Low-cost hydrocarbon membrane enables commercial-scale flow batteries
Low-cost hydrocarbon membrane enables commercial-scale flow batteries for long-duration energy storage
Credit: DICP
… for long-duration energy storage.
Flow batteries are promising for energy storage due to their high safety, high reliability, long cycle life, and high efficiency.
The development of commercial-scale flow batteries for long-duration energy storage requires to reduce the cost of flow batteries, especially the cost of ion-exchange membranes.
Recently, a research group led by Prof. LI Xianfeng from the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics (DICP) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) realized pilot-scale synthesis and roll-to-roll manufacturing of hydrocarbon membranes with high-performance in alkaline-based flow batteries.
This work was published in Joule on March 21.
The researchers realized the kilogram-level synthesis of sulfonated poly(ether-ether-ketone) (SPEEK) polymer and demonstrated the pilot-scale roll-to-roll synthesis of SPEEK membrane and their applications in alkaline-based flow batteries.
They found that the rigid skeleton and dispersive cation exchange groups enabled the high stability of the membrane in alkaline media, and could confine O-containing species (H2O, OH–, etc.) inside the membrane, resulting in the formation of continuous hydrogen-bonding networks. This favored the dissociation of H+ in H–O–H (H2O) and transfer from H2O to adjacent OH– ions through a Grotthuss mechanism, thus providing a high OH– conductivity in SPEEK.
The membrane was integrated in alkaline zinc-iron flow battery stack with power up to 4 kW, with a high energy efficiency of 85.5% operated at 80 mA/cm2.
This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, CAS Engineering Laboratory for Electrochemical Energy Storage, and the Youth Innovation Promotion Association of CAS.
Journal: Joule
DOI: 10.1016/j.joule.2022.02.016
Method of Research: Commentary/editorial
Subject of Research: Not applicable
Article Title: Low-cost hydrocarbon membrane enables commercial-scale flow batteries for long-duration energy storage
Article Publication Date: 21-Mar-2022
Media Contact
Jean Wang
Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy Sciences
wangyj@dicp.ac.cn
Office: 41182464221
All latest news from the category: Power and Electrical Engineering
This topic covers issues related to energy generation, conversion, transportation and consumption and how the industry is addressing the challenge of energy efficiency in general.
innovations-report provides in-depth and informative reports and articles on subjects ranging from wind energy, fuel cell technology, solar energy, geothermal energy, petroleum, gas, nuclear engineering, alternative energy and energy efficiency to fusion, hydrogen and superconductor technologies.
Newest articles
First-of-its-kind study uses remote sensing to monitor plastic debris in rivers and lakes
Remote sensing creates a cost-effective solution to monitoring plastic pollution. A first-of-its-kind study from researchers at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities shows how remote sensing can help monitor and…
Laser-based artificial neuron mimics nerve cell functions at lightning speed
With a processing speed a billion times faster than nature, chip-based laser neuron could help advance AI tasks such as pattern recognition and sequence prediction. Researchers have developed a laser-based…
Optimising the processing of plastic waste
Just one look in the yellow bin reveals a colourful jumble of different types of plastic. However, the purer and more uniform plastic waste is, the easier it is to…