Advanced Hydrogen-Bromine Flow Batteries with Improved Efficiency, Durability and Cost
Abstract
The hydrogen/bromine flow battery is a promising candidate for large-scale energy storage due to fast kinetics, highly reversible reactions and low chemical costs. However, today's conventional hydrogen/bromine flow batteries use membrane materials (such as Nafion), platinum catalysts, and carbon-paper electrode materials that are expensive. In addition, platinum catalysts can be poisoned and corroded when exposed to HBr and Br 2, compromising system lifetime. To reduce the cost and increase the durability of H 2/Br 2 flow batteries, new materials are developed. The new Nafion/polyvinylidene fluoride electrospun composite membranes have high perm-selectivity at a fraction of the cost of Nafion membranes; the new nitrogen-functionalized platinum-iridium catalyst possesses excellent activity and durability in HBr/Br 2 environment; and the new carbon-nanotube-based Br 2 electrodes can achieve equal or better performance with less materials when compared to baseline electrode materials. Preliminary cost analysis shows that the new materials reduce H 2/Br 2 flow-battery energy-storage system stack and system costs significantly. The resulting advanced H 2/Br 2 flow batteries offer high power, high efficiency, substantially increased durability, and expected reduced cost.
- Authors:
- TVN Systems, Inc., Lawrence, KS (United States)
- Univ. of Kansas, Lawrence, KS (United States)
- Vanderbilt Univ., Nashville, TN (United States)
- Northeastern Univ., Boston, MA (United States)
- Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
- Publication Date:
- Research Org.:
- Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
- Sponsoring Org.:
- USDOE Office of Science (SC)
- OSTI Identifier:
- 1532175
- Grant/Contract Number:
- AC02-05CH11231
- Resource Type:
- Accepted Manuscript
- Journal Name:
- Journal of the Electrochemical Society
- Additional Journal Information:
- Journal Volume: 163; Journal Issue: 1; Journal ID: ISSN 0013-4651
- Publisher:
- The Electrochemical Society
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
- Subject:
- 25 ENERGY STORAGE
Citation Formats
Lin, G., Chong, P. Y., Yarlagadda, V., Nguyen, T. V., Wycisk, R. J., Pintauro, P. N., Bates, M., Mukerjee, S., Tucker, M. C., and Weber, A. Z. Advanced Hydrogen-Bromine Flow Batteries with Improved Efficiency, Durability and Cost. United States: N. p., 2015.
Web. doi:10.1149/2.0071601jes.
Lin, G., Chong, P. Y., Yarlagadda, V., Nguyen, T. V., Wycisk, R. J., Pintauro, P. N., Bates, M., Mukerjee, S., Tucker, M. C., & Weber, A. Z. Advanced Hydrogen-Bromine Flow Batteries with Improved Efficiency, Durability and Cost. United States. doi:10.1149/2.0071601jes.
Lin, G., Chong, P. Y., Yarlagadda, V., Nguyen, T. V., Wycisk, R. J., Pintauro, P. N., Bates, M., Mukerjee, S., Tucker, M. C., and Weber, A. Z. Tue .
"Advanced Hydrogen-Bromine Flow Batteries with Improved Efficiency, Durability and Cost". United States. doi:10.1149/2.0071601jes. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1532175.
@article{osti_1532175,
title = {Advanced Hydrogen-Bromine Flow Batteries with Improved Efficiency, Durability and Cost},
author = {Lin, G. and Chong, P. Y. and Yarlagadda, V. and Nguyen, T. V. and Wycisk, R. J. and Pintauro, P. N. and Bates, M. and Mukerjee, S. and Tucker, M. C. and Weber, A. Z.},
abstractNote = {The hydrogen/bromine flow battery is a promising candidate for large-scale energy storage due to fast kinetics, highly reversible reactions and low chemical costs. However, today's conventional hydrogen/bromine flow batteries use membrane materials (such as Nafion), platinum catalysts, and carbon-paper electrode materials that are expensive. In addition, platinum catalysts can be poisoned and corroded when exposed to HBr and Br2, compromising system lifetime. To reduce the cost and increase the durability of H2/Br2 flow batteries, new materials are developed. The new Nafion/polyvinylidene fluoride electrospun composite membranes have high perm-selectivity at a fraction of the cost of Nafion membranes; the new nitrogen-functionalized platinum-iridium catalyst possesses excellent activity and durability in HBr/Br2 environment; and the new carbon-nanotube-based Br2 electrodes can achieve equal or better performance with less materials when compared to baseline electrode materials. Preliminary cost analysis shows that the new materials reduce H2/Br2 flow-battery energy-storage system stack and system costs significantly. The resulting advanced H2/Br2 flow batteries offer high power, high efficiency, substantially increased durability, and expected reduced cost.},
doi = {10.1149/2.0071601jes},
journal = {Journal of the Electrochemical Society},
number = 1,
volume = 163,
place = {United States},
year = {2015},
month = {9}
}
Web of Science
Figures / Tables:

Works referenced in this record:
Transport Properties of Nafion Membranes in Electrochemically Regenerative Hydrogen/Halogen Cells
journal, January 1979
- Yeo, R. S.
- Journal of The Electrochemical Society, Vol. 126, Issue 10
Synthesis and characterization of PtNx/C as methanol-tolerant oxygen reduction electrocatalysts for a direct methanol fuel cell
journal, June 2008
- Oh, Jong-Gil; Kim, Hansung
- Journal of Power Sources, Vol. 181, Issue 1
Optimization and Analysis of High-Power Hydrogen/Bromine-Flow Batteries for Grid-Scale Energy Storage
journal, October 2013
- Cho, Kyu Taek; Albertus, Paul; Battaglia, Vincent
- Energy Technology, Vol. 1, Issue 10
Optimization of electrode characteristics for the Br2/H2 redox flow cell
journal, October 2014
- Tucker, Michael C.; Cho, Kyu Taek; Weber, Adam Z.
- Journal of Applied Electrochemistry, Vol. 45, Issue 1
A Hydrogen-Bromine Cell for Energy Storage Applications
journal, January 1980
- Yeo, R. S.
- Journal of The Electrochemical Society, Vol. 127, Issue 3
HER/HOR Catalysts for the H2-Br2 Fuel Cell System
journal, May 2013
- Nguyen, T. V.; Kreutzer, H.; Yarlagadda, V.
- ECS Transactions, Vol. 53, Issue 7
Capital Cost Sensitivity Analysis of an All-Vanadium Redox-Flow Battery
journal, January 2012
- Zhang, Mengqi; Moore, Mark; Watson, J. S.
- Journal of The Electrochemical Society, Vol. 159, Issue 8
High Surface Area Carbon Electrodes for the Bromine Reactions in H2-Br2 Fuel Cells
journal, April 2014
- Yarlagadda, V.; Nguyen, T. V.
- ECS Transactions, Vol. 58, Issue 36
Nafion/PVDF nanofiber composite membranes for regenerative hydrogen/bromine fuel cells
journal, September 2015
- Park, Jun Woo; Wycisk, Ryszard; Pintauro, Peter N.
- Journal of Membrane Science, Vol. 490
High-power H2/Br2 fuel cell
journal, August 2006
- Livshits, V.; Ulus, A.; Peled, E.
- Electrochemistry Communications, Vol. 8, Issue 8
Hydrogen-halogen electrochemical cells: A review of applications and technologies
journal, December 2013
- Tolmachev, Yu. V.
- Russian Journal of Electrochemistry, Vol. 50, Issue 4
Study of hydrogen redox reactions on platinum nanoparticles in concentrated HBr solutions
journal, January 2012
- Goor-Dar, M.; Travitsky, N.; Peled, E.
- Journal of Power Sources, Vol. 197
Lifetime Studies in H[sub 2]∕Br[sub 2] Fuel Cells
journal, January 1984
- Barna, G. G.
- Journal of The Electrochemical Society, Vol. 131, Issue 9
High Performance Hydrogen/Bromine Redox Flow Battery for Grid-Scale Energy Storage
journal, January 2012
- Cho, Kyu Taek; Ridgway, Paul; Weber, Adam Z.
- Journal of The Electrochemical Society, Vol. 159, Issue 11
Performance Evaluation of a Regenerative Hydrogen-Bromine Fuel Cell
journal, January 2012
- Kreutzer, Haley; Yarlagadda, Venkata; Van Nguyen, Trung
- Journal of The Electrochemical Society, Vol. 159, Issue 7
Impact of membrane characteristics on the performance and cycling of the Br2–H2 redox flow cell
journal, June 2015
- Tucker, Michael C.; Cho, Kyu Taek; Spingler, Franz B.
- Journal of Power Sources, Vol. 284
A 1D Mathematical Model of a H 2 /Br 2 Fuel Cell
journal, January 2013
- Yarlagadda, Venkata; Van Nguyen, Trung
- Journal of The Electrochemical Society, Vol. 160, Issue 6
Cover Picture: Assembly Dependent Fluorescence Enhancing Nucleic Acids in Sequence-Specific Detection of Double-Stranded DNA (ChemPlusChem 1/2014)
journal, November 2013
- Doluca, Osman; Hale, Tracy K.; Edwards, Patrick J. B.
- ChemPlusChem, Vol. 79, Issue 1
The Equilibrium Constant of the Bromine Hydrolysis and its Variation with Temperature
journal, July 1934
- Liebhafsky, Herman A.
- Journal of the American Chemical Society, Vol. 56, Issue 7
Works referencing / citing this record:
Synthesis and Evaluation of Rh x S y Catalyst with High Affinity for Nafion Ionomer for HOR/HER in a H 2 -Br 2 Regenerative Fuel Cell
journal, January 2019
- Li, Yuanchao; Van Nguyen, Trung
- Journal of The Electrochemical Society, Vol. 166, Issue 10
Energy storage inspired by nature – ionic liquid iron–sulfur clusters as electrolytes for redox flow batteries
journal, January 2019
- Modrzynski, Christian; Burger, Peter
- Dalton Transactions, Vol. 48, Issue 6