An Identification Size of The Interdigitated Flow Field on Pressure Loss Effects and Efficiencies in Vanadium Redox Flow Battery

In vanadium redox flow battery (VRFB), the active area for charge-discharge plays an important role on the optimization of the system. In this work, the optimum flow rate and current density of Nafion 117 membranes were examined and compared using 5cm2 and 25cm2 size of interdigitated flow field to operate VRFB at maximum efficiencies and discharge capacity. During discharge, flow field 25cm2 showed the highest discharge capacity of 367.5mAh at 10mAcm-2 as compared to 5cm2 flow filed which gave 221.9mAh. For battery efficiencies, three different parameters showed significant effects on different size of interdigitated flow field. 25 cm2 size of interdigitated flow field gave higher efficiencies than 5.0 cm2 up to 98%. This research offers fundamental understandings that bigger active area is needed to fully utilize the performance of VRFB.

Flow field designs developed by comprehensive CFD model decrease system costs of vanadium redox-flow batteries

Different flow field designs are known for vanadium redox-flow batteries (VFB). The best possible design to fulfil a variety of target parameters depends on the boundary conditions. Starting from an exemplary interdigitated flow field design, its channel and land dimensions are varied to investigate the impact on pressure drop, channel volume, flow uniformity and limiting current density. To find a desirable compromise between these several partly contrary requirements, the total costs of the VFB system are evaluated in dependence of the flow field’s dimensions. The total costs are composed of the electrolyte, production and component costs. For those, the production technique (injection moulding or milling), the pump and nominal power density as well as depth of discharge are determined. Finally, flow field designs are achieved, which lead to significantly reduced costs. The presented method is applicable for the design process of other flow fields and types of flow batteries. Graphical abstract