Design and performance of high specific power, pulsed discharge, bipolar lead acid batteries

Abstract

It is possible to design batteries which have specific powers comparable to capacitors for sub-second pulses (50-200 kW/kg), but which retain the specific energy superior to capacitors (30-100 J/kg). In 1990 LaFollette and Bennion described the design and performance of small (0.2 cm/sup 2/) bipolar lead acid batteries which, for 0.1-1 ms, were discharged at specific power levels of up to several hundred kW/kg. Improvements to the electrode designs were later made. Full size bipolar batteries were built which demonstrated that the results obtained for the laboratory-scale batteries of LaFollette and Bennion could be successfully scaled up. The purpose of this paper is to describe efforts at development of commercially viable bipolar lead acid batteries capable of sub-second discharges at specific powers of 50-300 kW/kg, including design and performance.