State of charge monitoring methods for vanadium redox flow battery control

Abstract

During operation of redox flow batteries, differential transfer of ions and electrolyte across the membrane and gassing side reactions during charging, can lead to an imbalance between the two half-cells that results in loss of capacity. This capacity loss can be corrected by either simple remixing of the two solutions, or by chemical or electrochemical rebalancing. In order to develop automated electrolyte management systems therefore, the state-of-charge of each half-cell electrolyte needs to be known. In this study, two state-of-charge monitoring methods are investigated for use in the vanadium redox flow battery. The first method utilizes conductivity measurements to independently measure the state-of-charge of each half-cell electrolyte. The second method is based on spectrophotometric principles and uses the different colours of the charged and discharged anolyte and catholyte to monitor system balance and state-of charge of each half-cell of the VRB during operation.