What determines the performance of a flow battery?

In a standard lab type flow battery setup, it is only the electrical current and cell potential that is measured. Although these two parameters alone determine the overall performance, it is from an R&D perspective desired to understand which parts and components that contributes to the overall energy losses.

What is a flow battery?

The flow battery consists of a stack, an electrolyte, an electrolyte storage supply system and a management control system. Flow battery is a kind of high-performance battery which uses positive and negative electrolyte to separate and circulate respectively [8, 9].

What are battery parameters?

Battery parameters are important characteristics and attributes that determine a battery's performance, state of battery, and behavior. These parameters give important information about the battery's capacity, health, current condition, and practical constraints. An overview of some important battery parameters is discussed in Table 2 [24, 25, 26].

What is the minimum operating unit in a flow battery?

The minimum operating unit in a flow battery is a single cell, and a single cell can provide a voltage of about 1.26 V . A device composed of M single cells is called a stack and is generally used in small energy storage systems.

What is flow battery R&D?

Flow battery R&D is much driven by optimisation of electrodes and flow cell geometry. In a standard lab type flow battery setup, it is only the electrical current and cell potential that is measured.

Why do we change the flow rate of a battery?

By changing the flow rate of the electrolyte, the heat in the battery can be taken away, so as to achieve the purpose of reducing the battery temperature, which is also the current common strategy.