Engineers at the Georgia Institute of Technology have created a compact flow battery cell that could revolutionize how homes and buildings are powered
Flow batteries offer a solution. Electrolytes flow through electrochemical cells from storage tanks in this type of rechargeable battery. The existing flow battery technologies cost more than $200/kilowatt hour and are too expensive for practical application.
Nian Liu, an assistant professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology offered, “The advantage of a coal power plant is it’s very steady. If the power source fluctuates like it does with clean energy, it makes it more difficult to manage, so how can we use an energy storage device or system to smooth out these fluctuations?”
Applying this concept, the researchers developed an SMBT that reduces membrane-to-membrane distance by almost 100 times. The microtubular membrane in the design works as an electrolyte distributor at the same time without the need for large supporting materials. The bundled microtubes create a shorter distance between electrodes and membranes, increasing the volumetric power density. This bundling design is the key discovery for maximizing flow batteries’ potential.
With zinc-iodide chemistry, the battery could run for more than 220 hours, or to > 2,500 cycles at off-peak conditions. It could also potentially reduce the cost from $800 to less than $200 per kilowatt hour by using recycled electrolyte.The researchers are already working on commercialization, focusing on developing batteries with different chemistries like vanadium and scaling up their size.
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