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A hierarchical interdigitated flow field design for scale-up of high-performance redox flow batteries

Author

Listed:
  • Zeng, Yikai
  • Li, Fenghao
  • Lu, Fei
  • Zhou, Xuelong
  • Yuan, Yanping
  • Cao, Xiaoling
  • Xiang, Bo

Abstract

The pumping loss of redox flow batteries increases dramatically when scaling up to large-area cells, and becomes a key limiting factor for engineering high-performance cell stacks. This work proposes a hierarchical interdigitated flow field design that has independently regulated distribution/collection channels to lower pumping loss and enhance mass transport: a small quantity of primary branch channels with larger section area is engineered to transport the electrolyte across the length of the entire electrode with a relatively low pressure drop, while a large number of secondary branch channels with smaller section area serve to inject the electrolyte into the adjacent porous electrode with a relatively high velocity to ensure good mass transport. The analytical and experimental methods are combined to understand the mass transport phenomena in the presented flow field. It is shown that the hierarchical interdigitated flow field can significantly reduce the pumping loss by 65.9% and increase the pump-based voltage efficiency from 73.8% to 79.1% at 240 mA cm−2 and 3.0 mL min−1 cm−2 compared with the conventional interdigitated flow field, which demonstrates that the hierarchical interdigitated flow field presents a promising solution for scaling up the high-performance redox flow batteries.

Suggested Citation

  • Zeng, Yikai & Li, Fenghao & Lu, Fei & Zhou, Xuelong & Yuan, Yanping & Cao, Xiaoling & Xiang, Bo, 2019. "A hierarchical interdigitated flow field design for scale-up of high-performance redox flow batteries," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 238(C), pages 435-441.
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:appene:v:238:y:2019:i:c:p:435-441
    DOI: 10.1016/j.apenergy.2019.01.107
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

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    2. Sun, J. & Jiang, H.R. & Zhang, B.W. & Chao, C.Y.H. & Zhao, T.S., 2020. "Towards uniform distributions of reactants via the aligned electrode design for vanadium redox flow batteries," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 259(C).
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    5. Wei, L. & Zeng, L. & Wu, M.C. & Fan, X.Z. & Zhao, T.S., 2019. "Seawater as an alternative to deionized water for electrolyte preparations in vanadium redox flow batteries," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 251(C), pages 1-1.
    6. Quan Xu & Xinyi Chen & Siyang Wang & Chao Guo & Yingchun Niu & Runguo Zuo & Ziji Yang & Yang Zhou & Chunming Xu, 2022. "The Recycling of Waste Per-Fluorinated Sulfonic Acid for Reformulation and Membrane Application in Iron-Chromium Redox Flow Batteries," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(22), pages 1-10, November.
    7. Gao, Qingchen & Bao, Zhiming & Li, Weizhuo & Gong, Zhichao & Fan, Linhao & Jiao, Kui, 2024. "Performance analysis and gradient-porosity electrode design of vanadium redox flow batteries based on CFD simulations under open-source environment," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 289(C).
    8. Eapen, Deepa Elizabeth & Suresh, Resmi & Patil, Sairaj & Rengaswamy, Raghunathan, 2021. "A systems engineering perspective on electrochemical energy technologies and a framework for application driven choice of technology," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 147(C).

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