About Flow Batteries | Battery Council International
These cells can be connected in series or parallel to achieve the desired power capacity, while the tanks can be scaled to achieve the desired
Flow batteries operate distinctively from “solid” batteries (e.g., lead and lithium) in that a flow battery's energy is stored in the liquid electrolytes that are pumped through the battery system (see image above) while a solid-state battery stores its energy in solid electrodes. There are several components that make up a flow battery system:
The major characteristic and benefit flow batteries is the decoupling by design of power and energy. Power is determined by the size and number of cells, energy by the amount of electrolyte. Their low energy density makes flow batteries unsuited for mobile or residential applications, but attractive on industrial and utility scale.
Flow batteries can be classified using different schemes: 1) Full-flow (where all reagents are in fluid phases: gases, liquids, or liquid solutions), such as vanadium redox flow battery vs semi-flow, where one or more electroactive phases are solid, such as zinc-bromine battery.
A membraneless battery relies on laminar flow in which two liquids are pumped through a channel, where they undergo electrochemical reactions to store or release energy. The solutions pass in parallel, with little mixing. The flow naturally separates the liquids, without requiring a membrane.
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