Mechanism

 

Redox vanadium batteries are the most technology advanced flow batteries, they store energy by using charged ions located in two separate electrolyte tanks, one with the positive electrode, and the other with the negative electrode. These batteries use vanadium redox pairs dissolved in dilute sulfuric acid mixtures, solving the problem of ion diffusion contamination from one side of the membrane to the other, which makes the electrolyte's life almost infinite

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Capacities and lifecycle.

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They have a lifecycle of about 20 years, and its equivalent number of cycles throughout their life of around 20,000.Vanadium battery systems are usually designed to supply energy in a time range from 2 hours to 8 hours, having a 90% performance ratio. The acquisition cost can be high, since the price of the electrolyte depends on the international price of vanadium. Porous membranes can also be expensive, depending on the number of cells to be used. Although maintenance costs are usually low. In general, the price can be around $400 per kWh produced..

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Applications

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These usually have to guarantee the quality of the energy supply preventing the user from being affected by short-term incidents and for the efficient storage of energy which allows remote areas to have access to the continuous delivery of energy, without intermittence in the flow, opening wide possibilities towards clean energies.

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Advantages

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Entre las ventajas de estos dispositivos se puede mencionar que tienen una gran rapidez de respuesta de carga/descarga, pueden proporcionar altas potencias en un milisegundo y que suministra más de dos veces su potencia nominal en cortos periodos de tiempo hasta varios minutos.

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Disadvantages

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The relative low energy density by volume and the complexity of the system compared to conventional batteries and the need to deploy large volumes of electrolyte with pumps limits the application of these systems in the transport sector, and both the control system and electrical system are complex and expensive

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Project: China bets on vanadium redox flow batteries to store large amounts of renewable energy