The new system created by scientists provides greater flexibility and capacity for energy storage, as well as
Today, the need for reliable renewableenergy sources are growing rapidly as countries around the world are actively fighting climate change. But renewable energy won't be efficiently used in power grids until a way to store it on a large scale is invented.
To create their own universal system, scientistsused a conventional redox flow battery. Such batteries are used to store electricity in containers with liquid electrolyte, which are passed through the battery core from positive and negative half-cells separated by a membrane. In the process of obtaining energy, the spent electrolyte is pumped through the cells, being charged during an electrochemical reaction, and returned to the storage tank.
In the new work, the authors improved this battery by adding two catalytic reactors: they produce hydrogen from liquid circulating in the tanks.
Hydrogen is formed as a result of catalytica process that uses battery energy to separate water molecules into their two components, hydrogen and oxygen. But such hydrogen can only be considered clean if the energy used to charge the batteries is renewable.
Danik Reynard, PhD student at the Laboratory of Physical and Analytical Electrochemistry, EPFL
The new technology offers a number of advantages such asfor hydrogen production and for energy storage. Whereas conventional redox batteries, once fully charged, can no longer store energy, in the new system, a fully charged battery can discharge liquid into external reactors that generate hydrogen. It can be stored and used later to free up storage space in the battery itself.
The hydrogen that the system produced is pure, itonly needs to be compressed for optimal storage. The new system is also safer than conventional ones, since it generates oxygen and hydrogen separately, and not simultaneously there is less risk of explosion.
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