Precision battery testing and monitoring technologies can significantly reduce the negative environmental impacts of the lead-acid battery industry, says Marco da Silva, MD of Jasco Power Solutions.
The life fraction forecasting these technologies offer helps organisations accurately determine when their batteries will need replacing. This is based on scientific testing rather than assumption or yearly planning, and allows batteries to be used to their capacity in a safe and controlled manner, Da Silva continues. This reduces the wasteful disposal of usable batteries and in turn the needless purchase of new ones, he explains.
A reduction in battery consumption leads to a significant decrease in environmentally damaging lead production, as 60-70% of the six million tonnes of lead produced worldwide each year is used in lead-acid batteries, says Carlos Paulo, MD of Global Energy Innovations (GEI) Africa.
While battery recycling is globally widespread with up to 98% of battery materials being reused, even the recycling process is energy-intensive and leaves a carbon footprint, Paulo adds.
Furthermore, lead contaminants are left behind or released into the atmosphere as lead oxide when used batteries are destroyed or smelted, he says.
Battery testing and monitoring can also serve businesses by reducing the risk of battery-dependent power solutions failing without warning during blackouts, says Kurt Salloux, CEO of GEI. These risks are particularly salient in the power and utility sector, telecommunications industry, data centres and mission-critical operations such as healthcare, Salloux elaborates.
GEI signed a master distributor partnership with Jasco in May to deliver GEI's precision battery testing and monitoring equipment and software to users in Sub-Saharan Africa.
The offering includes GEI's flagship handheld electrochemical battery analyser as well as a cloud-based continuous monitoring solution.
GEI's technology detects the electrical parameters of failure as well as chemical issues such as sulphation build-up and battery dry-out, says Salloux.
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