Sounds like it to me. It would at least be an improvement over the mini-BEV's the Chinese are making with AGM lead-acid batteries.

So far, the company isn't shipping any products yet. It already holds some patents related to negative electrodes based on carbon foam and has applied for more for positive electrodes.

The author of the technical backgrounder does a credible job of explaining why the high surface area afforded by the graphite foam matrix material permits designs that outperform the traditional plate concept in many important respects, including: capacity, charge/discharge power, operating temperature range, deep cycling longevity and prolonged disuse.

He's also careful to point our that graphite foam isn't a complete miracle: the resulting cells aren't quite as good as expensive NiMH or Li-ion chemistries. However, they are safer than conventional lead-acid designs and similarly cheap to produce. The new 3D2 concept, in which both electrodes feature graphite foam matrices, promises to be especially compact and lightweight.

In the automotive space, Firefly's 3D technology should be a good fit for micro- and mild hybrids, including peripheral-only PHEVs. Stop-start functionality plus hotel load at night could be feasible for HDVs, eliminating a lot of idling.

The 3D2 type looks very interesting for medium and full hybrids, especially light duty trucks. Application to full PHEV and BEV passenger cars might also be possible, provided EPA/CARB and customers all accept up front that the battery pack may need to be replaced well before the odometer reaches 150,000 miles. That would be an expensive repair job (cp. e.g. transmission rebuild) but acceptable if you know it's going to happen once in the lifetime of the vehicle. The spent batteries would be recycled.

There are many other markets that would benefit from high-performance lead-acid batteries: electric bicycles/trikes, buffer systems for power grids (esp. for light rail and building elevators), UPS systems for telephone exchanges and data centers, research submarines and, arctic climate monitoring stations, to name a few.

One must be aware that if you install lead batteries inside a sedan, the batteries gases should be vented to the outside of the car. So be careful if you are looking to use these to convert an ICE sedan to BEV mode. It takes a tad more engineering to do it right. On a PU, throw away the gas tank and mount 'em below the bed, no venting problems. These batteries could be great for diy battery conversion projects. Find an old S-10 PU, gut it and go at it!

I have been very intrigued by the Meyers NMG tricycle. Its cruising speed is fine but the range is a little short of my commuting needs. It is now equipped with sealed gel lead acid batteries. I figure if they would drop in Fireflies instead of their standard battery (as a direct 1:1 replacement), I could probably used a NMG as a daily commuter.

So, how many amp hours are we talking about here? Group 31 doesn't sound like anything I usually here talked about in traction packs or anything. Any chance we'll see more deep-cycle oriented products based on this soon?

If I understand correctly, they do not claim significant improvements in energy density. They may be better than normal Pb-acid for hybrids, cold starting, deep cycling, etc.

BEV's, however, are primarily limited by energy density. It determines their range.

@Shaun -

nominal volumetric capacity is a function of how much electrode material is actually involved in chemical reactions. More electrode surface area means more energy density per unit of cell volume.

The rest of the electrode is just there to provide mechanical support, electric conductivity and thermal conductivity. Carbon foam actually does a better job of this than lead.

Cyclic volumetric capacity depends on the cell design's susceptibility to various failure mechanisms, e.g. corrosion and sulfation. Here too, the Firefly technology should outperform traditional lead-acid concepts. That means you don't have to oversize the batteries by as much.

Gravimetric capacity also takes the density of the electrode material into account. The carbon foam matrix is much lighter than lead, though electrolyte and packaging also factor into overall weight.

So on both volumetric and gravimetric counts, in nominal and cyclic scenarios, specific capacity should improve significantly. It probably won't reach the lofty heights of Li-ion, but that has safety issues unless you resort to advanced nanoscale engineering. It's also a lot more expensive.

E.P.: Does the firefly battery wear in a similar fashion as lithium? (shallow discharge causing less wear on the battery) Your calcs are encouraging when you consider that your numbers were even generous to the gas car. You're not always going to deep cycle your battery (longer life), even after 1500 cycles you still have a working (80%) battery and your calcs didn't factor in the higher maintenance costs of an ICE car (oil change etc..)

Because serendipity led Caterpillar to it first (they spun off Firefly because it's not their core business).

Shaun, Rafael.
Energy in Wh of a lead-acid battery depends only on the amount of Pb and SO4H2 involved in the reaction. With this carbon matrix is possible to save in the weight of the grid used in conventional batteries (may be 25%,still heavy). However there would be great improvements in power density, deep of discharge and battery life.

"Where corrupt politicians own companies and prevent any true mechanism of oversight"

Communism stinks, no doubt about it, but it doesn't possess a monopoly on that! In some capitalist countries, it's only slightly different: the companies own the corrupt politicians who then prevent any true mechanism of oversight :-)

Having said that, I am an advocate of public subsidies for promising technologies if those policies will help, and if they can bring renewable energy forward where the market won't do so on its own. Your example of Japan is a good example of a fundamentally market economy which benefited from intelligent public intervention.

Firefly is located not too far from where the fox valley electric auto association I belong to meets. Three years ago they said they really weren't sure there would be enough of a market for their battery in electric vehicles. Because of the stated interest in BEV's and PHEV's by multiple car companies things are looking more hopeful. Curious... how many major global sources are there for lithium and how many are there for lead? I really don't know... also how easy is it to recycle each SAFELY?