A guide to Lithium Iron battery chargers
A revolution in batteries is coming, and it’s in the form of Lithium Iron car batteries. A Lithium Iron battery requires a charger that is specifically designed for Lithium Iron charging - any other battery charger could fatally damage the battery. Here’s the low down on Lithium Iron battery chargers.
Lithium Iron batteries explained
In a Lithium Iron battery the cathode is made of lithium iron phosphate (LiFePO4).
The electrolyte carries positively charged lithium ions from the anode to the cathode and vice versa through the separator. The movement of the lithium ions creates free electrons in the anode which creates a charge at the positive current collector. The electrical current then flows from the current collector through to the negative current collector. The separator blocks the flow of electrons inside the battery.
While the battery is discharging and providing an electric current, the anode releases lithium ions to the cathode, generating a flow of electrons from one side to the other. When the battery is being charged the opposite happens: Lithium ions are released by the cathode and received by the anode.
Benefits of Lithium Iron batteries
Li-Iron batteries are incredibly efficient, the efficiency of the charge/discharge cycle (discharge from 100% to 0% and back to 100% charged) of an average lead acid battery is around 80%. A LiFePO4 battery is around 92%. They also offer a fast charge. They have a wide temperature operating window (-20°C up to +60°C) and have a long life span, typically managing thousands of charging/discharging cycles. And LiFePO4 batteries are light - approx. 70% of the weight of a Lead Acid battery.
How to charge a Lithium Iron battery
The recommended way to charge a Li-iron battery is to provide a ±1% voltage-limited constant current to the battery until it becomes fully charged, and then stop. Our MPL50-Li battery charger, and SPIC-50 Lithium battery charger are designed specifically for charging Lithium battery chargers, as well as Ca/Ca, Ca/Ag, AGM, GEL and conventional lead acid.
The MPL50-Li has a 13.4V constant output mode for battery support functionality at up to 50A, and is available with an optional temperature sensing lead set allowing the ultimate in efficient charging. The SPIC-50 features a customisable interface to the battery BMS system with LIN bus support, and also has a temperature adjusted charge profile for safe Lithium battery charging.