Homebrewed Electricity > Storage
Making large PLANTE lead acid Batteries.
clockmanFRA:
--- Quote from: Bruce S on October 21, 2021, 08:43:35 AM ---
I've seen the u_tube posts showing how the batteries are torn down. Similar to this is "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l665eovBlEk"
Bruce S
--- End quote ---
Nearly Bruce, but these were ordinary 12v car large batteries say 110ah where the plates have just fallen apart . And they go back to just the lead matrix grid, dry them and re=paste them. But very similar to the Health and Safety protective gear and working conditions!!!!!!!! Just utterly stupid.
But the boss makes good money and proudly posts the utube videos, what a world! what a world!
I found this one on re-pasting, ...... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VEvPjOKkPyE
and this one which is part of 7 how to make a battery. ......... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5BG8N0emfYE
Please dont do this at home folks!!!!!!
Bruce S:
Please don't do this at home folks!!!!!!
Scruff:
clockmanFRA:
Making a large PLANTE, Lead Acid Battery.
Firstly my grateful thanks to Bruce and the Moderators here on this forum to allow me to openly discuss this PLANTE battery manufacturing on a small scale process.
10 years ago my experimentations and developments with these PLANTE batteries were actively disapproved off on most ‘Sustainability, Renewable Energy Forums’ around the World. And even In 2015 when we were discussing here the Make your own Inverter the old ‘boys’ from the ‘armchair Wafflers brigade’ got relatively heated and wrote in a very elegant way, and they sure knew how to talk the talk, but empirical evidence from them was very lacking. Again, thanks to Bruce and the moderators here for calming things down. Thanks Bruce!..
I will present what I have so far on this project as if I was writing another book, so bare with me, and please chip in if you have empirical evidence that can assist.
In the INDIA utube posts above, about recycling old commercial car/lorry lead acid batteries you get a good understanding what’s in a standard lead acid battery. As’ Mary’ has reiterated messing with these is full of health issues as the paste in the matrix lead plates is full of some very nasty chemicals. These chemicals assist the electron flow and reduce internal resistance problems in each cell and also maximise the battery output for the Ah, so they need to be there for commercial and better output reasons and yes a Chemists delight.
However, these commercial lead acid batteries’ therefore have a tendency to have a short life span, as the paste will eventually just dissolve and sink to the base and short out the cell.
So WHY a PLANTE Battery?.
Advantages.
Firstly, it’s a simple cell lead acid battery.
Secondly, If made correctly it lasts a life time, ie, your life time, say 40 to 50 years.
The more you use it, the more Ah capacity it gets.
It can be made from readily available materials at a reasonable cost.
If we make the case correctly, our PLANTE battery can be easily dismantled and the lead plates cleaned and repaired and the battery put back into use.
It has the same rolled lead plates for both Anode and Cathode plates, so just lead sheet and no extra added nasty chemicals.
Its electrolytic medium is still 15 parts volume de-ionised water to 1 of Sulphuric acid, I used to use a 80% pure Sulphuric acid as my acid mix. REMEMBER NEVER, NEVER pour water into Sulphuric acid, YOU MUST ONY POUR ACID INTO THE WATER, and do that SLOWLY as the acid still makes things get hot quick and spits and spatters. Today ready mixed battery acid is readily available, but at present I have not tested any commercially available product, as I am never sure any more of commercial QC, Quality Control.
It will have POLYPROPOLENE battery container/case is now easily obtained and, in all shapes, and sizes and can be easily manufactured for your own purposes. Polypropylene is the container for our PLANTE battery and is not that much affected by the Sulphuric Acid mix. In the old days it was Glass.
It has POLYPROPOLENE woven cloth, which comes in a good assortment of mesh sizes. This material will be used as a insulator between the Anode and Cathode plates, and will be sewn to form a sock on each plate. No more making plate separator combs, yippee!
The last important reason for our PLANTE battery is that we can really stack the plates tightly in the polypropylene case, so acid use will be minimalised.
Disadvantages of our PLANTE battery.
Firstly, Because we are not using all those extra chemicals and a plate grid matrix construction method, Our PLANTE battery for equal physical size of a commercial standard lead acid, ours will only have about 1/3 rd of the Ah capacity. This is an important consideration as we need to do a fair bit of costs examination of our manufacturing to see if our PLANTE battery project is truly COST EFFECTIVE. Obviously some of the Pros are fantastic, but the poor Ah is a drawback, so hence going for a big battery that you can just lift yourself.
Secondly, The PLANTE battery process of forming the battery is a long winded, as the battery needs its plates forming with the correct oxides. This is normally seen as a minimum of 40 charge and discharges and must be done precisely to get the correct oxides forming on the correct plates. I have done all this and I have yet to get a battery when I start the process to form as I want, ie I connected everything up added the acid and the plates I designated as Positive turned out to be Negative when I tested them before even started the charging process, it seems that the Cell at first acid fill is actually bi-sexual. But once started its important to stick to the charge regime. After 40 charges and discharges the battery is put into service the more you use the battery the better the Ah gets.
After reading the above you will see that I have had to design the PLANTE battery with several important design parameters, and sorting out the Cell plates internal resistance. This I will sort out in my next post.
clockmanFRA:
As far as I am aware only EXIDE are still manufacturing PLANTE batteries.
However, i have never examined one, so i cannot see the actual plate thickness and the plate forming, so unsure of this particular manufacturers TRUE LIFE SPAN.
If the plate thickness is thin, then the Lead goes mushy as it all turns to oxide and that life expectancy is short.
Here is a couple of photos. Interesting where they are made?
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
[*] Previous page
Go to full version