• Advances in Energy Research
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• v.4 no.4
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• pp.285-297
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• 2016

Fundamental understanding of vanadium ion transport and the detrimental effects of cross-contamination on vanadium redox flow battery (VRFB) performance is critical for developing low-cost, robust, and highly selective proton-conducting membranes for VRFBs. The objective of this work is to examine the effect of conductivity and diffusivity, two key membrane parameters, on long-cycle performance of a VRFB at different operating conditions using a transient 2D multi-component model. This single-channel model combines the transport of vanadium ions, chemical reactions between permeated ions, and electrochemical reactions. It has been discovered that membrane selecting criterion for long cycles depends critically on current density and operating voltage range of the cell. The conducted simulation work is also designed to study the synergistic effects of the membrane properties on dynamics of VRFBs as well as to provide general guidelines for future membrane material development.

• Journal of the Korean Electrochemical Society
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.204-210
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• 2013

Thin pore-filled cation and anion-exchange membranes (PFCEM and PFAEMs, $t_m=25-30{\mu}m$) were prepared using a porous polymeric substrate for efficient all-vanadium redox flow battery (VRB). The electrochemical and charge-discharge performances of the membranes have been systematically investigated and compared with those of commercially available ion-exchange membranes. The pore-filled membranes were shown to have higher permselectivity as well as lower electrical resistances than those of the commercial membranes. In addition, the VRBs employing the pore-filled membranes exhibited the respectable charge-discharge performances, showing the energy efficiencies (EE) of 82.4% and 84.9% for the PFCEM and PFAEM, respectively (cf. EE = 87.2% for Nafion 1135). The results demonstrated that the pore-filled ion-exchange membranes could be successfully used in VRBs as an efficient separator by replacing expensive Nafion membrane.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.22 no.5
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• pp.721-727
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• 2011

All vanadium redox-flow battery (VRFB) has been studied actively as one of the most promising electrochemical energy storage systems for a wide rage of applications such as electric vehicles, photovoltaic arrays, and excess power generated by electric power plants at night time. In this study, carbon felt electrodes were treated by electrochemical oxidation with KOH, and the cyclic voltammetry were studied in order to investigate redox reactivity of vanadium ion species with carbon felt electrodes. Besides the effect of electrochemical oxidation on the surface chemistry of carbon felt electrodes were investigated using the X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). After electrochemical oxidation, XPS analysis of PAN based GF20-3 carbon felt electrode revealed on increase in the overall surface oxygen content of the carbon felts after electrochemical oxidation. Redox reaction characteristics using cyclic voltammetry (CV) were ascertained that the electrochemical treated electrode were more reversible than the untreated electrode.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.141-147
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• 2011

The cation exchange membrane using TPA (tungstophosphoric acid) and the block co-polymer of polysulfone and polyphenylenesulfidesulfone was prepared for a separator of all-vanadium redox flow battery. The membrane resistance of the prepared cation exchange membrane in 1mol/L $H_2SO_4$ aqueous solution was measured. The membrane resistance of the prepared Psf-PPSS and Psf-TPA-PPSS cation exchange membrane was about $0.94{\Omega}{\cdot}cm^2$. Electrochemical property of all-vanadium redox flow battery using the prepared cation exchange membrane was measured. The measured charge-discharge cell resistance of V-RFB at 4 A decreased in the order; Nafion117 < Psf-TPA-PPSS < Psf-PPSS. The durability of membrane was earried out by soaking it in $VO_2{^+}$ solution and evaluated by measuring the charge-discharge cell resistance of V-RFB with an increase of soaking time. The prepared Psf-PPSS cation exchange membrane had high durability and Psf-TPA-PPSS cation exchange membrane had almost same durability compared with Nafion117.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.393-402
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• 1993

Redox flow secondary battery have been studied actively as one of the most promising electrochemical energy storage devices for a wide range of applications, such as electric vehicles, photovoltaic arrays, and excess power generated by electric power plants. In all-vanadium redox flow battery using solution of vanadium-sulfuric acid as a active material, the difficulty in developing an efficient ion selective membrane can still be identified. The asymmetric cation exchange membrane(M-30) as a separator of all-vanadium redox flow battery which were obtained by the reaction of chlorosulfonation for 30 minutes under the irradiation of UV, showed its superiority in the transport number of 0.94 and electrical resistivity of $0.5{\Omega}{\cdot}cm^2$. The base membrane were prepared by lamination a low density polyethlene film of $10{\mu}m$ thickness on polyolefin membrane(HIPORE 120). The electrical resistivity of M-30 membrane in real solution of vanadium-sulfuric acid was $3.79{\Omega}{\cdot}cm^2$ and it was similar to that of Nafion 117 membrane. Also the cell resistivity was $6.6{\Omega}{\cdot}cm^2$and lower than that of Nafion 117. In considertion of electrochemical properties and costs of membranes, M-30 membrane was better than that of Nafion 117 and CMV of Asahi glass Co. as a separator of all-vanadium redox flow battery.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.240-248
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• 2011

All-vanadium redox flow battery (VRFB) has been studied actively as one of the most promising electrochemical energy storage systems for a wide range of applications such as electric vehicles, photovoltaic arrays, and excess power generated by electric power plants at night time. Among consisting elements of the VRFB, the ion exchange membrane and the electrode play important roles. In this study, carbon PVC coposite sheets for the VRFB have been developed and electrochemical characteristics investigated. Current collector for VRFB, carbon PVC composite sheets (CPCS), were prepared with G-1028 as a conducting particle, PVC as a polymer, Dibutyl phthalate (DBP) as a plasticizer and fumed Silica (FS) as a dispersion agent. CPCS has been shown to have the characteristics as an excellent current collector for VRFB and electrochemical properties of specific resistivity 0.31 ${\Omega}cm$, which were composed of G-1028 80 wt%, PVC 10 wt%, DBP 5 wt% and FS 5 wt%.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.30 no.5
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• pp.307-318
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• 2020

Conventional perfluorinated sulfonic acid membrane, Nafion is widely used for vanadium redox flow battery (VRFB). It is desired to prevent vanadium ion permeation through a membrane to retain the capacity, and to keep the cell efficiency of a VRFB. Highly proton conductive and chemically stable Nafion membranes, however, suffer from high vanadium permeation, which induce the reduction in charge and discharge capacity by side reactions of vanadium ions. In this study, to resolve the issue, silica nanoparticles, which are functionalized with 3-aminopropyl group (fS) are introduced to enhance the long-term performance of a VRFB by lowering vanadium permeation. It is expected that amine groups on silica nanoparticles are converted to positive ammonium ion, which could deteriorate positively charged vanadium ions' crossover by Gibbs-Donnan effect. There is reduction in proton conductivity may due to acid-base complexation between fS and Nafion side chains, but ion selectivity of proton to vanadium ion is enhanced by introducing fS to Nafion membranes. With the composite membranes of Nafion and fS, VRFBs maintain their discharge capacity up to 80% at a high current density of 150 mA/㎠ during 200 cycles.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.169-175
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• 2016

The electrolyte added the chlorosulfuric acid ($HSO_3Cl$) as an additive was tested for the electrolyte in all-vanadium redox flow battery (VRFB) to increase the thermal stability of electrolyte. The electrolyte property was measured by the CV (cyclic voltammetry) method. The maximum value of a voltage and current density in the electrolyte added $HSO_3Cl$ was higher than that in the electrolyte non-added $HSO_3Cl$. The thermal stability of the pentavalent vanadium ion solution, which was tested at $40^{\circ}C$, increased by adding $HSO_3Cl$. The performances of VRFB using the electrolyte added and non-added $HSO_3Cl$ were measured during 30 cycles of charge-discharge at the current density of $60mA/cm^2$. An average energy efficiency of the VRFB was 72.5%, 82.4%, and 81.6% for the electrolyte non-added $HSO_3Cl$, added 0.5 mol of $HSO_3Cl$, and added 1.0 mol of $HSO_3Cl$, respectively. VRFB using the electrolyte added $HSO_3Cl$ was showed the higher performance than that using the electrolyte non-added $HSO_3Cl$.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.206-211
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• 2017

Carbon felt electrode for the vanadium redox-flow battery (VRFB) has been studied to see the effect of grephene oxide (GO) treatment on the surface of the carbon felt electrode. In this paper, surface of carbon felt electrodes were treated with various concentrations of grephene oxide. Electrochemical analysis, cyclic voltammetry (CV), was performed to investigate redox characteristics as electrode for VRFB. Also the effect of GO on the introduction of functional group on the surface of carbon felt electrodes were investigated using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), which discovered increase in the overall functional group content on the surface of carbon felts.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.61-67
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• 2018

High-power lithium batteries are suitable for equipment with high power output needs, such as for ESS's initial start-up. However, their management cost is increased by the installation of air-conditioning to minimize the risk of explosion due to internal temperature rise and also by a restriction on the number of charge/discharge cycles. High-capacity flow batteries, on the other hand, have many advantages. They can be used for over 20 years due to their low management costs, resulting from no risk of explosion and a high number of charge/discharge cycles. In this paper, we propose an ESS based on hybrid batteries that uses a lithium iron phosphate battery (LiFePO) at the initial startup and a vanadium redox flow battery (VRFB) from the end of the transient period, with a bi-directional PCS to operate two batteries with different DC voltage levels and using an efficient energy management control algorithm.