Flow batteries store electricity in tanks of electrolyte passing through electrodes to capture electrons. But they have not made inroads into renewable energy yet, because they can’t cope well with fluctuating input. However, scientists at Jena University, Germany announced a new flow battery with organic polymers on March 1, 2022. And they believe this will fix the problem.
Does the Answer Lie in Buffering Energy?
Ulrich S. Schubert is Director of the Centre for Energy and Environmental Chemistry at Jena University in Germany. He is convinced his new organic flow battery with organic polymers will cope with fluctuations in changing weather.
‘We need to buffer the energy, so even if there’s a lull in the wind we can use that energy’ he told a Euronews reporter. He claims his new polymer plastic-based batteries can store almost as much energy per weight as lithium ones. Although his lightweight devices do require a larger volume to achieve this.
The new flow batteries will also have lower environmental consequences, because they don’t contain metal compounds such as lead and lithium. Instead, they use small polymer molecules in a liquid salt solution.
More About New Flow Batteries with Organic Polymers
‘I could compare this aspect to dissolving salt in water when cooking pasta, or putting sugar in tea’ Schubert explains. ‘When we have enough wind and electricity we can bring an electron out of one side of the active material. And then transfer it to the other side and in this way we can store the generated electricity.’
Moreover, website Innovative Origins adds the new prototype is more resistant to temperatures up to 140° F. This means it is also suitable for warmer regions such as Africa, India or Brazil, providing ‘enormous potential’ for the future. The research paper appears in Wiley Online Advanced Energy Materials at the link we append below.
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