Energy Storage of Redox-Flow Batteries

A special issue of Batteries (ISSN 2313-0105). This special issue belongs to the section "Battery Modelling, Simulation, Management and Application".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (10 April 2024) | Viewed by 8557

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, CO, USA
Interests: charge transport in conjugated polymer and nanosturecutres; electronic structure of organic molecules; energy storage materials
Hong Kong Institute for Clean Energy, City University of Hong Kong, Kowloon, Hong Kong
Interests: redox flow battery; perovskite solar cell; zinc-ion battery; photocatalytic water splitting

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Redox-flow batteries (RFBs) are promising electrochemical energy storage systems for stationary applications due to their lower capital cost and increased stability compared to other technologies. Unlike traditional batteries, the power and capacity of RFBs are decoupled due to the independence between electrodes' surface area and volume/concentration of electroactive species. For the past decade, RFB technology has developed significantly in the design of advanced redox couples, electrolytes, and membranes. However, challenges still remain including solubility, sustainability, operating voltage, and crossover of active species. In this Special Issue, we are looking for contributions to developing novel redox active materials/electrolytes/separators/membranes, mechanistic studies, degradation analysis, and innovative solutions to enhance RFB performance parameters.

Topics of interest include but are not limited to:

  • Aqueous or non-aqueous redox couples.
  • Solubility, stability, operating voltage of redox couples.
  • Crossover analysis of membranes or separators.
  • Mechanisms of active material degradation.
  • Kinetics of redox reactions.
  • Electrolytes.

Dr. Zhiming Liang
Dr. Yichao Yan
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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Keywords

  • aqueous redox flow battery
  • non-aqueous redox flow battery
  • redox couples
  • crossover
  • electrochemical stability

Published Papers (5 papers)

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Research

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21 pages, 9142 KiB  
Article
Design and Development of Flow Fields with Multiple Inlets or Outlets in Vanadium Redox Flow Batteries
by Marco Cecchetti, Mirko Messaggi, Andrea Casalegno and Matteo Zago
Batteries 2024, 10(3), 108; https://doi.org/10.3390/batteries10030108 - 16 Mar 2024
Viewed by 1069
Abstract
In vanadium redox flow batteries, the flow field geometry plays a dramatic role on the distribution of the electrolyte and its design results from the trade-off between high battery performance and low pressure drops. In the literature, it was demonstrated that electrolyte permeation [...] Read more.
In vanadium redox flow batteries, the flow field geometry plays a dramatic role on the distribution of the electrolyte and its design results from the trade-off between high battery performance and low pressure drops. In the literature, it was demonstrated that electrolyte permeation through the porous electrode is mainly regulated by pressure difference between adjacent channels, leading to the presence of under-the-rib fluxes. With the support of a 3D computational fluid dynamic model, this work presents two novel flow field geometries that are designed to tune the direction of the pressure gradients between channels in order to promote the under-the-rib fluxes mechanism. The first geometry is named Two Outlets and exploits the splitting of the electrolyte flow into two adjacent interdigitated layouts with the aim to give to the pressure gradient a more transverse direction with respect to the channels, raising the intensity of under-the-rib fluxes and making their distribution more uniform throughout the electrode area. The second geometry is named Four Inlets and presents four inlets located at the corners of the distributor, with an interdigitated-like layout radially oriented from each inlet to one single central outlet, with the concept of reducing the heterogeneity of the flow velocity within the electrode. Subsequently, flow fields performance is verified experimentally adopting a segmented hardware in symmetric cell configuration with positive electrolyte, which permits the measurement of local current distribution and local electrochemical impedance spectroscopy. Compared to a conventional interdigitated geometry, both the developed configurations permit a significant decrease in the pressure drops without any reduction in battery performance. In the Four Inlets flow field the pressure drop reduction is more evident (up to 50%) due to the lower electrolyte velocities in the feeding channels, while the Two Outlets configuration guarantees a more homogeneous current density distribution. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Energy Storage of Redox-Flow Batteries)
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9 pages, 874 KiB  
Article
Disparate Redox Potentials in Mixed Isomer Electrolytes Reduce Voltage Efficiency of Energy Dense Flow Batteries
by Casey M. Davis, Scott E. Waters, Brian H. Robb, Jonathan R. Thurston, David Reber and Michael P. Marshak
Batteries 2023, 9(12), 573; https://doi.org/10.3390/batteries9120573 - 27 Nov 2023
Viewed by 1777
Abstract
Electrolytes containing multiple redox couples are promising for improving the energy density of flow batteries. Here, two chelated chromium complexes that are structural isomers are characterized and combined to generate electrolytes containing up to 2 M of active species, corresponding to 53.6 Ah [...] Read more.
Electrolytes containing multiple redox couples are promising for improving the energy density of flow batteries. Here, two chelated chromium complexes that are structural isomers are characterized and combined to generate electrolytes containing up to 2 M of active species, corresponding to 53.6 Ah L−1. The mixed isomer approach enables a significantly higher active material content than the individual materials would allow, affording energy dense cells with Coulombic efficiencies of ≥99.6% at 100 mA cm−2 and an open circuit voltage of 1.65 V at 50% state-of-charge. This high concentration, however, comes with a caveat; at a given concentration, an equimolar mixed electrolyte leads to lower voltage efficiency compared to using the individual isomers, while Coulombic efficiency remains constant. Our work demonstrates that exploiting structural isomerism is an efficient approach to improve capacity, but active materials must be selected carefully in mixed systems as differences in operating potentials negatively affect energy efficiency. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Energy Storage of Redox-Flow Batteries)
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14 pages, 3448 KiB  
Article
Ion-Selective Membranes Fabricated Using Finely Controlled Swelling of Non-Ionic Fluoropolymer for Redox Flow Batteries
by Fengjing Jiang and Rui Xue
Batteries 2023, 9(11), 545; https://doi.org/10.3390/batteries9110545 - 6 Nov 2023
Viewed by 1540
Abstract
Ion-selective membranes based on non-ionic polymers are promising for redox flow batteries due to their superior chemical stability and low cost. In this work, a poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) ion-selective membrane is successfully prepared using a solvent-controlled swelling method, where Nafion is used as [...] Read more.
Ion-selective membranes based on non-ionic polymers are promising for redox flow batteries due to their superior chemical stability and low cost. In this work, a poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) ion-selective membrane is successfully prepared using a solvent-controlled swelling method, where Nafion is used as a channel-forming promoter. The influences of Nafion on the channel formation of the membranes are studied. The results indicate that the addition of Nafion resin can greatly promote the formation of ion-conducting channels in the PVDF matrix. The obtained membranes show well-controlled proton conductivity and proton/vanadium selectivity. A battery test on a vanadium redox flow single cell is successfully performed. The energy efficiency of the cell equipped with the PVDF-based ion-selective membrane reaches 81.7% at a current density of 60 mA cm−2 and possesses excellent cycling stability and suppressed self-discharge after modification with Nafion. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Energy Storage of Redox-Flow Batteries)
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13 pages, 4646 KiB  
Article
Vanadium Redox Flow Battery Stack Balancing to Increase Depth of Discharge Using Forced Flow Attenuation
by Ilia Rashitov, Aleksandr Voropay, Grigoriy Tsepilov, Ivan Kuzmin, Alexey Loskutov, Andrey Kurkin, Evgeny Osetrov and Ivan Lipuzhin
Batteries 2023, 9(9), 464; https://doi.org/10.3390/batteries9090464 - 13 Sep 2023
Viewed by 1266
Abstract
Vanadium redox flow batteries are gaining great popularity in the world due to their long service life, simple (from a technological point of view) capacity increase and overload resistance, which hardly affects the service life. However, these batteries have technical problems, namely in [...] Read more.
Vanadium redox flow batteries are gaining great popularity in the world due to their long service life, simple (from a technological point of view) capacity increase and overload resistance, which hardly affects the service life. However, these batteries have technical problems, namely in balancing stacks with each other in terms of volumetric flow rate of electrolyte. Stack power depends on the speed of the electrolyte flow through the stack. Stacks are connected in parallel by electrolytes to increase battery power. If one of the stacks has a lower hydrodynamic resistance, the volume of electrolytes passing through it increases, which leads to a decrease in the efficiency of the remaining stacks in the system. This experimental study was conducted on a 10 kW uninterruptible power supply system based on two 5 kW stacks of all-vanadium redox flow batteries. It was demonstrated that forced flow attenuation in a circuit with low hydrodynamic resistance leads to an overall improvement in the system operation. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Energy Storage of Redox-Flow Batteries)
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Review

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18 pages, 5041 KiB  
Review
Molecular Engineering of Redox Couples for Non-Aqueous Redox Flow Batteries
by Casey M. Davis, Claire E. Boronski, Tianyi Yang, Tuo Liu and Zhiming Liang
Batteries 2023, 9(10), 504; https://doi.org/10.3390/batteries9100504 - 4 Oct 2023
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2193
Abstract
Redox flow batteries (RFBs) have attracted significant attention as a promising electrochemical energy storage technology, offering various advantages such as grid-scale electricity production with variable intermittent electricity delivery, enhanced safety compared to metal-ion batteries, decoupled energy and power density, and simplified manufacturing processes. [...] Read more.
Redox flow batteries (RFBs) have attracted significant attention as a promising electrochemical energy storage technology, offering various advantages such as grid-scale electricity production with variable intermittent electricity delivery, enhanced safety compared to metal-ion batteries, decoupled energy and power density, and simplified manufacturing processes. For this review, we exclusively focus on organic, non-aqueous redox flow batteries. Specifically, we address the most recent progress and the major challenges related to the design and synthesis of robust redox-active organic compounds. An extensive examination of the synthesis and characterization of a wide spectrum of redox-active molecules, focusing particularly on derivatives of posolytes such as quinone, nitroxyl radicals, dialkoxybenzenes, and phenothiazine and negolytes such as viologen and pyridiniums, is provided. We explore the incorporation of various functional groups as documented in the references, aiming to enhance the chemical and electrochemical stability, as well as the solubility, of both the neutral and radical states of redox-active molecules. Additionally, we offer a comprehensive assessment of the cell-cycling performance exhibited by these redox-active molecules. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Energy Storage of Redox-Flow Batteries)
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