But there are some significant drawbacks. Lead-acid batteries are full of hazardous material, require frequent maintenance, and take a long time to recharge. For these reasons, there’s a good chance a new technology is going to finally replace the old. There are more possibilities that can be noted here, but below are some good prospects.

The first prospect is an upgraded version of lead-acid battery called thin plate pure lead (tppl), which is exactly what it sounds like. The plates are so thin they behave like spaghetti during the manufacturing process. Its main benefits are power density and ultra-fast recharge time, and that it’s maintenance free. This could be the transitional step away from lead-acid, particularly for GSE since the industry has already adopted fast-charge technology. Many of you are already familiar with tppl, which is found in the Odyssey brand battery.

The second prospect is the Lithium-Ion battery, which has already become the dominant technology for cell phone, laptops, and on-road electric vehicles. Its main benefits are power density, light weight, and that it’s also maintenance free. The benefits to GSE may never outweigh the cost, but with so many new Li-ion manufacturing plants ramping up for electric cars, you never can tell.

The big story in electric vehicle technology is fuel cells. A fuel cell uses a gas, such as hydrogen, as a kind of fuel to create electricity. The only emission from a hydrogen fuel cell is water and there is no “recharge” necessary. You will still have to “fill up” the tank when it’s empty, but that should only take a few minutes. Of course you’ll have to find a hydrogen fuel station, but let’s leave that for future post. There are many competing technologies within fuel cells. Hydrogen is clearly the most popular, but be looking for methanol fuels cells as well - they may be a faster path to widespread adoption.

All of these new technologies will be viable. In fact, they are all powering vehicles today. And in all probability, the price will eventually drop enough to compete with today’s lead-acid battery. The question is, which one will it be the dominant technology for GSE? I’m also curious how well our vehicle manufacturers keep up with electric technology. So we may have to wait a few more years, but I know of at least one battery company with a few surprises in 2009.

So maybe you think global warming is some high fallutin’, ivory tower issue. And maybe it is. But the issue for us is how to we become part of the economic engine that going green will become? Or do we sit around and do nothing and let someone steamroll over us? It’s our chance to seize the opportunity or export it along with foreign repair stations, manufacturing, and all the other jobs that have fled this country and found thriving havens in other lands.

(Editor’s Note: Ground Support Worldwide magazine will be attending the AAAE & IATA Cooperation Series: Environmental Symposium - Green Synergies Across the Aviation Value Chain in Washington, D.C., November 12-14 and will report on it in the coming weeks.)

I wasn’t too keen on this at first – mechanics and writing don’t go well together – just look at some of our maintenance entries and it’s clear why we became mechanics and not journalists. But I digress. As I thought about it, and as Karen would call once in a while to ask whether I’d do it, the idea started to grow on me. Why not start a dialogue with ground personnel men and women? I’d tell you what I thought – and those of you who know me know I speak truth to power and have never walked away when the going got tough – and you’d talk back to me and to each other.

So let me start by telling you about me and what’s on my mind. I grew up under the flight path to Logan Airport. In those days, even a major city airport like Boston’s had no fences. As a kid, me and my friends would go over and watch planes take off and land. A tad mischievous some might have called us – outright rascals others – we found our way through cargo warehouses and hangars and the occasional unattended tractor became our playgrounds. We learned about aircraft parts making repairs to our bicycles; those parts lasted longer – they didn’t come loose - and were a lot cheaper found on the hangar floor.

Suffice it to say, I’ve lived and breathed airports – and airport fumes – since I was a kid. Loved it then and love it still. From those early years playing at Logan, I learned to fly from a dirt strip, got my A&P, worked at a number of air carriers, owned my own FBO, became a union shop steward, worked accident investigations, and ultimately landed at the NTSB as the first Board member with an A&P. Enough about me. Let’s talk about an issue that’s on my mind and maybe on yours as well.

While the press and aviation industry focus on the lack of future pilots, where’s the clamor for the future of maintenance and ground handling? As usual, our unsung heroes remain unsung. But that’s because the public doesn’t know what goes on behind the scenes; that an untrained ground handler can cause millions of dollars in damage by dinging an aircraft with a baggage cart or worse, improperly fueling an aircraft could cause disaster. Some airports are seeing annual turn over of 50% in their ground personnel. Staggering. Is anyone upset? If those were pilots bailing out at that rate, there would be a huge public outcry.

So why is there such tremendous turnover? Could it be that pay and benefits are inadequate? Grossly inadequate? I think this is an emergency for our industry and I want to light a fire under a few seats that could start making changes. But I need to know what you think. Are pay and benefits a problem? Are you thinking of changing careers because of it? Do you know excellent candidates that refused a job because the pay/benefits were too low?

The reality is that electric vehicles don’t really have zero emissions.  They just transfer emissions from the vehicle to the power plant generating the electricity used to recharge the batteries.  I’ll eventually get to the fast charging topic, but for now let’s look at emissions.  There are many definitions of “carbon footprint.”  For our purposes we will define it as the amount of greenhouse gases produced, specifically the amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) produced. 

Today’s diesel engines have very low carbon dioxide emissions compared to those of just a few years ago.  I’m going to compare an electric bag tractor to one of the new diesel bag tractors.  Two assumptions: (1) the diesel engine is 65hp and produces 800g CO2 / hp-hr.  (2) The power plant producing the electricity generates 650g CO2 / kwh, which is the U.S. average.

The electric tractor will generate 10,439 pounds of CO2 per year.
20kwh/day x 0.650kg/kwh x 365days/year x 2.2lbs/kg = 10,439 pounds

The diesel tractor will generate 74,534 pounds of CO2 per year.
3.5hr/day x 65hp x .51ave hp/rated hp x 0.8kg/hp-hr x 365 days/year x 2.2lbs/kg = 74,534 pounds 

Clearly there is a huge difference in favor of electric vehicles.  Over the course of 10 years, the diesel tractor will produce 640,950 more pounds of carbon dioxide than its electric counterpart.  That’s a huge carbon footprint!

Do you disagree with my numbers?  Enough to make up 640,950 pounds?

There’s no “myth of electric.”  It lowers your cost of ownership, it lowers your carbon footprint, and it’s still zero emissions at the airport.  GO GREEN!

So is it possible to properly maintain batteries on the ramp? Maybe a better question is: Is there a financial return on the cost of maintaining batteries on the ramp? If you haven’t guessed, I think the answer is, yes.

First, have you noticed the price of batteries lately? Commodity prices – lead, copper, and steel specifically – have pushed battery prices to record levels. We can’t think of a battery as a component of the vehicle any more; it’s an asset unto itself. And by adding a little life to a battery fleet, the cost justification of battery maintenance is easy.

Let’s start with a simple example: 15 electric vehicles and 15 batteries. All we want to do is make sure they’re watered properly and equalize charged twice per month. There are many ways to accomplish this, but in this example, the maintenance department is going to make sure one battery gets watered and equalize charged each night. The cost may be a little labor, but extending battery life is easily $10,000 in annual savings.

Let’s now look at a larger “real life” operation with about 300 pieces of electric equipment. They invested in a whole battery maintenance department, which costs an exorbitant $150,000 per year. But the increased battery life saves twice that at $300,000 per year. And that’s just the start of the savings. Think about savings in operator labor because they are no longer looking for working tractors. There’s reduced downtime and reduced battery maintenance. There’s reduced tractor maintenance because they have a high voltage batteries. And reduced lost luggage and flight delays, and improved customer satisfaction. Could the savings be $500,000? $1 Million? $5 million?

Now I have to admit that part of me doesn’t mind poor battery maintenance at all. I mean, I’m content to sell twice as many batteries as necessary. But I believe that in the long term, we can all thrive if we do the absolute best we can.

There’s a lot of technology to discuss, and we will. The technology for electric GSE has advanced significantly in recent years, and we’re all searching for ways to use technology to increase efficiency, and to ultimately add to the bottom line. But before we go any further, let’s first talk about maintenance.

I think this issue applies to almost everything in life. It doesn’t matter what you do to improve if you don’t have a solid foundation first. When it comes to batteries, it doesn’t matter what new battery technology, or charger technology, or tractor technology that you adopt. If you don’t maintain your batteries properly, you’re just wasting money.

Maintaining batteries is inherently difficult on the ramp. It’s never a warehouse condition where everything can be controlled. The ideal use of a battery is 8 hours of discharge, 8 hours of charge, and 8 hours of cool. Yeah, right! And don’t forget to equalize once per week and water immediately after the equalize charge. Watering systems, extra durable batteries, fast charging, and advanced controllers can’t overcome these maintenance needs.

So is it even possible to maintain batteries properly? Absolutely, but it will certainly take some effort. Let’s talk about how to free up $1M to your annual budget. To be continued . . .

P.S. Why equalize charge? I’m not sure what kills batteries on the ramp more, improper watering or under charging. You could probably go to any airport in the world that has electric equipment and find at least a few dry cells. But under charging is the silent killer. You can’t pull off a vent cap and see undercharging. You don’t even notice it while it’s happening until it’s too late. When you under charge a battery, the acid doesn’t completely come out of the plates. And over time, the acid remaining in the plates crystallizes and becomes what’s called sulphation; or we might say that the battery is sulphated. Sulphation drastically reduces battery performance and battery life. But if you bring a battery to 100% state of charge daily or regularly, and equalize charge weekly or regularly, you can eliminate this problem.