{"id":11861,"date":"2018-08-06T19:24:09","date_gmt":"2018-08-07T02:24:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cafe.foundation\/blog\/?p=11861"},"modified":"2018-08-09T23:24:02","modified_gmt":"2018-08-10T06:24:02","slug":"flow-batteries-aging-well","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/cafe.foundation\/blog\/flow-batteries-aging-well\/","title":{"rendered":"Flow Batteries Aging Well"},"content":{"rendered":"

As previously noted in the blog, the Tissandier Brothers flew their Siemens-powered electric airship in 1883 using a flow battery of their own design for energy storage.\u00a0 This technology gets a lot of attention for grid-based energy storage, but might have use in more mobile applications.\u00a0 Nano Flow Cell Technologies <\/a>in Switzerland, for instance, used different salt waters to power their Quant and Quantino automobiles.<\/p>\n

Howard Handelman, a regular reader of the blog, shared the following two researches into modernizing flow cells.\u00a0 Stanford and Harvard researchers both cooked up different ingredients than one would normally find in a flow battery.\u00a0 Both groups achieved better than average performance and longevity.<\/p>\n

Stanford\u2019s Liquid Metal Approach <\/strong><\/p>\n

Stanford\u2019s battery uses liquid metal that more than doubles the maximum voltage of conventional flow batteries.\u00a0 Things happen at normal temperatures, unlike flow batteries that need extremely high temperatures.\u00a0 The metals used are low-cost and non-toxic, unlike the dangerous fluids used in other flow batteries.<\/p>\n

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Sodium-potassium alloy is a room-temperature liquid metal that could unlock a high-voltage flow battery.\u00a0\u00a0Image: Antonio Baclig<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

William Chueh<\/a>, Stanford assistant professor of materials science and engineering,\u00a0PhD student Antonio Baclig and Jason Rugolo, now a technology prospector at Alphabet\u2019s research subsidiary X Development, used sodium and potassium.\u00a0 The Stanford press release explains<\/a>, that when mixed they form a liquid metal at room temperature, which is used as the fluid for the electron donor \u2013 or negative \u2013 side of the battery. \u00a0\u201cTheoretically, this liquid metal has at least 10 times the available energy per gram as other candidates for the negative-side fluid of a flow battery.\u201d<\/p>\n

The group found a suitable ceramic membrane made of potassium and aluminum oxide to keep the negative and positive materials separate while allowing current to flow.<\/p>\n

The sodium\/potassium negative side coupled with the membrane \u201cmore than doubled the maximum voltage of conventional flow batteries, and the prototype remained stable for thousands of hours of operation. This higher voltage means the battery can store more energy for its size, which also brings down the cost of producing the battery.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Stanford PhD candidates (from left) Geoff McConohy, Antonio Baclig and Andrey Poletayev have developed a new type of flow battery that could lead to affordable storage of renewable power.\u00a0Image : Mark Golden<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

Baclig adds, \u201cA new battery technology has so many different performance metrics to meet: cost, efficiency, size, lifetime, safety, etc.\u00a0 We think this sort of technology has the possibility, with more work, to meet them all, which is why we are excited about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

He concludes, \u201cWe still have a lot of work to do,\u201d said Baclig, \u201cbut this is a new type of flow battery that could affordably enable much higher use of solar and wind power using Earth-abundant materials.\u201d<\/p>\n

The group published<\/a> their work in the July 18 issue of Joule<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n

They continue their work, looking at different membrane and liquid materials.<\/p>\n

Harvard\u2019s Organic Flow Battery<\/strong><\/p>\n

And all the days of Methuselah were nine hundred sixty and nine years: and he died.<\/em>
\n Genesis 5:27 (King James Version)<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n