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 probably called the…

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 honour of turning…

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 were over. And…

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 the depths to…

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 intellectual slouch himself,…

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 John Devitt in…

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 breakthrough there —…

The modern day lead acid battery would be very different — both more expensive and less efficient — were it not for the contribution of David Prengaman, one of the world’s top specialists in the metallurgy of lead alloys and related energy storage. The Lead Pope R David Prengaman of Dallas, Texas is one of…