A commonplace chemical used in water treatment facilities has been repurposed for large-scale energy storage in a new battery design by researchers at the Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. The design provides a pathway to a safe, economical, water-based, flow battery made with Earth-abundant materials. It provides another pathway in the quest to incorporate intermittent energy sources such as wind and solar energy into the nation's electric grid.
"We were looking for an electrolyte that could bind and store charged iron in a liquid complex at room temperature and mild operating conditions with neutral pH," said senior author Guosheng Li, a senior scientist at PNNL who leads materials development for rechargeable energy storage devices."We are motivated to develop battery materials that are Earth-abundant and can be sourced domestically.
"A BESS facility using the chemistry similar to what we have developed here would have the advantage of operating in water at neutral pH," said Aaron Hollas, a study author and team leader in PNNL's Battery Materials and Systems Group."In addition, our system uses commercially available reagents that haven't been previously investigated for use in flow batteries."