The vanadium redox flow battery (VRFB) is an attractive grid scale energy storage option, but high operating cost prevents widespread commercialization. One way of mitigating cost is to optimize system performance, which requires an accurate model capable of predicting cell voltage under different operating conditions such as current, temperature, flow rate, and state of charge. This paper presents a lumped isothermal VRFB model based on principles of mass transfer and electrochemical kinetics that can predict transient performance with respect to the aforementioned operating conditions. The model captures two important physical phenomena: (1) mass transfer at the electrode surface and (2) vanadium crossover through the membrane. Mass transfer effects increase the overpotential and thus reduce the battery output voltage during discharge. Vanadium crossover causes a concentration imbalance between the two half-cells that negatively affects the voltage response particularly after long term cycling. Further analysis on the system linearity is conducted to assess the feasibility of using a linear control design methodology.
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Dynamic Model of a Vanadium Redox Flow Battery for System Performance Control
Victor Yu,
Victor Yu
Department of Mechanical Engineering,
e-mail: victory118@utexas.edu
The University of Texas at Austin
,Austin, TX 78712
e-mail: victory118@utexas.edu
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Dongmei Chen
Dongmei Chen
e-mail: dmchen@me.utexas.edu
Department of Mechanical Engineering,
Department of Mechanical Engineering,
The University of Texas at Austin
,Austin, TX 78712
Search for other works by this author on:
Victor Yu
Department of Mechanical Engineering,
e-mail: victory118@utexas.edu
The University of Texas at Austin
,Austin, TX 78712
e-mail: victory118@utexas.edu
Dongmei Chen
e-mail: dmchen@me.utexas.edu
Department of Mechanical Engineering,
Department of Mechanical Engineering,
The University of Texas at Austin
,Austin, TX 78712
Contributed by the Solar Energy Division of ASME for publication in the Journal of Solar Energy Engineering. Manuscript received September 20, 2012; final manuscript received June 11, 2013; published online August 21, 2013. Assoc. Editor: Robert Palumbo.
J. Sol. Energy Eng. May 2014, 136(2): 021005 (7 pages)
Published Online: August 21, 2013
Article history
Received:
September 20, 2012
Revision Received:
June 11, 2013
Citation
Yu, V., and Chen, D. (August 21, 2013). "Dynamic Model of a Vanadium Redox Flow Battery for System Performance Control." ASME. J. Sol. Energy Eng. May 2014; 136(2): 021005. https://doi.org/10.1115/1.4024928
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