Redox Flow Batteries: A Glance at Safety and Regulation Issues
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
The safety precautions for the redox flow battery's installation and operation are described in the manuscript. It is poorly explained and quite ambiguous. As the author noted in the introduction, different flow batteries have various safety precautions. We were unable to determine the essential course of action for the particular flow battery from the report. It is recommended to present the battery type and associated necessary safety precautions in a tabular or graphical format.
Author Response
The authors thank the reviewer for the comments which certainly aims to improve the quality of the paper.
In the revision, the authors have tried to give more scientific sound to the work. To be honest, it is quite difficult to find detailed information on specific lines of intervention that aim to increase the level of safety of this type of technology, mainly because most of the time they fall within the industrial secrets of the various manufacturers. In any case, the reviewer's comment are pertinent and the authors did their best to improve the paper in this direction. In this regard, a new paragraph has been added: "7. RFB types and associated necessary safety precautions" where these issues are addressed.
In particular, this paragraph introduces specific instructions in terms of safety precautions and additional good practices for the three main types of RFBs: Vanadium Redox Flow Batteries (VRFBs), Hydrogen-Bromine H2-Br, and Zinc-Bromine Zn-Br that have reached an effective commercial fruition. The information has been taken directly from the main global manufacturers as can be seen in the added references.
In addition, an extensive linguistic review has also been done with the help of a native english speaker without market punctual changes, when minor, and instead we changed color (in red) in the parts where we rephrased significant pieces of text, such as a whole paragraph and caption of Fig. 1 which has been changed.
Reviewer 2 Report
According to the authors, "This paper aims to help fill this gap, providing researchers and students with an introductory knowledge on the safety and regulatory aspects of RFBs mainly from electrical and hydraulic point of view, while addressing them to specific regulations for deeper studies and analyses."
Researcher and students can go through a bibliographic research and find the standard regulating both the electric and gas hazard.
As a matter of fact, the author conclusion is that:
"The main international regulations for RFB are finally mentioned with the aim of providing a quick overview of the latest advances in this field"
Section 2 is simply a recall of the electrical safety standards. The same is for other sections about Gas and Liquid.
And even if: "A small number of papers about safety aspects of RFBs have been published, mainly because this technology is considered safe", the covered topic is interesting, but the paper just goes through some standards and its scientific sound is low.
The paper should be improved by explaining why this technology is considered safe even if it not and by considering some practical examples underling the good practices and those which are not.
It would also be interesting to have an original proposal about actions that would increase these plants safety. Since the topic is new, the author can give contribution going beyond the currently approved standards.
Author Response
The authors thank the reviewer for the comments which surely aims to improve the quality of the paper.
In the revision, the authors have tried to give more scientific depth to the work. To be honest, it is quite difficult to find detailed information on specific lines of intervention that aim to increase the level of safety of this type of technology, mainly because most of the time they fall within the industrial secrets of the various manufacturers. In any case, the reviewer's comments are relevant and the authors have tried to deepen and better deal with the topic.
A new paragraph has been added: "7. RFB types and associated necessary safety precautions" where these issues are addressed. In particular, this paragraph introduces specific instructions in terms of safety precautions and additional good practices for the three main types of RFBs: Vanadium Redox Flow Batteries (VRFBs), Hydrogen-Bromine H2-Br, and Zinc-Bromine Zn-Br that have reached an effective commercial fruition.
The information has been taken directly from practical examples of the main global manufacturers as can be seen in the added references. The information is also organized in tabular form.
In addition, an extensive linguistic review has also been done with the help of a native english speaker without market punctual changes, when minor, and instead we changed color (in red) in the parts where we rephrased significant pieces of text, such as a whole paragraph 7 and caption of Fig. 1 which has been changed.
Round 2
Reviewer 2 Report
The authors addressed the reviers comments
