Grid Think

So I have decided to embrace the fact that Fe-Cr batteries operate at a fundamentally higher temperature. But now you'll say it makes no sense to heat the battery, the costs alone would bankrupt me.  Let's take a sample system of 1 MW / 10 MWh,  If we assume a conservative energy density of 10 Wh/L, Volume of electrolyte (L) = Total energy required  / Energy density  Volume =  10,000,000Wh / 10 Wh/L  =1,000,000 L  We would need 1 million liters of electrolyte and calculate the mass of water as by keeping density as 1 kg/L.  mass (kg) = volume  x density of water  m = 1,000,000 L x 1 kg/L = 1,000,000 kg  If I take the conservative specific heat of water as 4,187 J/kg·K, s tart with an ambient temperature of 20°C and keep my ΔT as 20°C,  Q (heat energy) = m x c x ΔT   m = mass of water = 1,000,000 kg , c = specific heat capacity of water = 4,187 J/(kg·K)  ΔT = temperature change = 40°C - 20°C = 20 K   Q =...

You know I have been wrong before, but never so pleasantly surprised. I spent the last two months trying to copy VRFB........ well, not exactly. I wanted to make an Iron-Chromium Redox Flow Battery that was just as good as VRFB. That means its power density, efficiencies and performance should match closely with VRFB.  But as I have stated many times earlier, Fe-Cr batteries have a fundamental flaw, they can't operate at room temperature, which is the fundamental reason why they have not been commercialized yet. In my previous post I wrote about a paper that I had recently found, it added salt to the battery in order to enable it to operate  at room temperature. Let's understand how  The paper used salt to increase the kinetics of chromium at room temperature. This happened because the lithium (or in my case sodium) chloride increased the concentration of chloride ions in the electrolyte solution. This causes excessive Cl⁻ ions in the electrolyte solution and increased c...

In my previous posts I have written a lot about the trident of problems with Iron-Chromium Redox Flow Battery, which are -  Hydrogen Evolution Reaction Slow Chromium Kinetics High operating temperature for the battery Now if you ask an AI (Gemini in my case), one of the first answers it will give would be Bismuth as master solution to all 3. It stops Hydrogen evolution and makes chromium react faster, hence solving all the problems of the battery. It does that by  acting as a catalyst. It forces the Cr3+ to accept electron quickly and react faster, and it has a more positive electrode potential (+0.32 V), as compared to chromium (-0.41 V), this stops water from splitting into hydrogen. Source But first you need to understand how Bismuth is incorporated in the battery - The Mechanisms- In order to use bismuth or any other catalyst in a flow battery, you have 2 choices - Electrodeposition-   Dissolve bismuth chloride in the liquid electrolyte and when you apply voltage...

I'll be honest, I have a tendency to nerd out about stuff and not really take action on it, so every once in a while I push myself to BUILD the battery, because AI can "brainstorm" all day, but can't build a battery So after reading some research papers on Iron-Chromium battery, I decided to build one, but this time I wanted to get some visual result, something a 5 year old kid can recognize, I had to light up an LED, but a single of Iron-Chromium battery has voltage of 1 Volt. That doesn't do anything. So I had to build another cell stack to get 2 V, this easily lights up a Red LED  . Making the Stack So ordered the 3D printed parts from online shop, I already had Iron chloride from my all iron build, I ordered Chromium Chloride (very cheap, very easily available, order online). If you want to know how to build it you can see my previous post . Since I already had a leak proof cell, making another one was not really a problem I just used some RO fittings and join...

If Iron Chromium Redox Flow Battery is so cheap, abundant, simple and elegant...... Why isn't it everywhere ? Why was Vanadium even needed in the first place ? Why hasn't anyone commercialized it yet ? Well..... because it has its own set of problems. Physics and economics aren't really best friends, the more money you spend the better battery you get, the cheaper you get, your efficiency takes a plunge. And trust me you DON'T want a shitty battery. The way I see it for flow batteries- Vanadium is expensive but simple and has good efficiency Iron Chromium is cheaper than Vanadium, but more expensive than Iron, so it has Hydrogen problem of Iron but manufacturing simplicity and efficiency of Vanadium. Iron is dirt cheap, but I would personally not buy it, I don't want a battery that wastes half its energy, because you have to pay for every unit you put in. This is my take on viable redox flow battery chemistries. Don't get me wrong, there are many newer more amaz...