Development of full lignin based organic redox flow battery suitable to work in warm environments and heavy multicycle uses.

Project Information

BALIHT

Grant agreement ID: 875637

DOI

10.3030/875637

Project closed

EC signature date 15 November 2019

Start date 1 December 2019

End date 30 September 2023

Funded under

• SOCIETAL CHALLENGES - Secure, clean and efficient energy

Total cost

€ 4 098 552,50

EU contribution

€ 4 098 552,50

Coordinated by

AIMPLAS - ASOCIACION DE INVESTIGACION DE MATERIALES PLASTICOS Y CONEXAS
Spain

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - BALIHT (Development of full lignin based organic redox flow battery suitable to work in warm environments and heavy multicycle uses.)

Reporting period: 2021-06-01 to 2023-09-30

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

The Redox Flow Battery (RFB) technology, despite higher upfront costs and lower energy density, has a shorter payback time thanks to a good capacity retention even after many thousands of cycles. Their modular design enables energy storage capacities ranging from mere MWh to GWh. RFB technology can suitably supply from small companies to entire regions.
However, RFB technologies face hurdles, including performance issues at temperatures exceeding 40°C due to repetitive charging cycles or warmer climates. This can necessitate cooling requirements, intricate battery management systems, electrolyte degradation, and overall malfunctions.
BALIHT objective was to develop a battery to work at higher temperatures, without a cooling system, this innovation makes the battery up to 20% more energy efficient than current organic RFBs.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

It has been studied the current state-of-the-art related to RFB components. In addition, our team developed an exhaustive list of essential requirements for RFBs to be used in repetitive cycles of charging and discharging or placed in warm climates.
Tests have been run to identify the most promising organic electrolytes candidates, electrodes, cell-frames, membranes and flexible tanks for the electrolyte. The proper components for the Battery Management System (BMS) were defined and selected, as well as its scheme and the number and type of sensors to be used. Hardware and software components have been defined, as well as communication protocols for the BMS and protocols for data exchange between the BMS and the Energy Management System (EMS). As regards the EMS, the algorithm has been implemented.
The battery was first tested in the factory and a Factory Acceptance Test was performed in CMBlu premises. A specific building was designed and constructed in Ibiza harbour to house the battery. It was expected that the RFB stores energy generated from renewable sources for the harbour’s own consumption and Electrical Vehicles (EVs) charging stations purposes. Finally, the specifically designed testing plan was partially achieved, in spite of the continues efforts to achieve the objectives and to improve all the battery components to accomplish the correct workability of the system as a whole.
BALIHT also concluded an economic analysis and a safety, sustainability and social analysis, where have been researched and discovered about BALIHT battery benefits as an energy storage solution, particularly when compared to other battery alternatives such as Lithium-ion and Vanadium Redox-flow.
BALIHT consortium have clustered with other H2020-funded projects through common meetings and participation in public events, under the Network of Flow Battery Research Initiatives FLORES. Our project is getting international recognition since it received the Gold Medal Award at the international exhibition ARCA2020. BALIHT has engaged with a community of interest, through the development of a dedicated website and social media channels, as well as the release of regular newsletters.
On the other hand, the main results accomplished with the redox flow battery developed within the BALIHT project are based on the overall improvements achieved with components designed and tested for the high-temperature/high-cycling needs, which are:
Plastics frames: obtain formulations able to double the heat deflection temperature while reducing the expansion to the half of the reference material.
Flexible tanks: Mechanically are not affected by the temperature (80ºC). Chemically, the fabric is not affected by posolyte and negolyte contact under 85ºC. Permeability is not influence after 40 days.
Omniphobic surfaces: It was developed coatings that operating at higher temperatures for tailoring the interphase electrolyte/container to ensure good flowability and chemical resistance.
Battery management: It was obtained an EMS adaptable and it was validated the BMS in warm environments and heavy multicycle.
The battery components fulfil relevant European Union health, safety and environmental regulations. Regarding the recyclability of the RFB can be obtained an 80% of its recyclability.
It should be highlighted that the research and development carried out in BALIHT has enabled all the project partners to increase their knowledge and business in battery design, manufacture, assembly and installation. Nevertheless, further optimisation will be needed to afford an industrial design, where some components of the battery need further efficiency and long-term use.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

The main expected result of the project is to install a prototype in Ibiza Harbour, where the RFB will store energy generated by photovoltaic cells and from the grid and will release it later for electric vehicles charging and energy consumption of the port terminal.
BALIHT should be optimized to be a technically and economically effective solution to store and use renewables energy, and thus contribute to decarbonise Europe. This new technology would indeed be suitable for applications currently challenging for nowadays batteries: the smoothing of non-dispatchable renewable power plants, the support for ancillary services, high-performance EVs recharge points, improvement of grid flexibility and stability (at both transmission & distribution level) and avoidance of cooling needs in RFB.
Beyond the outcomes brought by BALIHT’s project, the involvement of the partners in FLORES group have contributed to promote the RFB technology and to bring them to the finest State of the Art possible through projects’ synergies, joint publications, dissemination activities.
BALIHT potential impacts:
-Development of a new organic electrolyte suitable for heavy multi-cycling at temperatures up to 80ºC with the same viscosity and useful life than current ones.
-Electrode frame development with a heat deflection temperature up to 100ºC.
-Re-design and development of the overall cell and stack to reduce failure rates when exposed to high temperatures and reduces 15% of the current stack cost.
-Flexible carbon-based electrode optimisation to work at temperatures up to 80ºC and active carbon materials content more than 70% to reach a 150% of current kinetics, based on printed thin and flexible extruded structures.
-Development of thin non-fluorine membranes suitable to RFB at the target temperature with a coulomb efficiency above 99% and the capacity fade less than 5% year from membrane crossover.
-Development of large double wall flexible tank to contain lignin-based electrolytes with a temperature out to 80ºC with easy evacuation capacity and cost lower than 100ºC/m3.
-BMS and EMS development and implementation, suitable for a broad range of temperature.
-Manufacturing validation of organic RFB for warm environments and heavy multicycles performance.
-Development of cost-efficient manufacturing, installation and decommissioning techniques.
-Reduction an overall system CAPital EXpenditure and Operation EXpenses and achievement of energy storage on the path to below 0,045€/kWh cycle under warm environment.
-Demonstration of the safety & regulatory compliance, as well as environmental & economic sustainability and feasibility of the developed processes and products.
-Demonstration of the social impact and social acceptance of large storage RFB.
-Maximization the innovative impacts of the project for contributing to the uptake of the project results for companies’ business and employment growth.

BALIHT - Battery

BALIHT - 3D Design