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SEC Industrial Battery Company is delighted to announce the successful implementation of the new larger size Mini VRLA Catalyst into its Monobloc Batteries. The catalyst was designed and developed by Philadelphia Scientific and has been successful used by SEC in over 12,000 12 volt batteries so far. The new Monobloc VRLA Catalyst is actually 8 times more effective – 8 times stronger in recombination than the previous version.
So why are these new catalysts better than before?
VRLA batteries that are not in float applications, but rather on cycling duty, will not experience negative plate self discharge and therefore the Catalyst will have no direct effect on this problem since it does not exist. Negative plate self discharge only occurs on float charge over extended periods of time. When the batteries are being discharged and then charged back up, the charging process will charge the negative and counteract/eliminate the self discharge problem. VRLA batteries in cycling applications do have depolarized problems but the positive plate will corrode at a higher rate and water loss will be accelerated since you are charging at a higher current than what would be expected on float. Since VRLA batteries are electrolyte starved, by design, water loss is a very important matter to be concerned about. They just don’t have a large electrolyte reserve for cycling duty and water addition is not an option. With all of this considered VRLA batteries “should” not last as long in cycle duty as in float service.
There is some good news in that the Catalyst will provide some benefit to VRLA cells in cycling duty. Since the use of a Catalyst will lower the float current in the battery water loss and positive plate corrosion will thus be minimized, as the use of a Catalyst will always reduce the float current of a VRLA cell. The other thing to remember is that when the battery is being charged the Catalyst will recombine the charging gases and keep them in the cell as water instead of allowing them to escape through the vent. So water loss on charge will be minimized over a cell without a Catalyst being fitted. Here is where the new larger size unit will really help out. The lower float current draw and the water loss minimization are the big advantages for a cycling application.
In high temperature with cycling applications the main benefit provided by the Catalyst will be that of water loss minimization. In this case the Catalyst will act as an oxy-hydrogen gas recombination device and minimize the amount of gas that exits the cell. The Catalyst will recombine the oxygen and hydrogen gasses back into water vapour, which will remain in the cell and ultimately be absorbed into the electrolyte. This will minimize cell dry out, which is a common failure mode of VRLA cells in cycling high temperature applications.
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