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

NSF可持续能源路径(SEP)计划隶属于NSF科学、工程和教育促进可持续发展(SEES)计划，将支持密歇根大学安娜堡分校的Levi Thompson教授和同事开发用于可持续能源储存设备的新型非水氧化还原液流电池化学物质的研究计划。电力约占美国能源消耗的40%，其中大部分来自化石和核燃料等不可再生资源。提高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大规模将间歇性可再生能源整合到电网的关键挑战之一。该可持续能源路径(SEP)项目将提供所需的变革性科学和工程成果，以展示用于电网存储应用的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：建立在有机和离子液体电解液中金属β-二酮配合物的详细结构-组成-功能关系。这些关系将被用来确定在工程电极上描述动力学和机理的最有希望的化学方法。目的2：研究结果将用于设计和制造小型流动池，以评估大型RFB的相关性能特性。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跨电化学、设备和电网集成级别的可持续性能。这项SEP研究项目将考虑与能源储存相关的科学、技术、环境、经济和社会问题，并建立一条新的可持续能源途径，将基础电池化学推进到大规模RFB，用于公用事业规模的储存。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，该团队致力于解决我国面临的关键社会、经济和环境挑战。完成后，它们将为担任工业、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提供具有吸引力的组合优势，包括与正在考虑用于电网应用的其他能量存储解决方案相比成本更低；由于能源和电力(如燃料电池)的分离，设计上的灵活性；简化的热管理，从而增强安全性；很少或没有自放电，从而实现高效率；以及模块化，允许轻松扩展、维护和修改。采用可持续、低成本的基于RFB的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，并显著减少来自煤炭和天然气等化石资源产生的温室气体和其他污染物的排放。

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.