Researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have developed a novel electrode material that they believe can be integrated into a semi-solid battery to store renewable energy cost-effectively.
The thick black material comprises a mixture of dispersed manganese dioxide (MnO2) particles with an electrically conductive additive in carbon black. When the mixture is pumped from the tanks toward the membrane, the carbon black reacts with a conductive zinc solution to efficiently convert chemical energy into electricity.
A rechargeable zinc-manganese dioxide (Zn-MnO2) battery featuring this mixture was tested alongside other energy storage systems, with the team looking to see how they compared in terms of operational costs. They calculated the costs of running this semi-solid flow battery across eight, 24, and 72-hour durations. The team found that the semi-solid flow battery featuring this mixture outperformed other long-duration energy storage contenders like vanadium redox flow and lithium-ion batteries.
While other flow battery systems in contention, such as the vanadium redox flow battery, offer the storage capacity and energy density to back up megawatt and larger power systems, they depend on expensive chemical ingredients that make them bad bets for long-duration purposes.
“We performed a comprehensive, bottom-up analysis to understand how the battery’s composition affects performance and cost, looking at all the trade-offs. We showed that our system...
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