Bipolar lead battery firm Advanced Battery Concepts signed a non-exclusive licensing agreement with Johnson Controls in December for its GreenSeal bipolar lead acid battery.

The firm, which announced the deal earlier in January, claims its technology heralds the next revolution for lead acid batteries.

Speaking to BESB last week, CEO and founder Ed Shaffer said the battery world would be transformed with the technology, which he said would more than double profit margins and offer vast improvements like better vibration durability and greater cycle-life performance.

As well as JCI, Shaffer says another licensee is about to come on board and the firm is in talks with several others.

“The materials used are much cheaper — the plastics, polypropylene, gradually reduce the cost,” he said. “It lasts longer because the construction is more robust and rugged. There’s no cast-on strap, no wells,” he said.

“This is the next revolution for lead. We are going to change how lead batteries are made. They’re much more attractive financially, and we are offering a margin of 50% where it used to be 22%, simply because they are cheaper to make and they last longer.

“We don’t want to be a large battery producer. Our job is to get this technology into the production process within the next eight years so that lead can remain a viable part of our battery industry.”

Shaffer said savings were made because of the reduction in the amount of lead needed in each battery, for example in golf cart batteries, which he said use 46% less than in traditional lead batteries.

The company was opening a small pilot plant at its base in Clare, Michigan, Shaffer said.