SM Vixel, a manufacturing institutional sector affiliate of SM Group, said on the 20th that it has secured technology that can extend the life of lead-acid batteries used in energy storage systems (ESS·Energy Storage System).
It is a technology that minimizes the formation of sulfonated lead (lead sulfate crystals that accumulate on the electrode surface) by applying activated carbon to lead-acid battery electrodes, and SM Vixel expects it can improve the lead-acid battery lifespan (about seven years) to around a maximum of 10 years.
SM Vixel plans to target the market by making it a new growth engine, as lead-acid batteries are drawing attention because thermal runaway (a phenomenon in which heat of up to 1,000 degrees Celsius occurs in a short time due to battery damage) is rare.
SM Vixel previously built a mass-production line to produce and supply lithium-ion batteries for defense and, recently securing lithium-ion battery ESS technology, is entering the ESS market.
Oh Jeong-seok, head of the Technology Research Institute of the SM Vixel battery business division, said, "We will accelerate our push into the ESS market with lead-acid battery technology secured through more than four years of project work and our existing lithium-ion technology as the two pillars."
Choi Se-hwan, head of the SM Vixel battery business division, said, "With ESS technologies based on lead-acid and lithium-ion, we will further expand our presence in domestic and overseas markets."