About ALABC

The ALABC is an international research consortium comprised of lead producers, battery manufacturers, equipment suppliers, research organizations and other pertinent entities organized to enhance the performance of lead-acid batteries for a variety of markets, including hybrid electric vehicle (HEV) applications.

The consortium pools the resources of its worldwide membership in order to facilitate and manage specific research and development programs that otherwise would not be possible.

The ALABC’s goal is to achieve performance enhancements that will allow lead-acid batteries to succeed in numerous prospective markets.  These include the telecommunications, remote area power supply (RAPS), start/stop automotive systems, and HEV applications.

The ALABC is managed by the International Lead Zinc Research Organization, Inc., based in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina.  It is currently in its seventh program phase, which runs through 2012, and it maintains an international membership of over 60 companies and organizations.

As a pre-competitive research consortium, ALABC offers its members the opportunity to highly leverage their research investment and participate in cutting edge research carried out at many of the world's finest R&D facilities.
 

History

The ALABC was originally formed in 1992 to advance the capabilities of the valve-regulated lead-acid (VRLA) battery in order to help electric vehicles become a reality.  While the research program also focused other energy storage applications, the pursuit of electric vehicle propulsion had always been a main focus for the next 10 years.  In 2003, the consortium changed its research focus to the end-markets of 42-volt and HEV systems.

During the past several years ALABC research has identified a number of modifications that can be made to VRLA batteries to improve their performance significantly under HEV duty.  Since the design features had not been tried in combination or tested in the field, the ALABC launched a demonstration phase where batteries with these beneficial features are (i) constructed; (ii) performance tested in the laboratory; (iii) then evaluated in HEVs in the field.  This demonstration phase began in January 2006 and continues today.