Impact of Ion Crossover on Mass Transfer Polarization Regulation in High-Power Vanadium Flow Batteries

Jianbin Li (), Zhengxiang Song and Zihan Li
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Jianbin Li: School of Electrical Engineering, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an 710049, China
Zhengxiang Song: School of Electrical Engineering, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an 710049, China
Zihan Li: Emerging Green Energy and New Materials Research Institute Co., Ltd., Tianjin 300450, China

Energies, 2025, vol. 18, issue 19, 1-19

Abstract: In order to solve the problems of mass transfer polarization spatiotemporal distribution variations, uncontrollable regulation error, and accelerated capacity decay caused by ion crossover in high-power vanadium liquid flow batteries (VFBs), a three-dimensional battery model with a flow-type flow field based on the three-dimensional transient COMSOL Multiphysics ® 6.1 numerical modeling method was developed in this study. The model combines the ion transmembrane migration equation with the mass transfer polarization theory, constructs an objective function to quantify the regulation error, and is validated by multifluid-field structural simulations. The results indicate the following: (1) Ion crossover induces a 3–5% electrolyte concentration deviation and a current density distribution bias reaching 11%; (2) The intensity of mass transfer polarization exhibits a linear increase with the flow rate difference between the positive and negative electrodes; (3) Ion crossover significantly degrades system performance, causing Coulombic efficiency (CE) and Energy efficiency (EE) to decrease by 1.1% and 1.5%, respectively. This research demonstrates that unlike conventional flow field optimization, our strategy quantifies the regulation error by directly compensating for the ΔQ caused by ion crossing, and further regulation minimizes the effect, providing a theoretical basis for mass transfer intensification and capacity recovery in flow batteries.

Keywords: high-power vanadium flow battery; three-dimensional numerical modeling; circulation-type flow field; ion crossover; mass transfer polarization regulation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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