On October 15th, the world's first MW level aqueous organic flow battery was put into operation at Suqian Times Energy Storage Technology Co., Ltd. This not only announced that the first organic flow energy storage battery enterprise in China has officially entered the large-scale energy storage track, but also provided more alternative solutions for safe and efficient peak shaving and frequency regulation.
It is understood that this battery adopts a fully containerized design, which is easy to transport and install quickly. The DC side energy efficiency of the battery stack reaches 85%, and the comprehensive energy efficiency of the battery reaches 70%. It can achieve 20000 deep discharge cycles and has a designed service life of 20 years.
"At present, the inorganic flow battery system is mainly composed of all vanadium, zinc bromine, and other elements. It not only utilizes mineral resources, but also generates pollution during the mining process, and poses a great technical challenge to the partition and sealing." When it comes to design direction, Professor Xu Tongwen from the University of Science and Technology of China introduced that the electrolyte of aqueous organic flow batteries is composed of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen elements, and the raw materials are abundant in the earth's crust and have a wide range of sources. The electrolyte operates at room temperature and pressure, with no risk of combustion or explosion, and will not be ignited even when exposed to open flames. Innovation and transformation have never been smooth sailing. As a key component of liquid flow batteries, ion membranes not only need to block the active substances between positive and negative electrodes, prevent short circuits, but also ensure the efficient passage of ions and reduce losses during the charging and discharging process. However, traditional ion membranes generally face the problem of "conductivity selectivity" mutual constraint and cannot be achieved simultaneously.
In response, Xu Tongwen's team and Professor Yang Zhengjin's team from the University of Science and Technology of China have designed a microporous framework polymer ion membrane with advantages such as low permeability, high conductivity, and good structural stability, achieving a "bend overtaking" of China produced polymer ion exchange membranes.
