Alberto F. Romero
Bio
Dr. Alberto F. Romero is currently R&D Engineer at Exide Group. He is part of the Basic Research Group within the R&D Department.
His currently responsibilities are focused on the improvement of Lead-Acid Batteries by performing electrochemical and electrical studies for both automotive and industrial applications. Alberto has been working in the energy storage sector for the last 6 years, principally in the R&D field.
His background is in Electrochemistry, Science and Technology and his entire professional career has been related to the use of new materials as additives for Lead-Acid Batteries and the application of electrochemical techniques to characterize the properties of Lead-Acid Batteries.
During the charge process of a lead battery (LAB), the main reactions of the positive plate (PbSO4/PbO2) and the negative plate (PbSO4/Pb) take place. On the other hand, when the battery is in the state of overcharge or self-discharge, other secondary reactions take place. Two of these reactions are the Oxygen Evolution Reaction (OER) in the positive plate and the Hydrogen Evolution Reaction (HER) in the negative plate. As a result, current is consumed by several mechanisms during these states. Consequently, if these secondary reactions are catalysed by the operating conditions, LAB performance may be adversely affected by a water consumption increment. One of the main causes of OER and HER catalysis is related to the effect of metal impurities. The presence of these impurities is due to the different raw materials used in battery manufacturing, with soft lead being the main precursor. On the other hand, this fact will be critical for the LAB market in the coming years, as the EU regulation requires a higher content of secondary materials in the batteries, which normally contain higher impurity levels. With the aim of predicting the catalytic effect on water consumption of the soft lead used to build the plates of a LAB, a low-cost tool was developed in this work. So, soft lead samples were characterized by this tool using a three electrode cell and applying an electrochemical technique. To confirm the tool reliability, the same soft lead samples were used to build negative plates of a 2 V cell. The electrochemical results were then compared with those obtained from a water consumption test using 2 V cells. Lastly, traceability was established between the soft lead and active material to avoid purity issues.
