May 9, 2019: Orion Engineered Carbons has extended the range of its speciality carbon blacks, which are tailored for lead batteries. They were showcased for the first time at the Battery Council International meetings in New Orleans at the end of April.

“Our new range of high quality carbon blacks act as conductive additives and increase the dynamic charge acceptance of batteries by up to 60% while maintaining acceptable water loss,” said Kane Henneke, a sales engineer at the BCI convention. “Our latest Printex kappa grades have very low metallic impurities which results in extended battery cycle life.

“Most conductive carbon blacks increase hydrogen evolution as the battery’s negative electrode side resulting in high water loss during charging. The modified surface of these products maintain their conductivity and surface area while suppressing the hydrogen evolution reaction lowering water loss to acceptable levels and which gives battery manufacturers the freedom to use higher loading to achieve higher charge acceptance.”

Orion’s new range of products — Printex kappa 210, 220 and 240 grades — follow the acquisition last November of French acetylene black manufacturer SN2A. The firm has since been renamed Orion Engineered Carbons France SAS.