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California Team Invents New Energy Storage Technology for Large Scale Use

 

These redox flow batteries sort electrons and store them, releasing the energy as and when required

 

The importance of battery storage for sustainable energy cannot be reiterated enough. This is why the news about researchers at the University of Southern California (USC) having invented a new battery for energy storage should come as welcome news for the clean technology industry. This battery design by USC researchers apparently solves the storage issue which currently kerbs the large scale application of renewable energy.

Why is battery storage important?

Renewable sources of electricity generation will soon replace conventional non-renewable and environmentally toxic forms of energy generation such as coal, oil and uranium. However, renewable energy sources have the issue of intermittency – which is that they only generate energy when the sun is shining (solar) or when the wind blows (wind power). This poses issues for consumers who need uninterrupted power in residential and commercials sectors of society. The solution to this problem is energy storage technology which stores the excess energy generated that can be utilized at a later point in time, during peak consumption or otherwise.

The new technology developed by the USC team is a variation in the technology that uses solutions to store electricity. These redox flow batteries sort electrons and store them, releasing the energy as and when required. The research team has designed a redox flow battery with materials that are more abundantly available which makes the battery more cost effective.

“We have demonstrated an inexpensive, long-life, safe and eco-friendly flow battery attractive for storing the energy from solar and wind energy systems at a mass scale,” said Sri Narayan, Chemistry Professor and Co-Director, Loker Hydrocarbon Research Institute, USC.

A good, applicable and scalable energy storage solution has been evasive for years. This issue of cost effective energy storage is an issue that the team at USC intended to resolve. In redox flow batteries, fluids are used for storing electrochemical energy, sorting electrons and recombining them through oxidation and reduction, and discharging them to generate electricity when required.

The innovation in this case was the use of different fluids- a type of acid and an iron sulphate solution. Iron sulphate is a waste product of the mining sector, which is abundant and affordable. Anthraquinone disulfonic acid (AQDS) is an organic material used in a few redox flow batteries for its solubility, steadiness, and energy storage potential.

Iron sulphate is cost effective and large scale manufacturing of AQDS also makes the material inexpensive. Therefore, energy from these batteries will cost less than half the energy extracted from redox batteries that use vanadium which is toxic and costly.

In the tests carried out at USC, the iron-AQDS batteries can recharge or cycle multiple times with negligible power loss, as opposed to other technology. This technology is durable too which makes it highly scalable.

“The materials developed are highly sustainable. AQDS can be manufactured from any carbon-based feedstock, including carbon dioxide. Iron is an earth-abundant non-toxic element,” said Surya Prakash, study co-author and director, Loker Hydrocarbon Research Institute, USC.

The rise in electric vehicle and consumer electronics that use lithium ion batteries have created a shortage of lithium which directly increases costs of these batteries. Also, lithium ion batteries have short shelf lives due to recharging. This makes alternative and inexpensive energy storage technologies more viable in the long run.

 

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Sarah Matthews

Sarah Matthews has been a campaigner for the clean energy transition much before it reached the collective consciousness. She is passionate about reporting on sustainability and advances in clean energy technology, and has been at it for a while now. Apart from this, Sarah likes to mull over existential issues like what Thanos is doing in a parallel universe.

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