Zinc-Nickel Redox Flow Battery for Energy Storage

Completed

Other Power and Storage Technologies(Energy storage)

Basic and strategic applied research

PHYSICAL SCIENCES AND MATHEMATICS (Chemistry)
PHYSICAL SCIENCES AND MATHEMATICS (Physics)

Not Cross-cutting

Dr X Li
Engineering Computer Science and Maths
University of Exeter

Standard

EPSRC

15 November 2016

13 May 2020

42 months

£838,946

Energy

South West

Energy : Energy

Dr X Li, Engineering Computer Science and Maths, University of Exeter

Professor NP Brandon, Earth Science and Engineering, Imperial College London
Dr T Mallick, School of Engineering and Physical Sciences, Heriot-Watt University
Dr AA Shah, School of Engineering, University of Warwick

Project Contact, C-Tech Innovation Limited
Project Contact, WhEST

With a number of advantages over other existing energy storage system (ESS) including flexibility, mobility, depth of discharge, rapid response, and safety, redox flow batteries (RFB) are one of the most promising and versatile options for grid scale energy storage, potentially enabling the integration of intermittent but growing fast renewable energy sources into power grids. RFB represent one class of electrochemical ESS and have been attracting attention over last two decades. Several chemistries of RFBs have been studied. However none of them fully meet the cost and performance requirements. Significant developments are required at all levels: investigation of new chemistries, materials engineering, cell design and long-term performance characterization in realistic environments.This project will investigate an innovative RFB system based on nickel and zinc redox couples. The zinc-nickel system is promising due to the low cost and material abundance of its redox couples, their environmentally acceptable chemistry, high standard electrode potential and high power and energy densities. The scope of this project is on the improvement of materials and engineering design, combined with advanced characterisation techniques and computational modelling to gain fundamental insights and accelerate progress towards a high-performance, durable cell design. The programme will be focused on ways to improve the morphology of thick zinc electrodeposits when subjected to multiple deposition/dissolution cycles, and methods to increase the charge capacity of the positive electrode in flowing electrolyte conditions.In addition, the system is a membrane-free flow battery, which differs from conventional flow battery technologies since it employs only a single electrolyte and therefore operates without a need in membrane separator; this reduces the cost and design complexity of the batteries significantly. Overall, the performance of the Zn-Ni battery should compare well with existing redox flow batteries.The project will be a collaborative research endeavour between highly experienced researchers with internationally recognised expertise in flow batteries from the University of Exeter, Imperial College London and the University of Warwick.

19/03/19