Applied Energy, Vol.182, 204-209, 2016
The effects of design parameters on the charge-discharge performance of iron-chromium redox flow batteries
The objective of this work is to understand and identify key design parameters that influence the battery performance of iron-chromium redox flow batteries (ICRFBs). The investigated parameters include the membrane thickness, electrode compression ratio, electrode pretreatment and catalyst loading. Results show that: (i) with a thin NR-211 membrane and a high electrode compression ratio of 62.5%, the operating current density of the ICRFB can reach as high as 480 mA cm(-2) at an energy efficiency of higher than 80%; (ii) the bismuth catalyst loading has insignificant effect on the battery performance in the range of 0.52-10.45 mg cm(-2); (iii) the moderately oxidative thermal pretreatment of the electrode improves the energy efficiency compared to the as-received electrode while the electrode prepared with a harsh pretreatment deteriorates the battery performance; and (iv) for the present ICRFBs operating at both 25 degrees C and 65 degrees C, the dominant loss is identified to be ohmic loss rather than kinetics loss. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords:Flow batteries;Iron-chromium redox flow batteries;Battery performance;Energy efficiency;Energy storage