Scientific and technological innovation: give lead-acid batteries "multiple lives"

 Historically, many emperors in China had spent a great deal of money looking for a cure for immortality, in an effort to prolong their lives, but failed to escape the net of natural laws. However, a skilled worker at Huaneng Group realized this dream on lead-acid batteries, inventing a way to "revive" lead-acid batteries. In the 1990s, the technology of DC battery system in Xindian Power Plant of China Huaneng Group was dedicated to Chang Chengli's invention of a regeneration and repair technology for lead-acid batteries, through the addition of regenerative fluid and the use of special charging methods to switch poles. Lead-acid battery can get the second, third and fourth life, thus prolonging the service life of lead-acid battery to more than three times.

  With both environmental and economic values

  China is an important producing and using country of lead-acid battery. Statistics of lead-acid battery branch of China Electrical Appliances Industry Association show that in the first four years of the 12th five-year Plan, the total output of lead-acid battery in China reached 742.88 million kVA.Lead-acid battery has the advantages of stability, safety, low cost and so on. It is one of the longest and most widely used batteries in history. Lead-acid batteries have been used for more than 160 years and have been widely used in many fields such as transportation, communication, power, military, aviation, navigation, photovoltaic and wind power generation systems. However, lead-acid batteries also have the problem of short life. On the one hand, too high replacement frequency increases the cost of production and operation, on the other hand, it also leads to more pollution.

  It is understood that the main reasons for the decrease in capacity and life of lead-acid batteries are excessive accumulation of lead sulfate on the surface of lead-acid batteries after charge and discharge and dissolution in the electrolyte, which is saturated. Because lead sulfate is an insoluble electrolyte, the solubility and dissolution rate of lead sulfate in the electrolyte decrease, and the adhesion to the surface of electrode plate and micropore hinders the normal diffusion reaction of the battery, and the lead sulfate has poor conductivity and high resistance. As a result, the ohmic polarization, concentration polarization and charge acceptance rate of the battery are increased in normal charging, and the polarization voltage is hydrolyzed when the active material is not fully converted, which results in the rapid heating up of the battery, and the charging can not be continued. Thus, the conversion of active substances is incomplete.

  According to the above-mentioned reasons, after the first life of lead-acid battery, the regeneration and repair technology invented by Chang Chengli, by adding a proper amount of regenerating liquid to the inside of the battery, applying chemical methods, combined with a certain way of charging and discharging, Eliminate the phenomenon of plate salinization and realize the second life of battery. At the end of the second life, a new special charging method is adopted to convert the positive active substance of the original battery into a spongy lead negative electrode, and at the same time, the original negative active substance is converted into a positive active substance lead dioxide, making it the third, The fourth life.

  Li Qiang, deputy director of Beijing National Network's high-tech consulting center, told reporters: "China Huaneng Group often adopts the regeneration and repair technology of lead-acid batteries invented by the Labor Model Innovation Studio, which has both environmental protection and economic value. Due to the existence of heavy metals and toxic waste liquid decomposed from lead and sulfuric acid in the process of production, manufacture and recovery of lead-acid batteries, the improper treatment of lead-acid batteries is a great potential environmental hazard. If the battery life can be prolonged more than three times by using lead-acid battery regeneration and repair technology, it can not only save a lot of costs for enterprises, but also reduce the output of 2/3 lead-acid batteries and make a great contribution to environmental protection. "

  Li Qiang gave the reporter an account. At present, the price of a 450 A-hour lead-acid battery on the market is about 1300 yuan, while the cost of repairing the same capacity lead-acid battery using regeneration and repair technology is only 100 yuan. The repaired lead-acid battery can meet the new battery standard in all aspects. At present, the most important obstacle to the development of energy storage industry in China is the high cost of batteries. The technology can also reduce the cost of energy storage batteries to a certain extent, and promote the development of energy storage industry.

  Facing difficulties such as immature business model

Li Qiang introduced, lead-acid battery regeneration repair technology is very wide range of application. As long as there is no physical damage, negative plate size, thickness in accordance with the national standards of lead-acid batteries can basically achieve pole regeneration.The main indexes of reclaimed lead-acid batteries have been fully verified by the testing center of Zibo battery performance of China Shipbuilding Industry and the testing center of Shandong Shengyang Power supply Co., Ltd.

  The technology has been widely used in China Huaneng Group Shandong Xindian Power Plant, Liaoning Yingkou Power Plant, Inner Mongolia Darat Power Plant, Ningxia Dam Power Plant, Zhejiang Unicom, Zibo Mobile, and has saved tens of millions of yuan in purchasing funds for enterprises. In 2014, the technology and Chang Chengli won the first prize in the advanced operation method of the national power system and the first prize in the technological innovation of the staff and workers in the energy chemical system. In 2016, they won the Golden Bridge Award in the eighth China Technology Market and the national technical expert. In 2017, China Huaneng Group won the first prize for employee innovation. This year, it was nominated for the 2018 National Science and Technology Progress Award of the all-China Federation of Trade unions (ACFTU).

  Li Qiang pointed out that although lead-acid batteries have environmental and economic values, but further promotion is still facing some difficulties and obstacles. One is that before the traditional lead-acid battery repair technology, such as adding activator, pulse repair method, chemical spa repair method, multi-spectrum resonance repair and so on, the battery capacity improvement was limited, resulting in the user's lack of trust in battery repair technology. There are some doubts about the performance of the battery after repair.

  Second, the current scale of lead-acid batteries are mainly financial, power, securities centers, data centers and other places with high security and confidentiality requirements. Because it takes 7-10 days to regenerate and repair, the above-mentioned sites are sensitive to the frequent entry and exit of strangers, and the enthusiasm for restoration is not high.Third, the business model needs further innovation and improvement. Li Qiang said that at present, they are trying to promote a new way of thinking, through the use of lead-acid batteries on the scale of the DC system responsible for free training, When the repair method is correctly mastered, it can be repaired by itself at the work site for a very small amount of money to purchase the regeneration solution with the patent of its own invention. In this way, this technology can be popularized quickly, and the recycling of lead-acid batteries can be effectively promoted, environmental pollution can be greatly reduced, and "Beautiful China" construction can be effectively promoted. Of course, the promotion of this technology

also needs to be promoted by the relevant national authorities and scale users.