Very cool! Do you know how much they are selling it for and where you can buy it?
According to this, it's $8k for 11 kWh. Not sure where you can buy them, but supposedly they're available. Might try the source: https://redflow.com/.
Since this is Australia, importing to the EU would increase the price by 30% at least. They would need to drop the price further to compete with LiFePO4 server batteries.
Yes, ZnBr2 batteries can get to really high energy densities. They must have solved both the zinc plating and Br crossover issues if they got to this point. So far however sales seem to be limited to trials in Australia.
) and I'm glad for them. The $8k is more than 5 years ago, so not sure what the real cost is today, but with VAT like Daniel mentioned, I estimate the cost for one ZBM3 to be around $11-13k, which for a commercial 10kWh battery with a cycle life at or better than 10 years, isn't too bad. But too bad doesn't mean its not an expensive system. We forge the BMS which RedFlow offer, that one is, I am sure, a few thousand as well. A multi 10kWh system will quickly be very expensive ...Lets cross the BMS river once you know the operational points
- Edit -
Saying that, there is an Open Source BMS system for flow battery's.
"The architecture of foxBMS is the result of more than 15 years of development in innovative hardware and software solutions for rechargeable battery systems, redox-flow battery systems, and fuel-cell systems at Fraunhofer IISB in Erlangen (Germany). Consequently, we use the hardware and software building blocks as battery management system at Fraunhofer IISB in all of our research and development projects (Technical Specifications). Further, our self-developed 100kWh stationary lithium-ion battery system to store electric energy generated by photovoltaic panels and our TÜV road homologated electric vehicle are two examples of such systems using our open source BMS. As a result, we provide a strong experience in designing and developing innovative solutions for advanced battery systems in the domains described hereafter."
15 years of development, that seems promising
https://foxbms.org and https://github.com/foxBMS
Thank you for taking the time to explain
I'm gonna study the NaCl types to gain a better understanding while following the Mn/Fe development. I like the premises for both.
- I am not set on needing infinite cycle life, finite if very long, can be fully acceptable. I can certainly look at and work with both types. They might both end up benefitting from that. There are so many aspects to both and flow battery in general beyond just the chemistry - take the ZnBr battery, I highlighted issues earlier in this thread which surpasses the higher energy density and that battery also have theoretical infinite cycle life.Iron salt battery is interesting for sure. One aspect that I like is that I can take raw iron, plus 30% Muriatic acid (HCl), "shake and blend", vent off the H2 gas and I am left with FeCl in aqueous solution and both are plentiful, easy to get and not too expensive. So an all Iron battery from that perspective is great. This ironically is simpler than locating pure FeCl powder... EU... LOL
I downloaded a few documents, study's and solutions, I think its wise for me to read and get more acquainted, but near neutral pH is attractive.
Crossover or self-discharge is one of the larger aspects that I look at, and "coming from" the NiFe battery with its roughly 3& per month, that is my reference atm. Energy density and roundtrip efficiency are important too but so are system losses.
For flow battery's, we are dealing with two main aspects: The losses in the chemistry (primary) and losses in the system (secondary). The later obviously is the pumps, which is its own topic. So the less losses via crossover there is, obviously the greater the system efficiency and stability. One aspect which would make losses less severe is the fact that with a large enough PV system, input is always greater than losses and consumption, so there is that aspect to consider.
An all iron salt battery have theoretically an endless cyclability since we are only dealing with Fe(II)Cl and Fe(III)Cl speciesism, so the anolyte and catholyte are the same electrolyte, but we could be dealing with a higher self-discharge compared to the Mn/Fe cell (for the time being) which in turn have very low, but instead, potentially, have a lower cycle life due to chelate consuming the Fe and producing FeOx (I think it was) and in so doing, producing pure iron fallout and the cell potential goes down... is that sort of the boundary's we are talking about ??????
I am certainly not jumping the gun or claiming profound problems, just trying to learn and add to the discussion
(Saw a video last night about the road towards the All Iron Battery where the iron fallout was mentioned)