Bipolar lead battery firm Advanced Battery Concepts announced on May 19 it had signed up deep-cycle battery maker Trojan Battery as a licensee for its GreenSeal technology. This is the third licensee in five months.

The firm also announced the formation of a technical advisory board comprising experts from the battery industry and chaired by Bob Galyen, chief technical officer of the China-based Contemporary Amperex Technology Limited (CATL).

In January, ABC signed up Johnson Controls as a licensee and a few weeks later an unidentified Chinese firm was licensed.

“We are in discussion with several others,” Ed Shaffer, chief executive of the firm told BESB. “Our licensees are taking our technology and moving into production. We are doing a lot of production engineering in partnership with them.”

Michael Everett, senior vice president of engineering at Trojan, said the technology made a conclusive argument for widespread adoption.

“After considerable due diligence, we concluded that Advanced Battery Concepts has developed an extensive suite of battery technologies that will enhance the performance and reliability of Trojan’s AGM products to meet future demands, and will help to ensure that lead batteries continue to dominate many rechargeable energy storage markets,” he said.

Shaffer said ABC’s prototype production line, which includes its PrecisionAM pasting technology, was in the process of being built at its facility in Clare, Michigan.

The pasting method applies active materials to the bipolar electrodes of lead batteries in a more precise application and consistency than traditional pasting methods, the company says.

Shaffer said the technical advisory board had been formed to look beyond the lead industry.

“We will look at how to expand the market in which we can use lead. Everyone’s talking about 48 volt systems, distributing power, so on – there is a whole host of applications that we believe makes lead extremely competitive. Added to that is its recyclability.

“GreenSeal improves performance, cost – so we are targeting areas that previously couldn’t have used lead but now have the potential to do so.”