Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, WA 99352, USA.
ChemSusChem. 2011 Oct 17;4(10):1388-406. doi: 10.1002/cssc.201100068.
Large-scale energy storage has become the main bottleneck for increasing the percentage of renewable energy in our electricity grids. Redox flow batteries are considered to be among the best options for electricity storage in the megawatt range and large demonstration systems have already been installed. Although the full technological potential of these systems has not been reached yet, currently the main problem hindering more widespread commercialization is the high cost of redox flow batteries. Nafion, as the preferred membrane material, is responsible for about 11% of the overall cost of a 1 MW/8 MWh system. Therefore, in recent years two main membrane related research threads have emerged: 1) chemical and physical modification of Nafion membranes to optimize their properties with regard to vanadium redox flow battery (VRFB) application; and 2) replacement of the Nafion membranes with different, less expensive materials. This review summarizes the underlying basic scientific issues associated with membrane use in VRFBs and presents an overview of membrane-related research approaches aimed at improving the efficiency of VRFBs and making the technology cost-competitive. Promising research strategies and materials are identified and suggestions are provided on how materials issues could be overcome.
大规模储能已成为提高可再生能源在我们电网中占比的主要瓶颈。氧化还原液流电池被认为是兆瓦级和大型示范系统中最有前途的储能选择之一。尽管这些系统尚未充分发挥其全部技术潜力，但目前阻碍其更广泛商业化的主要问题是氧化还原液流电池的高成本。作为首选的膜材料，全氟磺酸（Nafion）占 1MW/8MWh 系统总成本的 11%左右。因此，近年来出现了两个主要与膜相关的研究方向：1）通过化学和物理改性 Nafion 膜来优化其在钒氧化还原液流电池（VRFB）应用中的性能；2）用不同的、成本更低的材料替代 Nafion 膜。本文综述了与 VRFB 中膜使用相关的基本科学问题，并概述了旨在提高 VRFB 效率和使技术具有成本竞争力的膜相关研究方法。确定了有前途的研究策略和材料，并就如何克服材料问题提出了建议。
