skip to main content
OSTI.GOV title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: Design of State-of-the-art Flow Cells for Energy Applications

Abstract

The worldwide energy demand is increasing every day and it necessitates rational and efficient usage of renewable energy. Undoubtedly, utilization of renewable energy can address various environmental challenges. However, all current renewable energy resources (wind, solar, and hydroelectric power) are intermittent and fluctuating in their nature that raises an important question of introducing effective energy storage solutions. Utilization of redox flow cells (RFCs) has recently been recognized as a viable technology for large-scale energy storage and, hence, is well suited for integrating renewable energy and balancing electricity grids. In brief, RFC is an electrochemical storage device (Fig. 1), where energy is stored in chemical bonds, similar to a battery, but with reactants external to the cell. The state-of-the-art in flow cell technology uses an aqueous acidic electrolyte and simple metal redox couples. Several of these systems have been commercialized although current technologies, such as vanadium (V) and zinc-bromine (Zn-Br2) RFCs, for grid level energy storage, suffer from a number of drawbacks, i.e. expensive and resource-limited active materials (vanadium RFCc), and low current performance (Zn-Br2 RFCs due to Zn dendrite formation). Thus, there is an urgent call to develop efficient (high-energy density) and low-cost RFCs to meet the efflorescent energy storagemore » demands. Approach: To address the first challenge of achieving high-energy density, we plan to design and further modify complexes composed of bifunctional multidentate ligands and specific metal centers, capable of storing as many electrons as possible.« less

Authors:
 [1]
  1. Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) Program
OSTI Identifier:
1418785
Report Number(s):
LA-UR-18-20612
DOE Contract Number:  
AC52-06NA25396
Resource Type:
Technical Report
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
25 ENERGY STORAGE

Citation Formats

Yang, Ping. Design of State-of-the-art Flow Cells for Energy Applications. United States: N. p., 2018. Web. doi:10.2172/1418785.
Yang, Ping. Design of State-of-the-art Flow Cells for Energy Applications. United States. https://doi.org/10.2172/1418785
Yang, Ping. 2018. "Design of State-of-the-art Flow Cells for Energy Applications". United States. https://doi.org/10.2172/1418785. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1418785.
@article{osti_1418785,
title = {Design of State-of-the-art Flow Cells for Energy Applications},
author = {Yang, Ping},
abstractNote = {The worldwide energy demand is increasing every day and it necessitates rational and efficient usage of renewable energy. Undoubtedly, utilization of renewable energy can address various environmental challenges. However, all current renewable energy resources (wind, solar, and hydroelectric power) are intermittent and fluctuating in their nature that raises an important question of introducing effective energy storage solutions. Utilization of redox flow cells (RFCs) has recently been recognized as a viable technology for large-scale energy storage and, hence, is well suited for integrating renewable energy and balancing electricity grids. In brief, RFC is an electrochemical storage device (Fig. 1), where energy is stored in chemical bonds, similar to a battery, but with reactants external to the cell. The state-of-the-art in flow cell technology uses an aqueous acidic electrolyte and simple metal redox couples. Several of these systems have been commercialized although current technologies, such as vanadium (V) and zinc-bromine (Zn-Br2) RFCs, for grid level energy storage, suffer from a number of drawbacks, i.e. expensive and resource-limited active materials (vanadium RFCc), and low current performance (Zn-Br2 RFCs due to Zn dendrite formation). Thus, there is an urgent call to develop efficient (high-energy density) and low-cost RFCs to meet the efflorescent energy storage demands. Approach: To address the first challenge of achieving high-energy density, we plan to design and further modify complexes composed of bifunctional multidentate ligands and specific metal centers, capable of storing as many electrons as possible.},
doi = {10.2172/1418785},
url = {https://www.osti.gov/biblio/1418785}, journal = {},
number = ,
volume = ,
place = {United States},
year = {Mon Jan 29 00:00:00 EST 2018},
month = {Mon Jan 29 00:00:00 EST 2018}
}