A review of all‐vanadium redox flow battery durability: Degradation mechanisms and mitigation strategies

Abstract

Summary The all‐vanadium redox flow battery (VRFB) is emerging as a promising technology for large‐scale energy storage systems due to its scalability and flexibility, high round‐trip efficiency, long durability, and little environmental impact. As the degradation rate of the VRFB components is relatively low, less attention has been paid in terms of VRFB durability in comparison with studies on performance improvement and cost reduction. This paper reviews publications on performance degradation mechanisms and mitigation strategies for VRFBs in an attempt to achieve a systematic understanding of VRFB durability. Durability studies of individual VRFB components, including electrolyte, membrane, electrode, and bipolar plate, are introduced. Various degradation mechanisms at both cell and component levels are examined. Following these, applicable strategies for mitigating degradation of each component are compiled. In addition, this paper summarizes various diagnostic tools to evaluate component degradation, followed by accelerated stress tests and models for aging prediction that can help reduce the duration and cost associated with real lifetime tests. Finally, future research areas on the degradation and accelerated lifetime testing for VRFBs are proposed.

The Influence of Free Acid in Vanadium Redox‐Flow Battery Electrolyte on “Power Drop” Effect and Thermally Induced Degradation

“…The attainable conductivity values for surface (1) in Figure 2 are generally lower than the values for surface (2). It can be explained by ion association of vanadium species, which can occur in the presence of magnesium sulfate and by dissociation of sulfuric acid, which is suppressed with increasing the total sulfate concentration (Equation (1)-(2)).…”

“…Signs of degradation such as direction of water crossover flux, permeability for vanadium species, and so on appeared to be different in case of the VRFBs with anion and cation exchanger membranes. [2] Accelerated aging aims to test the cell over commonly used limits. Usually, the VRFB is charged-discharged at states-ofcharge (SoC) of 20-80% because of side reactions, which can occur at high voltages.…”

An optimal electrolyte addition strategy for improving performance of a vanadium redox flow battery

“…[1][2][3] Among them, all vanadium redox flow battery (VRFB) shows superiority by reason of its long cycling life, deep discharge, high-energy efficiency, and mutual independence of power and energy ratings. [4][5][6] In spite of the aforementioned advantages, the important issues with respect to discharge capacity of the battery, 7,8 output power, and the efficiencies 9 are still existing.…”

Development of perfluorosulfonic acid polymer‐based hybrid composite membrane with alkoxysilane functionalized polymer for vanadium redox flow battery

“…Vanadium redox flow battery (VRFB) system has received notable attention from energy storage sectors because of its medium‐/large‐scale energy storage properties, design, higher safety, long cycle life, and same type of electrolyte in each half cell . Typically, polymer‐based membranes are used to separate the catholyte (vanadium (IV)/(V) redox couple) and anolyte (vanadium (III)/(II) redox couple) in VRFB system .…”

“…Vanadium redox flow battery (VRFB) system has received notable attention from energy storage sectors because of its medium-/large-scale energy storage properties, design, higher safety, long cycle life, and same type of electrolyte in each half cell. [1][2][3] Typically, polymer-based membranes are used to separate the catholyte (vanadium (IV)/(V) redox couple) and anolyte (vanadium (III)/(II) redox couple) in VRFB system. [4][5][6] In addition, the ion exchange membrane is one of the major key components in VRFB device for T. Sadhasivam and K. Dhanabalan contributed equally to this work and are considered to share equally the first authorship.…”