A battery regenerator is a device that returns the capacity for lead-acid batteries, extending their effective life. They are also known as desulphators , recondition or pulse conditioning devices.
When the battery is stored unattended for extended periods of time, a lead sulfur pile is formed and hardened on the lead plate inside the battery. This causes what is known as "sulfate battery", which will no longer charge to its original capacity. The regenerator sends an electric current pulse through the battery, which in some cases can cause the sulfate to peel off the plate and eventually dissolve.
Unfortunately, the mainstream battery industry benefited from replacement battery sales, (66% of the total), and was not motivated to solve sulfation problems, while the battery regenerator industry benefited from trying to fix the problem, but there has been very little independent scientific research to understand the process at work, or verify claims made.
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Conventional lead-acid batteries consist of a number of lead plates and lead dioxide suspended in cells filled with weak sulfuric acid. Lead oxide reacts with sulfur and oxygen in the acid to release electrons, leaving the plate positively charged and producing lead sulfate. Lead reacts with acid by taking two electrons, leaving it negative while also producing lead sulfate. Both chemical processes take place as long as an external circuit is available to allow the electrons to flow back into the positive plate, but reach the equilibrium quickly when the battery is released from the circuit. Each complete reaction produces about 2.11V. The 12V battery generally consists of six individual "cells" connected together in a single box, producing 13.2 V when fully charged.
When the battery is released, the sulfate lead in the solution increases. In the general design, it reaches a critical density when discharged to a depth of about 75% of the discharge, or below. For example, a 12V battery with a capacity of 100 Ampere-hours (Ah) will reach this density when 25Ã, Ah (300Ã, Wh) or more has been withdrawn from the battery. At this point, lead sulfate will begin to precipitate from the solution to the battery plate, forming a sponge film. If the battery is immediately replenished, the film will dissolve back into the acid.
If the battery is stored or repeatedly operated in this partially filled state for a long time, the film will slowly crystallize into a solid. This "sulfation" process takes time, so it only has the opportunity to build to a significant level if the battery is repeatedly disposed below this critical level. There are many other conditions that can cause the same problem to develop.
The battery also has little internal resistance that will discharge even when disconnected. If the battery is left disconnected, all internal charge will be exhausted slowly and eventually reach the critical point. From then on the film will grow and thicken. This is the reason the battery will be found to charge poorly or not at all if left in storage for long periods of time.
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Charger and sulfation
Conventional battery chargers use a one, two, or three-stage process to recharge the batteries, with the switched-mode power supply encompassing more stages to charge the battery more quickly and completely. Common to almost all chargers, including non-switched models, is the middle stage, commonly known as "absorption". In this mode the charger holds a steady voltage slightly above the charged battery, to drive the current into the cell. As the battery fills, its internal voltage rises toward the supplied fixed voltage to it, and the current rate slows down. Eventually, the charger will turn off when the current falls below the predefined threshold.
Sulfate batteries have higher electrical resistance than batteries that are not encountered from the same construction. As attributed to Ohm's law, the current is the ratio of voltage to resistance, so the sulfate battery will have a lower current flow. As the charging process continues, such a battery will reach the predefined trigger limit faster, long before it has time to receive a complete load. In this case the battery charger shows the charging cycle is complete, but the battery actually saves a bit of energy. For users, it seems the battery is dying.
Regeneration
The lead sulfate layer can be dissolved back into the solution by applying a much higher voltage. Usually, running high voltage to the battery will cause heat quickly and potentially cause thermal runaway which can cause it to explode. Some battery conditioners use high-voltage short pulses, too short to cause significant current flow, but long enough to reverse the crystallization process. However, long-term use of high voltage pulses has been shown to damage the battery plate on wet batteries, and on sealed lead-acid batteries will cause the battery to dry and fail. Recent developments in battery regeneration products use frequency pulses compared to high voltages to reconstitute sulphate formation to electrolytes.
Any metal structure, like battery, will have some parasitic inductance and some parasitic capacitance. It will resonate with each other, something the size of the battery will usually resonate on some megahertz. This process is sometimes called "ring". However, the electrochemical process found in the battery has a time constant on the order of seconds and will not be affected by the megahertz frequency. There are several websites that advertise "battery desulfator" running at megahertz frequency.
Depending on the size of the battery, the desulphation process can take from 48 hours to weeks to complete. During this period the battery also drips charged to continuously reduce the amount of lead sulfur in the solution. Commercial regulators often support multiple batteries to provide parallel operation to increase throughput.
References
Source of the article : Wikipedia