Vanadium flow battery system dimensions

Vanadium redox flow battery (VRFB) energy storage systems have the advantages of flexible location, ensured safety, long durability, independent power and capacity configuration, etc., which make them the promising contestants for power systems applications.

Vanadium flow batteries use vanadium, element 23, which is readily available and more abundant in the Earth's crust than copper. Leading primary producers include South Africa, China, Brazil, and Russia. The first functioning vanadium flow battery was developed at the University of New South Wales, Australia, in the 1980s.

Other useful properties of vanadium flow batteries are their fast response to changing loads and their overload capacities. They can achieve a response time of under half a millisecond for a 100% load change, and allow overloads of as much as 400% for 10 seconds. Response time is limited mostly by the electrical equipment.

A vanadium / cerium flow battery has also been proposed . VRBs achieve a specific energy of about 20 Wh/kg (72 kJ/kg) of electrolyte. Precipitation inhibitors can increase the density to about 35 Wh/kg (126 kJ/kg), with higher densities possible by controlling the electrolyte temperature.

The battery uses vanadium's ability to exist in a solution in four different oxidation states to make a battery with a single electroactive element instead of two. For several reasons, including their relative bulkiness, vanadium batteries are typically used for grid energy storage, i.e., attached to power plants/electrical grids.

Traditionally, much of the global vanadium supply has been used to strengthen metal alloys such as steel. Because this vanadium application is still the leading driver for its production, it's possible that flow battery suppliers will also have to compete with metal alloy production to secure vanadium supply.