Main content:
Vanadium battery is a major revolution in new energy storage technology. It is expected to break through the bottleneck of the development of new energy industry and become the main battery material of energy storage system.
Why can vanadium battery change the pattern of future energy storage battery
This is because vanadium battery energy storage technology has outstanding features such as high energy conversion efficiency, long cycle life, safety and environmental protection, etc. It is an excellent energy storage device for solar and wind power generation processes, and can also be used for peak regulation of the power grid to improve the stability of the power grid to ensure the security of the power grid.
It is worth noting that although lithium-ion batteries currently occupy a dominant position in the energy storage market, vanadium battery with the best performance have become one of the green and environmentally friendly batteries with the strongest development momentum. vanadium battery don't degrade with cycling like lithium-ion battery options, and they can move power without generating heat.
At present, a large number of vanadium ores have been discovered in the United States, while lithium ores are very scarce. Facing the energy storage market with a market value of 13 billion, vanadium will play an important role. Last year, vanadium was the best performing battery metal, outperforming even lithium and cobalt.
In addition to the United States, many foreign companies such as Japan and Australia have begun to deploy vanadium battery market. In Japan, vanadium battery used for power station peak regulation and wind energy storage are developing rapidly.
High-power vanadium battery energy storage systems have been put into use, and their commercialization process has been fully promoted. Vanadium Australia, through its subsidiary VSUN Energy, is advancing plans to develop vanadium redox flow batteries for the Australian residential market.
Advantages of vanadium battery over lead-acid battery
As the place where the reaction takes place, the electric stack is separated from the storage tank storing the electrolyte, which fundamentally overcomes the self-discharge phenomenon of the traditional battery. The power only depends on the size of the stack, and the capacity only depends on the electrolyte storage and concentration.
Special advantages of vanadium battery
Compared with other chemical power sources, vanadium battery have obvious advantages, the main advantages are as follows:
- High power:
By increasing the number of single-chip batteries and the electrode area, the power of vanadium battery can be increased. At present, the power of vanadium battery in commercial demonstration operation in the United States has reached 6 megawatts.
- Large capacity:
By arbitrarily increasing the volume of the electrolyte, the power of the vanadium battery can be increased arbitrarily, reaching more than GWh. By increasing the concentration of the electrolyte, the power of the vanadium battery can be doubled.
- High efficiency:
Due to the high catalytic activity of the electrode of the vanadium battery, and the positive and negative active materials are stored in the positive and negative electrolyte storage tanks respectively, the self-discharge consumption of the positive and negative active materials is avoided, and the charge and discharge energy conversion efficiency of the vanadium battery is up to more than 75%, much higher than 45% of lead-acid batteries.
- Long service life:
Since the positive and negative active materials of the vanadium battery only exist in the positive and negative electrolytes respectively, there is no phase change that other batteries often have during charging and discharging, and the battery can be deeply discharged without damaging the battery, and the battery has a long service life.
At present, the vanadium battery module with the longest running time in the commercial demonstration of VRBPowerSystems in Canada has been in normal operation for more than 9 years, and the charge-discharge cycle life exceeds 18,000 times, which is much higher than the 1,000 times of fixed lead-acid batteries.
- Fast response speed:
The vanadium battery stack is filled with electrolyte and can be started instantly. It only takes 0.02 seconds to switch between charging and discharging states during operation, and the response speed is 1 millisecond.
- Instant charging:
Instant charging of the vanadium battery can be realized by replacing the electrolyte.
- High safety:
Vanadium battery have no potential explosion or fire hazard, even if the positive and negative electrolytes are mixed, there is no danger, but the temperature of the electrolyte is slightly increased.
- Low cost:
In addition to ionic membranes, vanadium battery components are mostly cheap carbon materials and engineering plastics, which are rich in sources and easy to recycle, do not require precious metals as electrode catalysts, and are low in cost.
New applications of vanadium
Vanadium battery is one of the excellent green storage batteries with strong development momentum (it does not produce harmful substances during its manufacture, use and disposal). It has a special battery structure, which can be deeply discharged with a large current density; fast charging; high specific energy; low price.
The application fields are very broad: for example, it can be used as a backup power source for buildings, airports, and program-controlled switching stations; it can be used as a supporting energy storage device for clean power generation systems such as solar energy. It can provide power for submarines and ocean-going ships, and it can be used for peak regulation of power grids, etc.
The cost of vanadium battery is similar to that of lead-acid batteries. It can also produce megawatt-level battery packs, which can provide high-power and long-term electric energy. Therefore, vanadium battery have incomparable cost-effective advantages in the field of large-scale energy storage with lithium-ion batteries and nickel-metal hydride batteries.
The production process of vanadium battery is simple, the price is economical, and the electrical performance is excellent. Compared with the complex and expensive fuel cell, it is more competitive in terms of large-scale energy storage and application prospects of electric vehicle power supply.
It is understood that the current solid-state electrolyte vanadium power battery is already close to the level of lithium battery in terms of electric power, charge and discharge, and specific energy, and has relative advantages over lithium battery and lead-acid battery in terms of safety, service life and cost.
Lead acid and lithium ion battery are quite different. You can read our comparison lead acid vs lithium ion article to know their differences. At present, China's annual output of lead-acid batteries is 130 million KVAH, and a total of 68 million KVAH was produced from January to June 2011.
Related article: top 10 vanadium battery companies, vanadium battery vs lithium, high voltage cathode materials