Karl Kordesch
Karl Kordesch ( born March 22, 1922 in Vienna, † 12 January 2011 in Eugene, Oregon) was an Austrian chemist and inventor. He is considered the inventor of the alkaline battery.
Life
Karl Kordesch studied chemistry and physics at the University of Vienna and received his doctorate in 1948 for Doctor Phil. From 1948-1953 Kordesch was an assistant at I. Chemical Institute of the University of Vienna. 1953, Karl Kordesch in the United States. From 1953-1955 Kordesch headed the battery department in the USSignal Corp.. , Fort Monmouth. With a staff of two, who also came from Austria, he began in 1955 at the Union Carbide Corporation in Ohio. He led two research groups, the one with the development of manganese dioxide batteries and the other dealt with fuel cells. He reported alone in this time of 22 patents. It has also tried to interest the automotive industry for fuel cell technology. But the demand was not to great. He paid his own 1970 Austin A40 with a fuel cell with hydrogen, since ammonia was too hard to win, and used this vehicle more than three years for his private transportation needs. The vehicle had room for four passengers and a range of about 300 km. Even a motorcycle he equipped with a cell containing hydrazine, with which he could about 100 km with 1 liter of hydrazine cover.
In 1977 he returned to an early retirement at UCC back to Austria and became head of the Institute for Chemical Technology of inorganic substances at the Technical University of Graz. 1985/86 he was Dean of Engineering and Natural Sciences at Graz University of Technology. He retired at the Graz University of Technology 1992. In 1997 he was appointed Vice President of Apollo Energy Systems, Inc., and with the development of fuel cells.
From the early 1990s he supported the creation of the working group and conference series " Energy Innovation " at the Technical University of Graz - a project under the direction of Prof. Kurt Friedrich, which is continued by Prof.Heinz Stigler and organized in zweihährigen rhythm. Kordesch supported the successful series for many years by the contributory participation as a speaker and expert, with his last waking up to the spirit of research repeatedly presented new ideas for the electrochemical storage for discussion. The establishment of various research activities in the field of fuel cell technology at the Technical University of Graz has been initiated through the cooperation of Karl Kordesch and Kurt Fridrich. .
From 1981 to 1985 Professor Kordesch was General Secretary of the International Society for Electrochemistry (ISE ). In addition to 120 patents that he could sign over time, he also wrote numerous books and more than 200 publications that are dedicated to all the theme "battery."
Karl Kordesch was married and had four children.
Works (selection)
- Use of fuel cell technology for decentralized energy utilization II, in 1999, Karl Kordesch and Günter Simader
- Fuel Cells and Their Applications, Karl Kordesch and Günter Simader, 2007 ISBN 3-527-29777-4
- Batteries Volume 1 Manganese Dioxide New York 1974 ISBN 0-8247-6084-0 (in English)