China Achieves Progress in Research and Development of Vanadium Redox Flow Battery

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--The Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences has announced that its demonstrative LED screen system powered by a vanadium redox flow battery has clocked 8,800 hours of operation time over the last year without problems, marking an important step in the research and development of vanadium redox flow batteries. The battery was developed by Zhang Huamin, a researcher for the institute.

The demo system is composed of a kilowatt-level battery system, an energy management and control system and a load screen, in which the key component is the battery with a rated power output of 2 kilowatts (kW). No deterioration in power output has been detected so far.

The institute has successfully developed a 100 kW-level vanadium redox flow battery system, which is composed of 10 battery modules. The design, integration and commissioning of the system has been completed.

The battery is a kind of electric energy-storage device that is mainly made up of battery modules, electrolyte solution and a conveying system, as well as an energy management and control system. Compared to other chemical energy-storage systems, such as a secondary battery or an electrochemical capacitor, the vanadium redox flow battery has better energy-conversion efficiency, energy-storage capacity, operation safety and a lesser environmental impact. Therefore, the battery is considered one of the most promising candidates for large-scale energy-storage systems.

According to Zhang Huamin, vanadium redox flow batteries can provide spare capacity to a power system, and improve its safety and reliability. It can also be used for peak regulation in a power system and be used to improve the continuity and stability of renewable energy. The battery could also be used to provide an uninterrupted power supply to governments and hospitals.

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