Kordesch was born in
Vienna. He studied chemistry and physics at the
University of Vienna, and earned his doctoral degree in 1948. From 1948–53 he worked at the university's Chemical Institute. He was then recruited as a member of
Operation Paperclip and moved to the
United States, where from 1953–55 he was head of the Battery Division of the
U.S. Signal Corps in
Fort Monmouth. In 1955 he joined
Union Carbide in
Ohio, working with two fellow Austrians. He led two research groups: one concerned with the development of
manganese dioxide batteries, the other devoted to
fuel cells. During this time Kordesch filed 22 patents. In 1957, Karl Kordesch, Paul A. Marsal and
Lewis Urry filed US patent (2,960,558) for the alkaline
dry cell battery, which eventually became the D-sized
Eveready Energizer battery. It was granted in 1960. Another fundamental contribution that changed the battery world was the creation of the thin carbon fuel cell electrode. He presented a fuel cell demonstration at the
Brussels World Fair in 1958, using a suitcase with a hydrogen-oxygen fuel cell. His development of thin electrodes for fuel cells came soon thereafter. In 1967 he built a fuel cell/
NiCad battery hybrid electric motorcycle. The motorcycle was featured in television commercials for the program
21st Century, hosted by
Walter Cronkite. He relished telling people how he had to join the actors' union to ride in the commercials. It was fitted with a
hydrazine fuel cell, capable of 200
miles to the U.S. gallon. In 1970 he fitted his own
Austin A40 with a
hydrogen fuel cell (
ammonia being too hard to come by), and used the adapted vehicle as his personal transportation for over three years. The vehicle retained enough room inside for four passengers and had a
driving range of 180 miles. His fuel cell design provided the basis for the 40 kWh alkaline hydrogen-oxygen fuel cell for the
General Motors Electrovan. In 1977 he was granted early retirement by Union Carbide and returned to Austria, becoming director of the Institute for Inorganic Technology at the
Graz University of Technology (TU Graz). From 1981–83 Kordesch was general secretary of the
International Society of Electrochemistry (ISE). From 1985–87 he was Dean of the Science and Technology Faculty at TU Graz; in 1992 he became
emeritus. In 1997 he became vice-president of
Apollo Energy Systems, and was tasked with the continued development of fuel cells. His research continued at TU Graz on fuel cell electrode performance, low-cost fuel cell stack design, propulsion fuel (NH3), and an ammonia cracker. He was gratified to see the
electric car and the hybrid-electric make a comeback in his last years. He was 40 years early with the electric hybrid vehicles that he enjoyed building and driving. In total, he filed 120 patents and produced numerous books and over 200 publications on batteries and fuel cells. He died in
Eugene, Oregon, in 2011. ==Selected works==