The Relationship between Shunt Currents and Edge Corrosion in Flow Batteries

Darling, Robert M.; Shiau, Huai-Suen; Weber, Adam Z.; Perry, Mike L.

doi:10.1149/2.0081711jes

Title: The Relationship between Shunt Currents and Edge Corrosion in Flow Batteries

Journal Article · Tue Apr 04 00:00:00 EDT 2017 · Journal of the Electrochemical Society

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1149/2.0081711jes· OSTI ID:1506267

Darling, Robert M. ^[1]; Shiau, Huai-Suen ^[2];

^[2]; Perry, Mike L. ^[3]

Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States). Joint Center for Energy Storage Research (JCESR); United Technologies Research Center, East Hartford, CT (United States)
Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
United Technologies Research Center, East Hartford, CT (United States)

Shunt currents occur in electrochemical reactors like flow batteries, electrolyzers, and fuel cells where many bipolar cells that are connected in series electrically contact a mobile electrolyte through one or more common fluid distribution manifolds. Shunt currents reduce energy efficiency, and can cause unwanted side reactions including corrosion and gas generation. Equivalent-circuit models have been widely used to examine shunt currents in multi-cell electrochemical reactors. However, a detailed investigation of the interesting electrochemical processes occurring at the edges of the active areas has not been presented. In this work, the generation of shunt currents and their tendency to drive corrosion at the edges of positive electrodes in the most positive cells in a reactor stack are investigated with a comprehensive numerical model. An analytical model based on the penetration of current into a semi-infinite electrode, that can be used in conjunction with traditional equivalent-circuit models to assess the tendency for shunt currents to drive corrosion, is developed and compared to the numerical model. The models provided here can be used to set requirements on maximum allowable port currents in order to achieve a particular durability goal.

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Research Organization:: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Sustainable Transportation Office. Hydrogen Fuel Cell Technologies Office

Grant/Contract Number:: AC02-05CH11231

OSTI ID:: 1506267

Journal Information:: Journal of the Electrochemical Society, Vol. 164, Issue 11; ISSN 0013-4651

Publisher:: The Electrochemical SocietyCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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Cited by: 26 works

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Cited By (6)

On‐Site Purification of Copper‐Contaminated Vanadium Electrolytes by using a Vanadium Redox Flow Battery Reynard, Danick; Vrubel, Heron; Dennison, Christopher R. ChemSusChem, Vol. 12, Issue 6 https://doi.org/10.1002/cssc.201802895	journal	February 2019
Electrochemical energy storage for renewable energy integration: zinc-air flow batteries Amunátegui, B.; Ibáñez, A.; Sierra, M. Journal of Applied Electrochemistry, Vol. 48, Issue 6 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10800-017-1133-7	journal	December 2017
Rechargeable redox flow batteries: flow fields, stacks and design considerations Ke, Xinyou; Prahl, Joseph M.; Alexander, J. Iwan D. Chemical Society Reviews, Vol. 47, Issue 23 https://doi.org/10.1039/c8cs00072g	journal	January 2018
Electrolyte Compositions in a Vanadium Redox Flow Battery Measured with a Reference Cell Yang, Z.; Darling, R. M.; Perry, M. L. Journal of The Electrochemical Society, Vol. 166, Issue 13 https://doi.org/10.1149/2.1161913jes	journal	January 2019
General Simplified Model to Calculate Current Distribution in Electrochemical Reactors with N Bipolar Electrodes Rodríguez-Torres, I.; Henquín, E. R. Journal of The Electrochemical Society, Vol. 166, Issue 8 https://doi.org/10.1149/2.1291906jes	journal	January 2019
A One-Dimensional Stack Model for Redox Flow Battery Analysis and Operation Barton, John L.; Brushett, Fikile R. Batteries, Vol. 5, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.3390/batteries5010025	journal	February 2019

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