EXTENDING BATTERY LIFE
INDUSTRIAL MOTIVE POWER, TRACTION, DEEP CYCLING BATTERIES
TECHNOLOGY HIGHLIGHTS - BUSINESS PERSPECTIVE
- The rational mind knows that the only way for any form of treatment to successfully extend battery life, the batteries must still work.
- Waiting until batteries are completely worn out, before attempting to breathe life into them again, is as irrational as watering dead plants.
- Consumers have too long been persuaded to put preparations into worn out batteries, (perception - no risk); rather than into still-working batteries, (- valuable).
- We are absolutely serious about making batteries last longer. We are determined to stay well away from bad science. We are bucking the trend.
40 MWh - BIGGEST BATTERY IN THE WORLD, 1988, CHINO, NEAR LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA.
Load-leveling battery - reinforcement of local electricity grid network. Eight strings, each string 1032 lead-acid cells, each cell rated 3250 ampere-hours. Extra long life materials were used, including micro-porous rubber separators and special lead-antimony-arsenic positive grid and lead-calcium negative grid alloys - to give a designed cell life expectancy of 4000 and a guaranteed cycle life expectancy of 2000 deep cycles.
We designed and manufactured the automatic watering valve - stibine/ arsine trap - flame arrestor units (ASF) that were installed on this giant battery. Without these units, the battery could never have been operated.
The Chino battery is seen as an important milestone, not only in terms of electricity management but in terms of battery life management. This is the catalyst that persuaded the directors of our company to invest in R&D, for a technologically sound,(and safe!), technology: Giving motive power battery users hands-on control over the life expectancy of their valuable batteries. It took twelve years. We named it Batteryvitamin.
John Fetter, (white overalls), CEO of F & H believes the operational and financial challenges that face industrial battery users can only be properly understood by going to the places where the batteries are used. Five ton locomotive battery in charging bay - goldmine in South Africa, 8600 feet below ground, 3000 feet below sea level. Temperature of surrounding rock, 55 °C
Batteryvitamin L is designed to greatly slow down the wearing-out process that occurs specifically in industrial motive power batteries, (positive grid corrosion accompanied by sludging of the positive active mass, followed by loss in ampere-hours). Batteryvitamin works by physics at a nanoscale level, (explained in detail, in plain language on other pages). Batteryvitamin typically adds 40% to the service life of hard working industrial motive power batteries. One part of Batteryvitamin concentrate in 125 parts battery refill water. New and in-use batteries.
Why do motive power batteries deliver only about 1500 deep cycles, yet load leveling batteries seem to be able go on and on for 4000 deep cycles? There does not appear to be that much difference in their design and construction. Nevertheless, they are not identical. The separators preferred by knowledgeable battery operators for load leveling batteries possess a unique property - known in the trade as an ability to reduce antimony poisoning of the negative plates.
We investigated this in some considerable detail, using a variety of solvent extraction techniques to isolate the material contained in the antimony inhibiting separators. This has obviously been done many times before. Therefore, instead of the usual chemical analysis, we tried a different approach. The antimony that was poisoning the negatives had migrated there from the positives, so we reasoned that we should be looking at battery cells as electroplating cells - albeit very, very inefficient electroplating cells. After that, everything fell into place. We knew that additives in electroplating baths migrate to and are adsorbed onto the negatives. We analyzed the material's physical properties and synthesized an equivalent material with the same physical properties, although not chemically related. Finally, we developed an improved version, superior in every way to the material we had isolated, able to cut down grid corrosion to a bare minimum.
Lead-acid battery users perceive batteries as commodities, battery manufacturers perceive their market as saturated. Therefore, for argument's sake, if batteries are made to last twice as long, only half the original quantity is likely to be sold. Whether right or wrong, it does create a climate that impresses on every person with realistic expectations of a lasting career in the battery industry never to become involved in anything that can make batteries last longer. This is the long and the short of why our company is promoting this technology and battery manufacturers are not.
- FEATURES
- controls gassing;
- reduces stand self-discharge;
- protects the positives against corrosion;
- improves battery life expectancy 40 - 60 percent.
On average 2 out of every 3 lead-acid batteries that go into service are replacements for worn out batteries.
BUSINESS OPPORTUNITY
Motorists strapped for cash can be relied upon to want to consider the alternative to buying a new battery - reviving their old battery. This is what kick-started sulfation (Brit. sulphation) cures in the first place and has been sustaining multitudes of bring-back-to-life remedies for as long as the lead-acid battery has been an item of commerce.
There are thousands of desulfation merchants competing for a finite pool of customers who do not have enough money to buy a new battery. Desperation leads to sales spin - describing an old battery that has been charged as 'battery rejuvenation'; a battery that has been charged and can then start an engine as 'battery life extension'.
The industrial motive power battery business is very different. The users of these batteries are very different. The money involved is very different.
The average retail price for a full-plate-count, non-discounted automobile battery is $110, (£68). The average price for an industrial motive power battery is $3500, (£2200). Selling industrial motive power batteries is potentially 32 times more attractive, per battery, than selling automobile batteries.
The total value of automobile batteries in use worldwide was $57 billion in 2010 and industrial motive power batteries $11 billion. The automobile market appears to be 5.18 times more attractive than the industrial motive power battery market. Automotive is, however, a hotly contested line of business, subject to aggressive price cutting.
These are, nevertheless, useful numbers that can be used to calculate a figure of merit for an industrial motive power battery related business start-up. Divide 32, the sales price advantage of motive power batteries, by 5.18, the market value advantage of automobile batteries. Less than one means best left untouched. Greater than one speaks of opportunity. Six is excellent.
Batteryvitamin, Sydney, Australia.
Motive power batteries are rarely used alone or in small groups - are mostly used in groups of sixty, four hundred, a thousand batteries, per facility. In the UK, Asda, Morrisons, Sainsbury's, Tesco and Waitrose together have over 120 distribution warehouses, each has in the order of 200 motive power batteries powering forklift trucks, stackers and other types of vehicles. In the USA, Walmart alone employs as many as 140 distribution warehouses. Logistics operators, industrial concerns, food and beverage manufacturers, etc. run many hundreds of similar large operations.
In 2001, Batteryvitamin was installed for the first time at a large facility, a 950 battery auto manufacturer parts distribution warehouse. A typical, smaller 400-battery warehouse can account for an investment in batteries of 400 X $3500 = $1.4 million, (£875 thousand). Extra 40% service life represents a saving of $560 thousand, (£350 thousand). The price the customer would be asked to pay for the service can be a ten-twenty percent portion of the saving.
Multiple installations, repeat business, minimal overheads - a potentially handsome line of business. A people oriented, marketing and sales, slightly actuarial, technical service line of business.
As an astute business person, you already know we have provided details of only the seeds of the business - a basic measure of its life blood, and that:
- The cutting-edge technology is, in fact, the beating heart of this kind of business;
- It is not difficult to verify marketing information but background technology searches often turn out to be tedious and unproductive;
- Sectors of the sulfation cure business have dragged the reputation of battery aids down to the brink of self destruction;
- Glowing product endorsements have long provided advertisers with an easy way of diverting attention away from questionable details.
We therefore considered it essential that we provide you with comprehensive, easy to read, technical disclosures. Our technical pages probably carry more straight technical information than any other battery product website.
Our INTRODUCTION page provides Batteryvitamin application highlights.
Our TECHNICAL INFORMATION page provides precise details of the technology.
There are a total of 21 pages with technical information on this website.
What we propose is a very simple business model. No upfront payments, no franchising fees. We provide technical support and product - you provide marketing and distribution - under an exclusive-territory distribution/licensing agreement.