The 23rd International Battery Seminar & Exhibit,
Fort Lauderdale, Florida, March 13-16, 2006

I would like to note that this year’s conference was extremely well attended as evidenced by the fact that participation was up by at least 20%. With attendance of over 400 people from 17 countries and with 37 exhibitors, the conference was again a major success. The seminar topics encompassed a wide blend of subjects including regulatory/safety issues for Li-ion batteries, Li-ion for portable applications, Li-ion for large format applications, advances in small fuel cells and thin film and non-lithium technologies. As usual the weather was perfect and the Broward County venue was excellent.

The main conference was preceded by two very well attended tutorials. The first tutorial, entitled “A Review of the Status and Future Prospects for Li-ion Development”, was presented by Dr. J-M Tarascon from the Universite de Picardie. Tarascon did an excellent job of highlighting the key areas for R&D in the world of Li-ion batteries. The second tutorial, entitled “Worldwide Market Update on NiMH, Li-ion and Polymer Batteries for Portable Applications and HEVs”, was again skillfully delivered by Hideo Takeshita of IIT. As usual Takeshita-san gave a fantastic overview of the rechargeable battery industry, delving into the specifics of the market and its nuances. Attending this tutorial alone is worth the full ticket price to Fort Lauderdale.

The remainder of the conference touched on all key aspects of the industry.

Laptop PC Battery Life End User Perception

K. Shah of Intel presented a focus group study on the subject of notebook PC run-time and usage. It was very clear that most NBPC users are very disappointed with run-time even when extended by proper power management. Many users purchase the extra battery for their NBPC but tend to leave it at home when on the road. The focus groups were presented with several strategies for “coping” with the run-time problem and the concept of a built-in fuel cell or an enhanced battery won out over an external fuel cell. The idea of an enhanced battery was seen to be the best option. Users like the idea of 8-12 hours of run-time and would be willing to pay for it.

IEEE P1725tm Standards

Dr. Jason Howard from Motorola Inc. began by stating a few cell-phone facts such as that 800 million cell phones were shipped in 2005, Li-ion batteries are used in virtually all cell phones and there is no near-term replacement for Li-ion in sight for the cell phone industry.

The new P1725 standard is seen to be a necessary cell phone-specific update from P1625, which was basically designed for the notebook PC market. The official P1725 working group is chaired by Howard, with group members from at least 30 other organizations ranging from cell phone manufacturers to the supplies of battery components and chemicals.

The overall thrust of the project is to develop a standard that establishes design criteria analysis for quality and reliability of rechargeable lithium-ion and lithium-ion polymer batteries for mobile telephone applications. Also included are electrical and mechanical construction, packaging, pack and cell level charge and discharge controls and overall system considerations.

Regulatory Update on Batteries and Fuel Cells

One of the first items addressed by George Kerchner of Wiley, Rein & Fielding LLP was that primary lithium cells and batteries are still not permitted to be shipped on passenger airplanes. He also noted that the FAA has nearly completed its flammability tests on lithium-ion cells and batteries and the preliminary results show that fire aircraft suppression systems are very effective in controlling a fire involving these batteries. Therefore, a rule to ban shipping lithium-ion batteries on passenger aircraft is not expected from the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT).

Kerchner explained that the DOT is working towards finalizing a rule that would remove the current exception in the hazardous materials regulations for lithium and lithium-ion cells and batteries containing more than 5 grams of lithium (cells) and 25 grams (batteries). This would harmonize the U.S. hazardous materials regulations with the international regulations. Cells or batteries containing amounts of lithium in excess of these specifications must therefore be shipped at Class 9 Haz Mat. As a result of this ruling manufacturers of portable electronic equipment that use lithium-ion batteries appear to be designing their devices with “double” battery packs whereby each battery does not contain more than 8 grams of ELC (equivalent lithium content). (The double batteries are not permanently electrically connected together.)

Kerchner also pointed out the exception in the regulations for shipping “battery powered vehicles” containing lithium-ion batteries by motor vehicle and cargo vessel. He highlighted this point by noting the interpretation letter the manufacturer of Segways secured from the U.S. DOT that confirmed this exception applies to the Segway, which was converted from NiMH to Li-ion power!

Kerchner also discussed the new “carry-on provisions” adopted for small fuel cells that enable passengers to carry these products onto passenger aircraft. These provisions state that fuel cartridges may contain flammable liquids such as methanol, formic acid and butane; must not be refillable by the consumer; and must not exceed 120 ml in volume.

This entire subject is quite perplexing and I suggest you contact Kerchner (Gkerchner@wrf.com) if you plan to introduce a new portable electronic product in the future powered by lithium-ion batteries or fuel cells.

Battery Safety and Consumer Product Recalls

Richard Stern from the Office of Compliance, U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission explained to the audience that more and more consumer products are being powered by batteries and that the batteries are becoming increasingly more powerful. He noted that these high-energy batteries increase the likelihood of an unsafe failure and stated that since September 2003 there have been 15 battery recalls!

To give us an idea of what a recall really is he showed the implications of the recalls which were as small as 475 water scooter batteries and as large as 1 million cell phone battery packs! He pointed out that some recalls were related to design problems such as lack of adequate (or any) overcharge protection or physical protection. Others were quality related such as improper placement of leads or uneven forming of the cells. As he concluded he got our attention by stating that companies that fail to report a battery-related problem can be heavily fined up to a maximum of $1.85 million for any violation.

Safety for Lithium-ion: Abuse Tolerance Vs. Field Failure

Dr. Brian Barnett of TIAXX LLC set the tone by noting that in 2005 the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission reported over 50 incidents of injuries from fire or explosion in cell phone batteries. He reported that a major cause of Li-ion battery incidents is related to internal shorts and that these seem to occur in less than one in one million cells. He also noted that more than one billion cells were produced in 2005!

The bulk of Barnett’s talk discussed some very interesting DSC (differential scanning calorimetry) results of various Li-ion cathode materials. In this study his team was able to fingerprint the different cathode materials with the DSC and report that LiCoO2 shows very low energy release while the nickelate material shows dangerously fast energy release. These results and others enable Barnett to conclude that the DSC technique can be used to quantitatively evaluate cathode materials for their tendency for thermal runaway and general safety.

Li-Ion for Hybrid Electric Vehicles

After offering some historical information related to Johnson Controls Inc. and its newly formed joint venture with Saft, Ron Miles of JCI delved into a report on their USABC contract to develop and test a 48-volt/500WHr Li-ion battery module. As expected, JCI is developing a system and plans to supply a complete package to the auto industry.

Their test results show detailed analysis of the cell voltage distribution and thermal variation from cell to cell and confirmed operation of power disconnects during an over-voltage condition. The thermally managed battery module operated safely during overcharge tests with no venting, disassembly or fire.

To conclude Miles described their larger 266-volt Li-ion module that was recently displayed at the 2006 Detroit Auto Show. The specs for their 266-volt system are 76KW power, @ 35 Liters, 26Kg cell weight and an estimated system weight of 40Kg.

Electrothermal Analysis of Li-ion Batteries

Ahmad Pesaran from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) described work done by NREL and supported by DOE to study the performance of high-power, low-cost HEV cells developed by Saft. The objectives of the project were to develop an electrothermal process/model for predicting thermal performance of real battery cells and modules.

Two cylindrical cell designs were studied. Design A was a Saft Li-ion cell with terminals on opposite ends of the cylindrical cell while Design B had terminals on the same end of the cell. The results indicated (to my surprise) that cell design A had less favorable thermal performance under the HEV transient heat rejection profiles. The conclusion was that this type of work produced valuable data that would be useful in improving future cell designs.

An Overview of the European Lithium Battery R&D Main Trends

This paper was unique in that data was presented that detailed the overall research effort in Europe in regard to Li-ion batteries. For example, we now know that there are 450 research scientists working on this topic in more than 100 research laboratories throughout Europe. Ali Madani of Avicenne presented detailed lists of all the names of the research laboratories in France (22), Germany (11), Austria (1), UK (6), The Netherlands (2), Belgium (1), Switzerland (4), Spain (9), Italy (9), Portugal (3), Greece (1), Sweden (2), Denmark (1), Norway (1), Poland (3) and so on. The report goes on to describe the different topics of their research and breaks them down in terms of anode, cathode, electrolyte, etc.

There was enough detailed information in this presentation to keep an ambitious salesperson busy for at least a year, making cold calls on all the different research facilities. The only thing the author did not present was his list of phone numbers and contact names, but I am certain that he wanted to leave some work to be done by the sales team!

Ni-NMC Based Li-ion Technology for Power Tool Applications

Dr. G. Thomas of Tianjin Lishen Battery Joint-Stock Co. Ltd. began by describing the power tool market and the trend toward higher voltages for more power. Most hand-held power tools are now using a minimum of 18 volts and some are as high as 36 volts. Lishen claims that Li-ion is more environmentally friendly, offers great energy density, lighter weight, and very low self-discharge.

The speaker went on to show products that are being introduced by Dremel, Skil, Dewalt and Milwaukee. In fact, Milwaukee is the first to be introducing an entire line of Li-ion based power tools. This line of 28V tools is designed with fast charging capability for the professional power tool market. Lishen is doing all of this with a LiNMC:LiCoO2 cathode that shows good performance and better safety than LiCoO2. The speaker concluded by saying that LiNMC allows 4.4V charge capability, giving 200mv natural margin for overcharge assuming all cell chemistries are charged to 4.2V.

Advanced Electrolyte Salts for Li-ion Batteries

W. Casteel of Air Products and Chemicals Inc. began by describing a new electrolyte salt for Li-ion batteries that is stable to >400°C, stable in strong acids or bases, hydrolytically stable (does not generate HF), offers overcharge protection and is potentially recyclable. Though this sounds too good to be true, the speaker went on to give a very convincing description of the unique performance of this electrolyte system based on B12F12-XHX2-. Detailed results were presented which seemed to prove without a doubt that the Air Products salts were totally safe even under the most extreme type of abuse and overcharge. Though cycle life test data was not shown out beyond about 100 cycles, this electrolyte system is definitely worth a closer look.

Lithium-ion SuperPolymer Battery

It was late in the afternoon when Dr. Sakar Das Gupta from Electrovaya Corp. took the stage and took on the challenge of waking up his thirsty audience. Clearly one of the more interesting and entertaining performances of the conference, Gupta presented what appeared to be a battery system that is definitely unique. With energy densities up to 250WHr/Kg, this polymer electrolyte-based Li-ion cell appears ready for mass production.

Despite having double separators for improved safety, the Electrovaya cell offers excellent high rate and low temperature performance. One clear example of their exceptional cell performance was the 16-hour runtime delivered by the PowerPad in laptop computers and tablet PCs. Their next challenge was to integrate their battery technology into an electric vehicle, which was done in October 2005 and resulted in a driving range of ~200 miles.

Improved Performance Nickel Metal Hydride Battery Technology

Mike Fetcenko of Ovonic Battery Co. began as he does every year by presenting his growing list of ECD patents and dedicated licensees. He then went on to describe the improvements that have been made to the NiMH system over the past year.

Fetcenko showed a comparison of AA cell performance over the years which began at ~1,100mAh in 1991 and is now ~3,000mAh. To date a AA cell is ~1,000mAh and a sub-C is ~3,700mAh. ECD and Ovonics continues for push the performance envelope with new alloys and modifications. They are now talking about an Abx alloy that features a “super lattice” according to Fetcenko. Besides improving the negative electrode, they are also developing advanced processes for producing an improved NiOOH electrode. One of their advances relates to embedded nickel fibers, which create a high power nickel hydroxide.

Update on Ni/Co Market Fundamentals and New Products for Nickel Batteries

Eric Wasmund of Inco Special Products began by talking about the nickel and cobalt world markets as they relate to the rechargeable battery industry. Inco Ltd. is currently the second largest producer of nickel and cobalt. Their new projects at Voisey’s Bay in Canada and Goro New Caledonia will greatly increase their cobalt reserves somewhere between 2007 and 2012.

Overall nickel consumption has increased an average of 4% per year since 1950 reaching 1280 Kt/yr in 2005. (see graph:)



The secondary battery market is only ~3% of the total nickel market with applications such as appliances and kitchenware (30%), industrial (28%), transportation (21%) and building and construction (21%). The pricing (see pie chart above) which is apparently controlled by the stainless steel market, reached a high of ~$17,000 per ton in mid-2005 and is now hovering around $13,500.

Cobalt is a different story with ~21% being consumed in secondary batteries. Other applications for cobalt are chemicals (24%), super alloys (20%), catalysts (11%), hard materials (10.5%), magnets (7%) and other ( 5.5%). In terms of new products being offered by Inco, they are assisting the battery market by developing nickel foam and high surface area powders for advanced electrodes.

Electric and Hybrid Vehicle Trends and Impact on Battery Market

Christophe Pillot from Avicenne presented a very interesting picture of the growing worldwide HEV market. With quotations from executives at Toyota, GM, Nissan and Honda it is clear that the auto industry is embracing HEV technology. As laid out by Pillot, there were 170K HEVs sold in 2004, >300K in 2005 with growth to >2M units in 2010. At the moment the players are Toyota, Honda and Ford but in the very near future companies such as Saturn, Nissan, DaimlerChrysler and GM will join the mix.

One very interesting comment relates to the blend of battery technologies. In 2005, 100% of HEVs used NiMH battery technology. This trend is expected to continue with the slower-than-anticipated introduction of Li-ion technology beginning in 2006. Surprising, and according to Mr. Pillot, Li-ion technology will be slow to be assimilated, gaining only 15% market share by 2015 (see bar graph above for details). This slow shift is believed to be related to the cost differential of the NiMH and Li-ion battery systems.

Hydrogen Fuel Cell Systems for Portable Power

Greg Cipriano of Protonex Corp. presented the company’s focus on the 10- to 500-watt market for fuel cells because they believe that this power range is where the best overall cost advantage lies when compared to batteries. Portable power for laptop computers, military power for soldiers and small generators are their markets of interest. The core technology of Protonex is their unique stack fabricating technology that involves a single-step methodology for manufacturing PEM fuel cell stacks. Protonex claims to have successfully tested and optimized resin transfer molding technology in the construction of more than 600 fuel cell stacks in the desired power range, demonstrating more than 4,000 hours of continuous runtime. Their recyclable sodium borohydride fuel cartridge lasts for 24 hours at a continuous power of 30 watts. The military has been an early user of the Protonex technology, spending more than $5 million dollars in military contracts.

UltraCell Reformed Methanol Micro Fuel Cells: A High Power System

Jim Kaschmitter of UltraCell Corp. presented the company’s breakthrough technology that involves the development of a micro reformer for converting methanol into a hydrogen reformate. Their unique system design, which combines a fuel cell with a micro reformer, provides two-to-three times the energy density of a conventional Li-ion battery.

The UltraCell ‘hot-swappable’ methanol cartridge uses 67% methanol for a further increase in energy density. The overall design of the fuel cell system is one of the lightest weight 25-watt systems in development for use with laptop computers, first responders and other industrial applications. This fuel cell has passed the U.S. Army CERDEC alpha testing and now beta prototypes are available for qualified customers.

High Power Primary:It Just Might Last Longer Than You Think!

Bob Altabet of RBC described their high-rate cylindrical alkaline cell that incorporates a shaped anode. The talk began with a review of the primary battery market with mention of the explosion of the high power device. Data was shown that compared several cell designs in a high-rate digital-camera pulse-test. Before the RBC test data was shown, data was presented for standard alkaline, high power alkaline, nickel oxy-hydroxide and lithium iron disulfide. It was clear that in this particular test the LiFeS2 cell is the clear winner, yielding more than four times the power of a high power alkaline cell. The RBC data was then laid out and found to deliver 3.7 times that of standard alkaline. Various comparisons were made of cost and value with other secondary battery systems.

What Cartridge Needs from Industry – What Industry Needs from Cartridge?

Ken Cooper of BIC USA began with a short introduction of his company and their manufacturing capabilities. It soon became very apparent that BIC would have a lot to offer the fuel cell industry in terms of their ability to mass-produce a safe methanol fuel cartridge. BIC currently produces roughly 4 million butane lighters per day globally, using high speed manufacturing technology. Their ability to produce assemblies within a 50-micron tolerance range and components within a 10-micron range is impressive. Each disposable lighter is tested with more than 50 quality checks and 100% inspection. These products are designed to be extremely safe and this technology would be directly applicable to the fuel cell cartridge industry.