of the Advanced Lead-Acid Battery Consortium. In 2005 he also became President of the Consortium.
Dr. Moseley was one of the editors of the Journal of Power Sources for 25 years from 1989 to 2014. In 2008 he was awarded the Gaston Planté medal by the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences.
Dr David Rand AM PhD ScD FTSE was educated at the University of Cambridge where he conducted research on fuel cells. In 1969, he joined the Australian Government’s CSIRO laboratories in Melbourne. After further exploration of fuel cell mechanisms and then electrochemical studies of mineral beneficiation, David formed the CSIRO Novel Battery Technologies Group in the late 1970s and remained its leader until 2003. He was one of the six scientists who established the Advanced Lead–Acid Battery Consortium in 1992 and served as its Manager in 1994. As a Chief Research Scientist, David fulfilled the role of CSIRO’s scientific advisor on hydrogen and renewable energy until his retirement in 2008. He remains active within the organisation as an Honorary Research Fellow, and has served as the Chief Energy Scientist of the World Solar Challenge since its inception in 1987. David was awarded the Faraday Medal by the Royal Society of Chemistry (UK) in 1991 and the UNESCO Gaston Planté Medal by the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences in 1996. He was elected a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering in 1998, and became a Member of the Order of Australia in 2013 for service to science and technological development in the field of energy storage.
