Numerical investigations of flow field designs for vanadium redox flow batteries

Q. Xu, T.S. Zhao and P.K. Leung

Applied Energy, 2013, vol. 105, issue C, 47-56

Abstract: As a key component of flow batteries, the flow field is to distribute electrolytes and to apply/collect electric current to/from cells. The critical issue of the flow field design is how to minimize the mass transport polarization at a minimum pressure drop. In this work a three-dimensional numerical model is proposed and applied to the study of flow field designs for a vanadium redox flow battery (VRFB). The performance of three VRFBs with no flow field and with serpentine and parallel flow fields is numerically tested. Results show that when a flow field is included a reduction in overpotentials depends not only on whether a flow field can ensure a more even distribution of electrolytes over the electrode surface, but also on whether the flow field can facilitate the transport of electrolytes from the flow field towards the membrane, improving the distribution uniformity in the through-plane direction. It is also shown that the pumping power varies with the selection of flow fields at a given flow rate. To assess the suitability of flow fields, a power-based efficiency, which takes account of both the cell performance and pumping power, is defined and calculated for different flow fields at different electrolyte flow rates. Results indicate that there is an optimal flow rate for each type of flow field at which the maximum efficiency can be achieved. As the cell with the serpentine flow field at the optimal flow rate shows the highest energy-based efficiency and round-trip efficiency (RTE), this type of flow field appears to be more suitable for VRFBs than the parallel flow field does.

Keywords: Flow battery; Vanadium redox flow battery (VRFB); Numerical modeling; Flow field; System efficiency (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (45)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0306261912009324
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:appene:v:105:y:2013:i:c:p:47-56

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/405891/bibliographic
http://www.elsevier. ... 405891/bibliographic

DOI: 10.1016/j.apenergy.2012.12.041

Access Statistics for this article

Applied Energy is currently edited by J. Yan

More articles in Applied Energy from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().