Skoltech: Design and Operation Model of Vanadium Flow Batteries

2024: Introduction of the method of design and operation of vanadium flow batteries

Scientists from Skoltech have presented a model that simplifies the design and operation of vanadium flow batteries - industrial energy storage devices that promise to play an important role in energy transformation and are already actively used to smooth out the peak load on the energy network in China, Germany and the USA. Without this or similar technology, a massive transition to electric transport and renewable energy sources is impossible. In addition, it will make nuclear power plants more efficient and safer and provide power reserves for critical infrastructure facilities. Skoltech announced this on September 26, 2024.

source = Skoltech

Flow-through batteries are one type of chemical energy storage. As in lithium-ion batteries, the main components are two electrodes and an electrolyte, that is, a medium that provides ion transfer. But the chemical reaction that gives energy does not occur on electrodes, but in a liquid electrolyte, "said Mikhail Pugach, first author of the study, senior researcher at the Skoltech Center for Energy Technologies. - In the practical sense, the difference is that running drives are much heavier and bulkier than the usual batteries, so they are not suitable for portable devices. But they win in capacity, durability and operational flexibility - all this is valuable for accumulation on a grid scale. In addition, vanadium accumulators are quickly recharged, are not fire hazardous and do not depend on imported raw materials. And vanadium itself is also easily processed.

Vanadium flow drives are the most developed and widely implemented technology in the industry for storing energy on a grid scale. Energy companies use it to smooth out the peaks in electricity demand that occur, for example, when consumers turn on air conditioners en masse in hot weather. Even more network overload can occur with the wide distribution of electric vehicles if drivers will put them on charge at about the same time in the evening after returning home from work. As for fluctuations on the generation side, an increase in the share of renewable energy sources will cause power rises and downs depending on weather and other conditions - industrial drives built into the network will also help to cope with them. Finally, this technology is well suited as a backup power source for facilities whose operation cannot be interrupted: nuclear power plants , data centers, etc.

Unlike lithium-ion batteries, vanadium storage can maintain an almost unchanged capacity even after a large number of operation cycles - provided that the design and maintenance are correct. In this sense, the benefits of our model are dual: firstly, it helps the manufacturer to choose the optimal materials that will increase the reliability of the battery and slow down the degradation of capacity. Secondly, the model will tell the company that serves the drive when and how to do it - we are talking about correcting the balance of the electrolyte composition, which is disturbed over time, "explained Sergey Parsegov, co-author of the study, researcher at the Skoltech Center for Energy Technologies.

Thus, the proposed model will help to implement in practice one of the advantages of vanadium flow batteries over other energy storage technologies.

According to the researchers, the strength of their approach is that it does not require a lot of information about the membrane of a particular storage device. Typically, modeling requires specifying the specific technology, dimensions, and materials used in the system. The solution presented by scientists from Skoltech and their co-authors is gradually adapting to the drive during operation and over time reaches a high level of accuracy.

The physical model is based on a model that my colleagues and I published earlier based on the results of my dissertation study in Skoltech, Pugach shared. - The previous model needed detailed information about the properties of the membrane, and the new one did not need this, because we built in additional coefficients that allow you to adjust the model to the current state of the membrane.

The model takes a number of basic parameters and, using a special algorithm, brings the parameters in line with the results of measurements obtained during a short experiment.

Earlier, Skoltech proposed to equalize the load on the energy network by growing lettuce in artificial lighting during the cheapest tariff for the industrial consumer of electricity.