Effect of flow field geometry on operating current density, capacity and performance of vanadium redox flow battery

Maurya, Sandipkumar; Nguyen, Phong Thanh; Kim, Yu Seung; Kang, Qinjun; Mukundan, Rangachary

doi:10.1016/j.jpowsour.2018.09.093

Effect of flow field geometry on operating current density, capacity and performance of vanadium redox flow battery

Journal Article · Fri Oct 05 00:00:00 EDT 2018 · Journal of Power Sources

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpowsour.2018.09.093· OSTI ID:1481999

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Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)

We report that addition of flow fields to carbon paper electrodes in a vanadium redox flow battery (VRFB) can improve the peak power density through uniform distribution of electrolyte in the electrodes. However, it is unclear whether flow fields have a similar effect with graphite felt electrodes, as VRFBs with felt electrodes reported in literature show a large anomaly in obtained power density. In this work, we evaluate three flow fields; viz. serpentine, interdigitated and conventional (without flow pattern) type with felt electrodes and compare their performance with a serpentine flow field using carbon paper electrodes under identical experimental conditions. The conventional flow field provides highest energy efficiency (75%) followed by serpentine (64%) and interdigitated (55%) at 0.2 A cm^-2 attributable to the deteriorating electrolyte distribution in the electrodes. Computation fluid dynamic simulations confirm the experimental finding of worsening electrolyte distribution (conventional < serpentine < interdigitated). A power density of 0.51 W cm^-2 at 60 mL min^-1 flow rate is obtained for serpentine and conventional flow fields with felt electrodes; comparable to the highest power density reported in literature for high performing zero-gap flow field architecture. Finally, this paper gives comprehensive insights on flow fields for VRFBs that can be extended to other flow batteries.

View Accepted Manuscript (DOE)

Research Organization:: Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL)

Sponsoring Organization:: Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD); USDOE

Grant/Contract Number:: AC52-06NA25396

OSTI ID:: 1481999

Report Number(s):: LA-UR-18-23778

Journal Information:: Journal of Power Sources, Journal Name: Journal of Power Sources Journal Issue: C Vol. 404; ISSN 0378-7753

Publisher:: ElsevierCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
Energy Sciences
Material Science
Vanadium redox flow battery

Effect of flow field geometry on operating current density, capacity and performance of vanadium redox flow battery

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References (25)

Cited By (2)

Figures / Tables (8)

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