Effect of flow field geometry on operating current density, capacity and performance of vanadium redox flow battery

JOURNAL OF POWER SOURCES

卷:404

Article

Maurya, Sandip¹  Phong Thanh Nguyen²  Kim, Yu Seung¹  Kang, Qinjun³  Mukundan, Rangachary¹ 

[1] Los Alamos Natl Lab, Mat Synth & Integrated Devices, MPA 11, Mat Phys & Applicat Div, Los Alamos, NM 87545 USA

[2] Los Alamos Natl Lab, Earth Syst Observat, EES 14, Earth & Environm Sci Div, Los Alamos, NM 87545 USA

[3] Los Alamos Natl Lab, Computat Earth Sci, EES 16, Earth & Environm Sci Div, Los Alamos, NM 87545 USA

关键词: Redox flow battery;    Vanadium;    Flow fields;    Performance;    Modeling;   

DOI  :  10.1016/j.jpowsour.2018.09.093

来源: Elsevier

【 摘 要 】

Addition of flow fields to carbon paper electrodes in a vanadium redox flow battery (VRFB) can improve the peak power density through uniform distribution of electrolyte in the electrodes. However, it is unclear whether flow fields have a similar effect with graphite felt electrodes, as VRFBs with felt electrodes reported in literature show a large anomaly in obtained power density. In this work, we evaluate three flow fields; viz. serpentine, interdigitated and conventional (without flow pattern) type with felt electrodes and compare their performance with a serpentine flow field using carbon paper electrodes under identical experimental conditions. The conventional flow field provides highest energy efficiency (75%) followed by serpentine (64%) and interdigitated (55%) at 0.2 A cm(-2) attributable to the deteriorating electrolyte distribution in the electrodes. Computation fluid dynamic simulations confirm the experimental finding of worsening electrolyte distribution (conventional < serpentine < interdigitated). A power density of 0.51 W cm(-2) at 60 mL min(-1) flow rate is obtained for serpentine and conventional flow fields with felt electrodes; comparable to the highest power density reported in literature for high performing zero-gap flow field architecture. This paper gives comprehensive insights on flow fields for VRFBs that can be extended to other flow batteries.

【 授权许可】

Free