George Crabtree, 1944-2023

 George Crabtree, 1944-2023 1024 682 Batteries International

January 26, 2023: It is with sadness that BESB has to write that George Crabtree known to two generations of US and international battery researchers and industry figures passed away three days ago. He was 78. George, a distinguished scientist for almost half a century, was best known for his work at the Argonne National…

Ken Peters, 1928 – 2018

 Ken Peters, 1928 – 2018 517 641 Batteries International

September 10, 2018: Ken Peters, one of the stalwarts of the lead battery industry for over half a century, died peacefully in his sleep yesterday morning. He was greatly admired for his deep knowledge of lead batteries from a technological and business perspective as well as his kindness and generosity. Historically Ken’s contribution to the…

Digatron mourns sudden passing of most senior employee

 Digatron mourns sudden passing of most senior employee Batteries International

July 20, 2017: Digatron Power Electronics has announced the sudden passing of the company’s most senior employee, Wolfram Mühlhausen, who died on June 26 just a day after his 66th birthday. The company says his death, from a pulmonary embolism, was completely unexpected. Mühlhausen, who became known as Mr Digatron to his customers, had been…

Lan Lam, Jun Furukuwa

 Lan Lam, Jun Furukuwa Batteries International

September 22, 2016: Revolutionary. Perhaps that’s the only word for what was eventually to become the UltraBattery. The next leap forward in lead acid technology would not exist if it weren’t for the combined efforts of two particular men — Jun Furukawa and Lan Lam. The UltraBattery Two — taking concept to reality It should…

Maria Skyllas-Kazacos

 Maria Skyllas-Kazacos Batteries International

September 22, 2016: The idea of flow batteries goes back to NASA research in the 1970s, but the honour of converting theory into practice using vanadium belongs to Maria Skyllas-Kazacos. Flow batteries are now an increasing part of utilities’ armoury for energy storage and grid balancing. Maria Skyllas-Kazacos aka… Lady Vanadium To Maria Skyllas-Kazacos goes the…

Johan Coetzer

 Johan Coetzer Batteries International

September 22, 2016: Developing a battery consisting of molten sodium was always going to be a challenge. But sodium sulfur and sodium nickel batteries are still around. Molten salt and zebras… The spike in oil prices in 1974 sent the developed world into a tizzy. The sudden reality was that the days of cheap energy…

Stanley Whittingham

 Stanley Whittingham Batteries International

September 22, 2016: The creation of the lithium ion battery cell was the work — often collaborative but equally often on a competitive basis — of a handful of scientists around the world. Stanley Whittingham is one of that elite handful that can claim to be one of the lithium battery’s founding fathers. Reaching into…

Detchko Pavlov

 Detchko Pavlov Batteries International

September 22, 2016: For the last 60 years Detchko Pavlov has been at the cutting edge of finding new ways to enhance the performance of lead acid batteries. A lifetime in lead “Detchko? He’s forgotten more about lead than I’ve ever known!“ The tribute coming from John Devitt, inventor of the VRLA battery and no…

Ken Peters

 Ken Peters Batteries International

September 22, 2016: The development and commercialization of the valve regulated lead acid battery has been one of Ken Peters’ great contributions to the industry. VRLA: the next step For the past 30 years Ken Peters has been at the very heart of the development of the VRLA battery, effectively passing the baton on from…

Michael Thackery

 Michael Thackery Batteries International

September 21, 2016: Within days of arriving at Oxford University in 1981, South African electrochemist Michael Thackeray made a remarkable discovery that was eventually to have deep implications for lithium battery development. Putting lithium in its place The recent pioneers of the lithium battery are diverse — an academic piece of research here, a minor…