I-Corps: High-Stability Bio-Inspired Redox Flow Batteries for Grid-Scale Energy Storage

这个i-Corps项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力包括使可再生但间歇性能源的广泛实施成为可能，例如风能和太阳能。电网目前要求电力需求和供应实时精确平衡，以避免电力中断和停电。这是一项具有挑战性的任务，越来越多的努力整合间歇性可再生能源，给电网的复原力和能源安全带来了额外的问题。集成到电网中的大规模能量存储使公用事业公司能够有效地管理不必要的波动，并提供广泛实施可再生能源所需的灵活性。此外，这些系统在调峰和负载均衡应用方面还有额外的好处。需求低迷时储存的能量可以用来补偿高峰期的过度负荷。这个i-Corps项目探索了高稳定性、生物灵感的非水氧化还原液流电池(NRFB)系统的商业应用机会，这些系统具有高单元电压、高电流密度和低容量衰落特性，适用于电网规模的储能市场。最新的NRFB系统受限于活性物质的分解和相关的显著容量--在最小循环后褪色。我们计划商业化的流动电池电解液通过利用金属螯合剂解决了活性物质不稳定的问题，阻碍了NFRBs的商业化，金属螯合剂的生物合成是由鹅膏属蘑菇自然进化而来的。这些分子经过数百万代自然选择的稳定性优化，并表现出非常强的金属结合能力，关闭了分解途径。初步结果表明，引入的生物启发方法具有解决关键问题的潜力，例如NRFB系统的可循环性低和商业化性能差。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this I-Corps project involves enabling widespread implementation of renewable but intermittent energy sources, such as wind and solar. Electrical grids currently require demand and supply of electricity to be exactly balanced in real time to avoid power disruption and blackouts. This is a challenging task, and growing efforts to integrate intermittent renewable energy sources create additional problems for grid resilience and energy security. Large-scale energy storage integrated into an electrical grid enables utility companies to effectively manage unwanted fluctuations and provides the flexibility required for widespread implementation of renewable sources. Furthermore, these systems have additional benefits in their utilization for peak shaving and load leveling applications. The energy stored when demand is low can be used to compensate excessive load during peaks. This practice has economic benefit for electricity consumers and providers.This I-Corps project explores commercial application opportunities for high-stability, bio-inspired non-aqueous redox flow battery (NRFB) systems with high cell-voltage, high current density and low capacity-fade for the grid-scale energy storage market. State-of-the-art NRFB systems are limited by decomposition of active materials and the related significant capacity-fade after minimal cycling. The flow battery electrolytes we plan to commercialize solve the problem of active material instability that has prevented commercialization of NFRBs by utilizing metal chelators, the biosynthesis of which evolved naturally by mushrooms in the Amanita genus. These molecules have been optimized for stability by millions of generations of natural selection and exhibit very strong metal-binding that shuts down decomposition pathways. Preliminary results have shown that the introduced bio-inspired approach has the potential to address the critical problems, such as low cyclability and poor performance in commercialization of NRFB systems.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.