Abstract
The flow field design and material composition of the electrode plays an important role in the performance of redox flow batteries, especially when using highly viscous liquids. To enhance the discharge power density of zinc slurry air flow batteries, an optimum slurry distribution in the cell is key. Hence, several types of flow fields (serpentine, parallel, plastic flow frames) were tested in this study to improve the discharge power density of the battery. The serpentine flow field delivered a power density of 55 mW∙cm−2, while parallel and flow frame resulted in 30 mW∙cm−2 and 10 mW∙cm−2, respectively. Moreover, when the anode bipolar plate material was changed from graphite to copper, the power density of the flow frame increased to 65 mW∙cm−2, and further improvement was attained when the bipolar plate material was further changed to copper–nickel. These results show the potential to increase the power density of slurry-based flow batteries by flow field optimization and design of bipolar plate materials.
Highlights
There was an extensive amount of research on energy storage systems in combination with renewable energies such as solar energy, wind energy, and wave energy
We introduce and test different types of anode flow fields in an in-house built cell to study how the flow distribution affects the electrochemical performance of the zinc slurry air flow battery
The flow frame had 10 times more charge transfer impedance was almost the same for all resistance at 1.3 V, 2.7 Ω, than the serpentine or parallel flow fields, around 0.25 Ω
Summary
There was an extensive amount of research on energy storage systems in combination with renewable energies such as solar energy, wind energy, and wave energy. One of the most promising candidates includes redox flow batteries (RFBs), which are gaining attention due to their flexibility in the layout of capacity and power [1,2,3]. The energy densities of RFBs are determined by the volume of electrolyte used and concentration of active species, whilst the power densities can be improved by electrode size and performance [4,5]. Various RFB systems were investigated, including all-vanadium, hydrogen–bromine, and aqueous organic redox couples [5]. Several types of zinc-based battery systems were developed [9], and primary zinc–air batteries are prevalent for certain applications [10]. Rechargeable zinc battery technology faces several problems which are currently being investigated [11,12,13].
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