iScience
Volume 3, 25 May 2018, Pages 40-49
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Article
Toward a Low-Cost Alkaline Zinc-Iron Flow Battery with a Polybenzimidazole Custom Membrane for Stationary Energy Storage

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.isci.2018.04.006Get rights and content
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Highlights

  • An alkaline zinc-iron flow battery is presented for stationary energy storage

  • A battery with self-made membrane shows a CE of 99.49% and an EE of 82.78% at 160 mA cm−2

  • The self-made membrane shows excellent mechanical and chemical stability

  • A kilowatt cell stack with a capital cost under $90/kWh has been demonstrated

Summary

Alkaline zinc-iron flow battery is a promising technology for electrochemical energy storage. In this study, we present a high-performance alkaline zinc-iron flow battery in combination with a self-made, low-cost membrane with high mechanical stability and a 3D porous carbon felt electrode. The membrane could provide high hydroxyl ion conductivity while resisting zinc dendrites well owing to its high mechanical stability. The 3D porous carbon felt could serve as a guidance for the zinc stripping/plating, which can effectively suppress zinc dendrite/accumulation as well. Thus this battery demonstrates a coulombic efficiency of 99.5% and an energy efficiency of 82.8% at 160 mA cm−2, which is the highest value among recently reported flow battery systems. The battery can stably run for more than 500 cycles, showing very good stability. Most importantly, the practicability of this battery is confirmed by assembling a kilowatt cell stack with capital cost under $90/kWh.

Subject Areas

Electrochemistry
Stationary Power
Energy Materials

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3

These authors contributed equally

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