SEP: Non-Aqueous Redox Flow Battery Chemistries for Sustainable Energy Storage

NSF可持续能源途径（SEP）计划，在NSF可持续发展科学、工程和教育（SEES）倡议的保护下，将支持密歇根大学安娜堡分校Levi Thompson教授及其同事的研究计划，为可持续能源存储设备开发新的非水氧化还原液流电池化学物质。在美国，电力约占能源消耗的40%，其中大部分来自不可再生资源，包括化石燃料和核燃料。实现更大能源可持续性的途径将需要使用可再生资源。缺乏可靠、低成本的能源储存是将间歇性的可再生能源大规模整合到电网中的关键挑战之一。这个可持续能源路径（SEP）项目将提供变革性的科学和工程成果，以证明电网存储应用中具有成本竞争力的非水氧化还原液流电池（rfb）。这项研究有三个目标。目的1：研究金属β -二酮酸配合物在有机和离子液体电解质中的结构-组成-功能关系。这些关系将用于确定最有希望的化学表征动力学和机制的工程电极。目的2：研究结果将用于设计和制造小型流池，以评估大型RFB的相关性能特征。目标3：将开发一个综合的可持续设计和评估框架，并用于指导研究和评估电化学、设备和电网集成水平的可持续性绩效。研究结果将与其他存储技术进行比较。该SEP研究项目将考虑与储能相关的科学、技术、环境、经济和社会问题，并建立一个新的可持续能源途径，将基础电池化学技术推进到大规模的rfb，用于公用事业规模的储能。参与该项目的学生、博士后学者和其他研究人员将成为一个跨学科团队的一部分，致力于解决我国面临的关键社会、经济和环境挑战的技术。完成后，他们将为工业界、政府和/或学术界的领导职位做好充分准备。在这个SEP项目中开发的化学物质将为rfb提供基础，与电网应用中考虑的其他储能解决方案相比，rfb具有具有吸引力的优势，包括低成本；由于能量和功率的解耦（如燃料电池），设计的灵活性；简化热管理，提高安全性；少或无自放电，效率高；模块化允许易于扩展，维护和修改。采用可持续的、低成本的rbf储能技术将改善风能和太阳能等间歇性可再生能源与电网的整合，并显著减少温室气体排放和煤炭和天然气等化石资源产生的其他污染物的排放。

The NSF Sustainable Energy pathways (SEP) Program, under the umbrella of the NSF Science, Engineering and Education for Sustainability (SEES) initiative, will support the research program of Prof. Levi Thompson and co-workers at the University of Michigan Ann Arbor to develop new non-aqueous redox flow battery chemistries for sustainable energy storage devices. Electricity accounts for ~40% of the energy consumed in the U.S. and most is derived from non-renewable resources including fossil and nuclear fuels. Pathways to greater energy sustainability will require the use of renewable resources. The lack of reliable, low-cost energy storage is one of the key challenges to large-scale integration of renewables, with their intermittency, into the grid. This Sustainable Energy Pathways (SEP) project will deliver the transformative scientific and engineering outcomes needed to demonstrate cost-competitive, non-aqueous redox flow batteries (RFBs) for grid storage applications. The research has three objectives. Objective 1: Detailed structure-composition-function relationships will be developed for metal beta-diketonate complexes in organic and ionic liquid electrolytes. These relationships will be used to identify the most promising chemistries for characterization of the kinetics and mechanisms at engineered electrodes. Objective 2: The results will be used to design and fabricate small-scale flow cells to evaluate large-scale RFB relevant performance characteristics. Objective 3: An integrated sustainable design and assessment framework will be developed and used to guide the research and evaluate sustainability performance across the electrochemistry, device, and grid integration levels. The results will be compared to those for other storage technologies.This SEP research project will consider the scientific, technical, environmental, economic, and societal issues associated with energy storage, and establish a new sustainable energy pathway for advancing fundamental battery chemistries to large-scale RFBs for utility scale storage. The students, post-doctoral scholars and other researchers participating in the project will be part of an interdisciplinary team working on technology that address key societal and economic and environmental challenges facing our nation. On completion, they will be well prepared for leadership positions in industry, government, and/or academia.The chemistries developed in this SEP project will provide the basis for RFBs with an attractive combination of benefits including low cost when compared to other energy storage solutions being considered for grid applications; flexibility in design due to the decoupled energy and power (like fuel cells); simplified thermal management leading to enhanced safety; little or no self-discharge resulting in high efficiencies; and modularity allowing easy scaling, maintenance and modification. The introduction of sustainable, low-cost RFB-based energy storage technologies will improve the integration of intermittent renewable energy sources such as wind and solar into the electricity grid and significantly reduce emissions of greenhouse gases and other pollutants produced from fossil resources including coal and natural gas.