Abstract
Background: The use of battery energy storage in the renewable energy applications presents a problem related to the limit of their lifetime. This limit of battery lifetime is generally related to the intermittent operation conditions or the low quality of the manufacturing process. Among the processes involved in the manufacturing of lead acid battery, the formation process is a key stage in which the cured plate is converted into active mass such as lead dioxide (PbO2) in the positive electrode and spongy lead (Pb) in the negative electrode. During this process, the formation current profile should be taken into accounts the specific chemical processes that occur in the battery and reduces the gassing amount to increase the formation efficiency with minimum time.
Methods: The goal of this work is to analyze the impact of the formation current profiles on the lead acid battery quality by adopting an approach based on the dependability analysis tools. This approach presents a functional study of the soaking and formation processes of lead acid battery with Structured Analysis and Design Technique (SADT). The detailed analyze of the lead acid battery degradation during the formation process is described by the Causal Tree Analysis (CTA). The limit of battery performances is generated by the low electrical penetration into the pores or the corrosion of the electrodes. Then, qualitative and quantitative analysis of the battery performance under the different formation profiles is given by analyze the gassing amount. Results: The results indicate that the multistep current profile ensures the high efficiency of formation with the minimum gassing energy compared to the other profiles. Conclusion: This profile allows avoiding the corrosion of electrode by overcharge in order to increase the battery performance and lifetime during the operation conditions.Keywords: Lead acid battery, manufacturing, gassing phenomena, formation current profile.