Methods and power converters for charging/formation of VRLA batteries

This paper looks at the different requirements when designing power converters in applications involving charging/ formation of lead-acid batteries. For this reason, it first reviews the known methods and proposes a new classification, based on the number of independently set parameters for the process. Based on the classification it is noted, that a power converter that has the ability to charge or discharge a battery, along with accompanying software to enable the user to implement a custom charging algorithm is able to implement most of the types of mentioned charging/formation techniques. The design of such a converter, capable of delivering up to 600W is presented, after a short review of the possible power topologies that can be used to implement it.