Are flow batteries a good energy storage device?

When the battery is hooked up to an external circuit, that energy can be used provide power as needed. What’s advantageous about flow batteries compared to other types of energy storage devices is that they are easily scalable. The larger the electrolyte supply tank, the more energy that can be stored within the battery.

What is a flow battery?

A flow battery exchanges ions between liquid anodes and cathodes, called anolyte and catholyte. Image: PNNL During the COVID-19 pandemic, Li and colleagues were charged with coming up with new ways to store energy generated by renewable sources such as wind and solar energy power.

Can a flow battery be modeled?

MIT researchers have demonstrated a modeling framework that can help model a flow battery. Their work focuses on the flow battery, an electrochemical cell that looks promising for grid-scale energy storage, except for one problem: Current flow batteries rely on vanadium, an energy-storage material that’s expensive and not always readily available.

How do flow batteries charge?

Flow batteries charge through electrochemical reactions. The battery circulates the liquid electrolyte, in this case the NTMPA, which charge and discharge electrons via a redox reaction. When the battery is hooked up to an external circuit, that energy can be used provide power as needed.

Could a water-based 'flow battery' transform home solar energy?

Researchers in Australia have created a new kind of water-based “flow battery” that could transform how households store rooftop solar energy. Credit: Stock Monash scientists designed a fast, safe liquid battery for home solar. The system could outperform expensive lithium-ion options.

Can iron-based aqueous flow batteries be used for grid energy storage?

A new iron-based aqueous flow battery shows promise for grid energy storage applications. A commonplace chemical used in water treatment facilities has been repurposed for large-scale energy storage in a new battery design by researchers at the Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.