The innovative solution proposed in this paper to improve both cycling life and performances of a very low cost lead–acid battery is the combination of the compression concept and the use of micro-porous additives added in the active mass.The influence of different rates of compression (10–100 kPa) applied on 2 V pre-industrial modules slightly modified has been studied in accelerated c. The innovative solution proposed in this paper to improve both cycling life and performances of a very low cost lead–acid battery is the combination of the compression concept and the use of micro-porous additives added in the active mass.The influence of different rates of compression (10–100 kPa) applied on 2 V pre-industrial modules slightly modified has been studied in accelerated cycling test as well as the effect of different kinds of additives on 2 V lab cells performances in a compressed application.It appears that a pressure minimum of 10 kPa is necessary to stabilise the performances and multiply, by close to 10, the cycling life of the modules. Nevertheless, a 100 kPa pressure allows to perfectly maintain the electrode integrity during the cycling test and prevent effectively the shedding phenomenon.The idea of the insertion of porous additives into the active mass has been validated during this study since a significant improvement of the cell performances has been observed with two kind of additives tested: Zeolite and Carbon Graphite.Since the appearance of the first battery in 1860, we are trying to improve the lead–acid batteries in terms of both cycling life and performances.One of the well-known life limiting factors of a lead–acid battery is the active material damage during cycling due to the expansion of the active mass. This problem has often been tackled from a mechanical angle where two kind of constraints could be distinguished: the passive containment of the active mass and the active application of a mechanical pressure.••The passive containment of the positive active material is born with the first tubular design in 1910, where the paste is contained at first in a tube of rubber materials then in a gauntlet, developed by Boriolo. Another way to limit the expansion of the active material is the pocketing of the electrode in a porous separator commonly used since 1975 with the coming of polyethylene separators.••The. Two volt modules are realized with low cost electrodes resulting from the rolled technology followed by Xmet 'Properzi' process and usually used in a starting lighting ignition (SLI) applications. Several plates stacks are taken on the production batteries line and modified for a compressed application thanks to the insertion of a multi-layer separator as described Fig. 1a. Each constituent element of this separator has a particular function:••Fig. 2 represents the evolution of the relative discharge capacity during the accelerated cycling test. For an uncompressed configuration, the reference achieves only 70 cycles before reaching the stop conditions. For both compressed designs, a good stabilisation of the capacity is observed during 300 cycles, then a slight decrease of the performan. This study has shown the significant effect of the compression application on a flexible module composed of thin plates stack slightly modified with a multiplication by close to 10 of their cycling life in aggressive cycling conditions. In accordance with several authors,,, the post mortem analysis shows the significant influence of t.
