Open Access

ARTICLE

System Energy and Efficiency Analysis of 12.5 W VRFB with Different Flow Rates

Kehuan Xie¹, Longhai Yu^2,3, Chuanchang Li^1,*

1 School of Energy and Power Engineering, Changsha University of Science and Technology, Changsha, 410114, China
2 Hunan Vanadium Valley New Energy Technology Co., Ltd., Changsha, 410114, China
3 Big Pawer Electrical Technology Xiangyang Co., Ltd., Xiangyang, 441057, China

* Corresponding Author: Chuanchang Li. Email:

(This article belongs to the Special Issue: Energy Systems Management and Climate Change)

Energy Engineering 2023, 120(12), 2903-2915. https://doi.org/10.32604/ee.2023.027636

Received 07 November 2022; Accepted 13 February 2023; Issue published 29 November 2023

Abstract

Vanadium redox flow battery (VRFB) is considered one of the most potential large-scale energy storage technologies in the future, and its electrolyte flow rate is an important factor affecting the performance of VRFB. To study the effect of electrolyte flow rate on the performance of VRFB, the hydrodynamic model is established and a VRFB system is developed. The results show that under constant current density, with the increase of electrolyte flow rate, not only the coulombic efficiency, energy efficiency, and voltage efficiency will increase, but also the capacity and energy discharged by VRFB will also increase. But on the other hand, as the flow rate increases, the power of the pump also increases, resulting in a decrease in system efficiency. The energy discharged by the system does not increase with the increase in flow rate. Considering the balance between efficiency and pump power loss, it is experimentally proved that 120 mL·min⁻¹ is the optimal working flow rate of the VRFB system, which can maximize the battery performance and discharge more energy.

---

Keywords

---