The technical and economic feasibility of applying used electric vehicle (EV) batteries in stationary applications was evaluated in this study. In addition to identifying possible barriers to EV battery reuse, steps needed to prepare the used EV batteries for a second application were also considered. Costs of acquiring, testing, and reconfiguring the used EV batteries were estimated. Eight potential stationary applications were identified and described in terms of power, energy, and duty cycle requirements. Costs for assembly and operation of battery energy storage systems to meet the requirements of these stationary applications were also estimated by extrapolating available data on existing systems. The calculated life cycle cost of a battery energy storage system designed for each application was then compared to the expected economic benefit to determine the economic feasibility. Four of the eight applications were found to be at least possible candidates for economically viable reuse of EV batteries. These were transmission support, light commercial load following, residential load following, and distributed node telecommunications backup power. There were no major technical barriers found, however further study is recommended to better characterize the performance and life of used EV batteries before design and testing of prototype battery systems.

Low-angle X-ray diffraction has been used to characterize the two lyotropic mesomorphic phases (neat phase and middle phase) which are formed in the dodecylhexaoxyethylene glycol monoether+ water system. The occurrence of these two anisotropic mesomorphic phases does not affect the behaviour of the thermodynamic excess functions which have been interpreted in terms of solutewater interactions. Careful measurements of water vapour pressure have been necessary to establish the limited extent of the two phase co-existence regions which separate homogeneous mesomorphic phase regions from isotropic solution in this system. Volume and heat capacity measurements as a function of temperature across mesomorphic phase boundaries have confirmed that the neat phase/ isotropic solution and the middle phase/isotropic solution transformations are first-order phase transitions with very small volume and enthalpy changes.

Measurements of water vapour pressure and heat of mixing have been made at 25°C over a range of composition for the 'octyl-and decylhexaoxyethylene glycol monoether + water systems. The condensed binary phase diagrams show that only the system given by the higher homologue forms a lyotropic mesomorphic phase (middle phase) at 25°C. In both systems, the thermodynamic properties of the solutions are determined by the interaction of the hydrophilic groups with water. The water activity and heat of mixing are smooth functions with respect to composition with no measurable discontinuities at the mesomorphic phase boundaries. The consequences of this conclusion and its relationship to the structure of middle phase are discussed.

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The adsorption of SCN-ions and thiourea has been investigated by measuring the capacity of a mercury electrode. Adsorption isotherms for SCN-indicate a large ion-ion interaction which appears to decrease as the bulk solution concentration increases. In contrast, thiourea adsorption can be expressed by a Frumkin isotherm with constant interaction parameter equivalent to a second virial coefficient of 84 1%' molecule-'. The apparent dielectric constant passes through a maximum at a charge on the electrode of about +6 pC cm-z. Thiourea displaces adsorbed nitrate ions from the mercury electrode.Inaccuracies in the drop-time method for determining interfacial tension are discussed and a new method for obtaining an approximate value of the absolute mercury-water interfacial tension is described.