company news about Lead carbon batteries, another dark horse in the field of long-term energy storage?

Lead carbon batteries have not competed for the business of electric vehicles like lithium iron phosphate and ternary lithium batteries, nor have they had the idea of replacing lithium iron phosphate hourly energy storage. After all, the future new power system requires the optimal combination of energy storage technologies that are of different durations, categories, and meet the needs of different scenarios. Energy storage systems with different technological routes can have a place as long as they can run economically and safely.

Lead carbon batteries are "hybrid" and belong to capacitive lead-acid batteries. By adding special activated carbon to the negative electrode metal lead of lead-acid batteries, the problem of sulfation is solved, avoiding the loss of reversibility of charging and discharging due to the growth of lead sulfate crystal particles. With activated carbon, the problem of attenuation is solved, and the cycle is enhanced. Compared with lead-acid batteries, the battery life can be directly increased by 6 times, and it is qualified for large-scale energy storage applications.

And the power density has also increased by three times, reaching 300-400W/kg (close to lithium batteries), and the charging speed has been increased by eight times. This is related to the fact that lead carbon batteries have both lead-acid batteries and supercapacitors, which have the characteristics of instantaneous high-capacity discharge of capacitors and energy advantages, allowing for fast charging and discharging. The energy density of lead carbon batteries can be increased to 40-60Wh/kg, which is higher than current liquid flow batteries, and there is no need to carry two large storage tanks, which means the volume and footprint are smaller. Moreover, the density requirement for lead carbon battery energy storage cabinets is lower, with 1m meeting the requirement (lithium batteries require 3m), which can be stacked in a more dense manner, to some extent compensating for the disadvantage of lower energy density.

More importantly, the cost-effectiveness of lead carbon batteries is very high, with a cost far lower than the one-time initial investment of 1.5 yuan/Wh for lithium battery energy storage, which is only 0.8-1 yuan/Wh. Of course, if compared with vanadium flow batteries that are both long-term energy storage, both have just crossed the critical line of commercialization, and the electrolyte has a high recovery rate and mature recovery process and technology. The lifespan of lead carbon batteries is only about 5-8 years, but fortunately, the cost is low, the capacity of individual batteries is larger, and the BMS cost is lower. The latter's flow batteries can be used safely for 20 years, but the investment price per watt hour is high. Comparison reveals that it is difficult to have both fish and bear's paw, but the high cost and large volume of liquid flow batteries are not a hard problem, and can be gradually improved in the later stage.

Safety is another trump card of lead carbon batteries. Due to the absence of flammable materials, the temperature rise process takes a long time, and like flow batteries, water-based electrolytes (dilute sulfuric acid aqueous solution) are used, so there is no need to worry about thermal runaway, fuel and explosion issues.