Titanium-Cerium Electrode-Decoupled Redox Flow Batteries Integrated With Fossil Fuel Assets For Load-Following, Long-Duration Energy Storage
- Washington Univ., St. Louis, MO (United States); Washington University in St. Louis
- Washington Univ., St. Louis, MO (United States)
- Univ. of Texas at San Antonio, TX (United States)
- Giner, Inc., Newton, MA (United States)
Operation of fossil plants at partial capacity with frequent cycling results in decreased efficiency, increased emissions and increased wear and maintenance. The objective of this project is to advance the integration of a titanium-cerium electrode-decoupled redox flow battery (RFB) system with conventional fossil-fueled power plants through technical and economic system-level studies and component scale-up and R&D. The Ti-Ce chemistry has a pathway to meet the DOE cost targets of $$\$$$$100/kWh and $$\$$$$0.05/kWh-cycle owing to the use of low-cost, earth abundant elemental actives and incorporation of inexpensive carbon felt electrodes and non-fluorinated anion exchange membrane (AEM) separators. The initial unit cell design was scaled up, with some modifications made to improve ease of manufacturing, from 25 cm2 cell area to 400 cm2. Electrochemical tests demonstrated operation at a current density up to 50 mA/cm2, which is on par with other commercial RFB offerings. Furthermore, the Ti-Ce technology developed by WashU was evaluated and tested by industrial team partner, Giner, Inc., in their modular 3-cell stack. Several cell design modifications and alternate component material selections were successfully implemented to accommodate this chemistry while reducing polarization and leakage. Results from stack testing show high columbic efficiency and indicate that further optimization of cell compression and components will lead to successful operation of the Ti-Ce ED-RFB over longer duration at the multi-cell stack level. Engineering and cost analysis showed that an RFB system with power output on the order of 100 MW and with a charge/discharge duration of approx. 12 hours is the most cost effective for integration with fossil plants. At this scale, projected cycling of fossil fuel power plants can be significantly reduced. The use of a storage system is shown to reduce the fossil plant standalone cost of electricity by $$\$$$$7/MWh, through increased capacity factor and improved average efficiency, in the scenario of high penetration of renewable power.
- Research Organization:
- Washington Univ., St. Louis, MO (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management (FECM)
- DOE Contract Number:
- FE0032011
- OSTI ID:
- 2403252
- Report Number(s):
- DOE-WUSTL-RFB--01
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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