New Fast-Charging Flow Battery Aims To Advance The State-Of-The-Art In Energy Storage

Masdar Institute researchers have engineered a novel non-aqueous low-cost flow battery equipped with fast-charging that is able to charge itself in half the time it would normally take, which they believe may enable cheaper and more efficient large-scale renewable energy storage.

Masdar Institute researchers have engineered
 a novel non-aqueous low-cost flow battery

The prototype battery has an open-circuit voltage of 1.2 volts, with an extra voltage of 1.8 volts leveraged for rapid charging. The device is the first such non-aqueous redox flow battery to employ the unique fast-charging design, cutting the amount of time it takes to fully charge by up to 50%.

“Non-aqueous redox flow batteries have the potential to store more energy than aqueous-based systems, because organic solvents have a wider voltage window than that of water; which allows for formulation of battery chemistries with higher open-circuit voltages. But due to other challenges, their performance has not yet reached the levels achieved by their water-based counterparts,” explained Musbaudeen Bamgbopa, a PhD student at MI.

Read the Science and Technology Research News story - “New Fast-Charging Flow Battery Aims To Advance The State-Of-The-Art In Energy Storage.”