Battery engineers at Monash University in Australia, invented a new liquid battery for solar storage a few months ago. They developed a flow battery for their project, that could help householders store solar energy more safely, cheaply, and efficiently. This product could retail for far less in stores, and make solar more affordable than current lithium-based offerings.
New Membrane For Liquid Flow Batteries
Flow batteries do not have solid electrodes in the traditional sense. Instead, they store their ions in dual tanks of compatible liquids. They exchange these ions through a permeable membrane separator during charging and discharging. This membrane therefore plays a major role in flow battery efficiency.
Poor membrane selective-permeability knocks through to flow batteries’ slow charging speeds. Wanqiao Liang, the study’s first author and PhD candidate, explains how the team developed a new membrane that “fixes the speed problem”. This, she says, makes the team’s battery ideal for households.
“We’ve taken a safe, affordable chemistry, and made it fast enough to capture rooftop solar in real time,” the lead author explains. Our new liquid battery for solar storage “finally makes organic flow batteries competitive. It opens the door to systems that are not only cheaper, but also safer and simpler to scale.”
Safe Low Cost Affordable Solar Storage
This article is a follow-up on a previous post, but focusing more on the membrane itself. The Monash University announcement that we link to below confirms: “The key was improving ion selectivity, letting the good ions through quickly while keeping unwanted ones out.”
The research report in Wiley portal that we also link to below, goes into more detail if you would like to review it. Suffice to say that the engineers’ advanced chemical skills produced a new liquid battery for solar storage. One that struck the right balance between fast, stable operation, and high current density.
More Information
The Inner Secrets of Flow Batteries
Aqueous Redox Flow Battery Could Be The Key
Preview Image: Schematic of a Flow Battery
