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New Type of 'Flow Battery' Can Store 10 Times the Energy of the Next Best Device (sciencemag.org)

Posted by timothy on from the buffering-the-surplus dept.

sciencehabit writes: Industrial-scale batteries, known as flow batteries, could one day usher in widespread use of renewable energy—but only if the devices can store large amounts of energy cheaply and feed it to the grid when the sun isn't shining and the winds are calm. That's something conventional flow batteries can't do. Now, researchers report that they've created a novel type of flow battery that uses lithium ion technology—the sort used to power laptops—to store about 10 times as much energy as the most common flow batteries on the market. With a few improvements, the new batteries could make a major impact on the way we store and deliver energy. The research, from the National University of Singapore, has one big flaw in particular: speed. It's 'very innovative' work, says Michael Aziz, a flow battery expert at Harvard University. But he adds that even though the novel battery has a high energy density, the rate at which it delivers that power is 10,000 times slower than conventional flow batteries, far too slow for most applications. Wang and his colleagues acknowledge the limitation, but they say they should be able to improve the delivery rate with further improvements to the membrane and the charge-ferrying redox mediators.

15 of 75 comments (clear)

  1. Re:battery vs capacitor by kenai_alpenglow · · Score: 3, Informative

    storage of energy in a field vs storage of energy in a chemical potential.

  2. Redox Mediator by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    Interesting that the summary explains what a lithium-ion battery is but assumes I know what a charge ferrying redox mediator is. I'm obviously a bit out of touch.

    1. Re: Redox Mediator by finlan · · Score: 2, Funny

      The Ferry Redox Mediator was the band member who used break up fights in Roxy Music.

  3. Re:battery vs capacitor by Ungrounded+Lightning · · Score: 4, Insightful

    When does the battery become capacitor?

    When the voltage across it is directly proportional to percentage of charge.

    And they already did, many years ago. That's what "supercapacitors" are: Electrochemical cells where the charge is stored by migrating, but not ionization-state-changing, ions in a solution (rather than by migrating electrons within two conductors (one metal, the other metal or conductive liquid) separated by an insulator, as in a conventional or electrolytic capacitor, or ionization-state-changing ions in the cells of a conventional battery,where the voltage only changes slightly with state of charge until nearly full discharge.

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  4. Re:Better use a lemon by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    A typical li-ion battery produces ~10Wh. 10000 times less, means 1 mWh. This is roughly what a lemon can produce.

    Get your entities/units right. Wh is a measure of energy - in a battery that's storage capacity - something these batteries are supposedly good (10x better) at.

    The issue with them is power delivery, which is measured in Watts (or expressed in current at a given voltage, as power=current x voltage) .

    Oblig. car analogy: this new battery has a larger fuel tank, but the fuel line to the engine is much smaller.

  5. The HELL they can't! by Ungrounded+Lightning · · Score: 3, Interesting

    That's something conventional flow batteries can't do.hat's something conventional flow batteries can't do.

    The hell they can't. Industrial-scale Vanadium Redox flow batteries are doing that right now, in utility companies, and have been for a couple years. (In New Zeeland, if I recall correctly.)

    I think the reason they're not more widely used already is that they're under patent protection, the company is small, and its owners don't want to license the technology or dilute their equity, so the supply is limited to their ramp-up and funding sources.

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    1. Re:The HELL they can't! by Orne · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Being in the industry, the reason I was given was (1) the electrolyte is very expensive right now and (2) investors need a demonstration of return. The flow devices scale much better than Lithium batteries, store more energy, and can discharge over longer periods of time. This makes them eligible for capacity markets, but we are coincidentally in a period of over-supply in the energy markets, so capacity clearing prices are not supporting their cost of entry. Secondly, as a storage device, they need to arbitrage the energy prices, charge at low prices and discharge at high prices.

  6. Improving the charge-ferrying redox mediators by c++ · · Score: 5, Funny

    All they have to do is use the optical plasma inductor to take advantage of the phased interface phenomenon.

    1. Re:Improving the charge-ferrying redox mediators by 140Mandak262Jamuna · · Score: 2

      No, not that complicated. Just have to trachyons through the flux capacitor to emit metachlorians, to produce a grand conjuction from three different space-time metaverses .

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  7. Lithium Ion? by Dereck1701 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    They chose one of the more expensive commercially available battery technologies for their flow battery? Next I expect them to try to integrate 2 carat diamonds into Lowes brand light fixtures to try to improve their light distribution. The point of an industrial flow battery is storing energy as cheaply as possible, energy density is one of the last considerations. There are of course limitations, but given the choice between something the size of a cargo container with rare earth materials running through it that costs $1 Million dollars or something the size of a grain silo full of cheap and non-toxic compounds for $100,000 the latter is preferable for most applications.

    1. Re:Lithium Ion? by Wycliffe · · Score: 2, Insightful

      They chose one of the more expensive commercially available battery technologies for their flow battery?

      It's still a useful milestone. If you can up the theoretical limit with exotic materials then you can study it and try to replicate it with less exotic materials. Many of our advances in a variety of areas like semiconductors, batteries, superconductors, and a large host of other areas started out with exotics before figuring out how to replicate it with cheaper components. Granted your second argument is valid where with the exception of cars and mobile devices, energy density is usually not a huge concern, it's still nice to know what is possible and with a 10x density increase, the exotics have to be at least 10x more expensive for them not to be competitive.

    2. Re:Lithium Ion? by hey! · · Score: 2

      This might be just the thing to keep your solar-powered lunar instrument running for half the month.

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  8. 81% of the energy density of gasoline? by gestalt_n_pepper · · Score: 2

    Color me skeptical. I'll believe it when I see it in commercial production for an affordable price.

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  9. Large Format Nickel Metal Hydride batteries by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    About 15 years ago, laptops were powered by Nickel Metal Hydride batteries. The patent holders allowed the technology for small batteries, but rights on large format batteries were shelved. These batteries were fast, light weight, and high energy. The patent would have to be close to expiring at this point.

  10. Re:battery vs capacitor by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    Syntax error, insert ")" to complete Expression