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Flow battery

About: Flow battery is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 4753 publications have been published within this topic receiving 94524 citations. The topic is also known as: redox flow battery.


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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the components of RFBs with a focus on understanding the underlying physical processes are examined and various transport and kinetic phenomena are discussed along with the most common redox couples.
Abstract: Redox flow batteries (RFBs) are enjoying a renaissance due to their ability to store large amounts of electrical energy relatively cheaply and efficiently. In this review, we examine the components of RFBs with a focus on understanding the underlying physical processes. The various transport and kinetic phenomena are discussed along with the most common redox couples.

1,661 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Of the flow battery technologies that have been investigated, the all-vanadium redox flow battery has received the most attention and has shown most promise in various pre-commercial to commercial stationary applications to date, while new developments in hybrid redox fuel cells are promising to lead the way for future applications in mechanically and electrically "refuelable" electric vehicles.
Abstract: The past few decades have shown a rapid and continuous exhaustion of the available energy resources which may lead to serious energy global crises. Researchers have been focusing on developing new and renewable energy resources to meet the increasing fuel demand and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. A surge of research effort is also being directed towards replacing fossil fuel based vehicles with hybrid and electric alternatives. Energy storage is now seen as a critical element in future "smart grid and electric vehicle" applications. Electrochemical energy storage systems offer the best combination of efficiency, cost and flexibility, with redox flow battery systems currently leading the way in this aspect. In this work, a panoramic overview is presented for the various redox flow battery systems and their hybrid alternatives. Relevant published work is reported and critically discussed. A comprehensive study of the available technologies is conducted in terms of technical aspects as well as economic and environmental consequences. Some of the flow battery limitations and technical challenges are also discussed and a range of further research opportunities are presented. Of the flow battery technologies that have been investigated, the all-vanadium redox flow battery has received the most attention and has shown most promise in various pre-commercial to commercial stationary applications to date, while new developments in hybrid redox fuel cells are promising to lead the way for future applications in mechanically and electrically "refuelable" electric vehicles.

1,248 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, a review of recent progress in the research and development of redox flow battery technology, including cell-level components of electrolytes, electrodes, and membranes, is reviewed.
Abstract: With the increasing need to seamlessly integrate renewable energy with the current electricity grid, which itself is evolving into a more intelligent, efficient, and capable electrical power system, it is envisioned that energy-storage systems will play a more prominent role in bridging the gap between current technology and a clean sustainable future in grid reliability and utilization. Redox flow battery technology is a leading approach in providing a well-balanced solution for current challenges. Here, recent progress in the research and development of redox flow battery technology, including cell-level components of electrolytes, electrodes, and membranes, is reviewed. The focus is on new redox chemistries for both aqueous and non-aqueous systems.

1,216 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
09 Jan 2014-Nature
TL;DR: This work describes a class of energy storage materials that exploits the favourable chemical and electrochemical properties of a family of molecules known as quinones, and demonstrates a metal-free flow battery based on the redox chemistry of 9,10-anthraquinone-2,7-disulphonic acid.
Abstract: Flow batteries, in which the electro-active components are held in fluid form external to the battery itself, are attractive as a potential means for regulating the output of intermittent renewable sources of electricity; an aqueous flow battery based on inexpensive commodity chemicals is now reported that also has the virtue of enabling further improvement of battery performance through organic chemical design. Flow batteries differ from the conventional type in that the electro-active components of flow batteries are held in fluid form external to the battery itself, enabling such systems to store arbitrarily large amounts of energy. Flow batteries are therefore attractive as a potential means for regulating the output of intermittent sources of electricity such as wind or solar power. But an important limitation of most such systems is the abundance and cost of the electro-active materials. To overcome this limitation, Brian Huskinson and colleagues have developed an aqueous flow battery on the basis of inexpensive, non-metallic commodity chemicals, with the added advantage of enabling the tuning of key battery properties through chemical design. As the fraction of electricity generation from intermittent renewable sources—such as solar or wind—grows, the ability to store large amounts of electrical energy is of increasing importance. Solid-electrode batteries maintain discharge at peak power for far too short a time to fully regulate wind or solar power output1,2. In contrast, flow batteries can independently scale the power (electrode area) and energy (arbitrarily large storage volume) components of the system by maintaining all of the electro-active species in fluid form3,4,5. Wide-scale utilization of flow batteries is, however, limited by the abundance and cost of these materials, particularly those using redox-active metals and precious-metal electrocatalysts6,7. Here we describe a class of energy storage materials that exploits the favourable chemical and electrochemical properties of a family of molecules known as quinones. The example we demonstrate is a metal-free flow battery based on the redox chemistry of 9,10-anthraquinone-2,7-disulphonic acid (AQDS). AQDS undergoes extremely rapid and reversible two-electron two-proton reduction on a glassy carbon electrode in sulphuric acid. An aqueous flow battery with inexpensive carbon electrodes, combining the quinone/hydroquinone couple with the Br2/Br− redox couple, yields a peak galvanic power density exceeding 0.6 W cm−2 at 1.3 A cm−2. Cycling of this quinone–bromide flow battery showed >99 per cent storage capacity retention per cycle. The organic anthraquinone species can be synthesized from inexpensive commodity chemicals8. This organic approach permits tuning of important properties such as the reduction potential and solubility by adding functional groups: for example, we demonstrate that the addition of two hydroxy groups to AQDS increases the open circuit potential of the cell by 11% and we describe a pathway for further increases in cell voltage. The use of π-aromatic redox-active organic molecules instead of redox-active metals represents a new and promising direction for realizing massive electrical energy storage at greatly reduced cost.

1,194 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors compared redox flow systems in the light of characteristics such as open circuit potential, power density, energy efficiency, and charge-discharge behavior, and highlighted areas for further research.

1,054 citations


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Performance
Metrics
No. of papers in the topic in previous years
YearPapers
2023268
2022571
2021400
2020558
2019571
2018475