In recent years, the development and utilization of renewable generation have attracted more and more attention, and the grid puts forward higher requirements to the energy storage technology, especially for security, stability and reliability. The liquid metal battery (LMB) consists of two liquid metal electrodes and a molten salt electrolyte, which will be segregated into three liquid layers naturally. Being low-cost and long-life, it is regarded as the best choice for grid-level large-scale energy storage. This paper describes the main structure and working principle of the LMB, analyzes the advantages and disadvantages of the LMB when compared with the traditional batteries, and explores the feasibility and economy when it is used as a kind of large-scale energy storage applied in the power grid. The paper also makes a comprehensive comparison on the performance of several LMBs, and points out the LMB’s research and development in the future.
Current-driven flow instabilities in large-scale liquid metal batteries, and how to tame them
