Research and Development of Vanadium Flow Battery

Renewable energies from sources like solar and wind become the central topics of our times with the concerns of energy shortage and environment protection. However, the random nature of these intermittent renewable sources (change with synoptic conditions, day and night alternation, etc.) makes it quite challenging for its use and dispatch through the grid. One effective solution is to connect the power station and the grid with electrical energy storage devices.

Vanadium redox flow battery (VFB) as one kind of energy storage techniques is rather suitable for this application due to its features like long life time, active thermal management as well as the independence of energy and power ratings. Dalian Institute of Chemical and Physics has devoted to VFB research for more than 10 years from materials to system integration, where VFB stacks with power rating from 5 W to 31 kW were successfully developed. To further accelerate its commercialization, a spin-off company (Rongke power Co.Ltd) was established in 2008, where different demonstrations of VFB in different application field were carried out. In 2012, a world largest 5MW/10MWh VFB system was successfully integrated and combined with a 50 MW wind farm.  

In this presentation, the development of VFB in DICP will be introduced and the performance of VFB systems will be discussed in detail.

References

1. Xianfeng Li, Huamin Zhang, Zhensheng Mai, Hongzhang Zhang, Ivo Vankelecom, Energy & Environmental Science, 2011, 4 (4), 1147 – 1160

2. Cong Ding, Huamin Zhang, Xianfeng Li, Tao Liu, and Feng Xing, J. Phys. Chem. Lett., 2013, 4 (8), pp 1281–1294