1. has a wide range of applications.
It can be used in wind power market, national grid peak shaving, new energy electric vehicle power supply, ups power supply and EpS emergency power supply, power distribution, special storage batteries and photovoltaic power generation.
2. Flexible design concept, good charging and discharging performance and high capacity.
The function of vanadium battery is very flexible, and the power and volume can be designed independently. The key to rated power lies in the stack, which can be improved by changing the number of single cells or electrode area. The key to volume is the amount of vanadium ions, which can be constructed by increasing the volume of electrolyte and the concentration of vanadium ions.
3. The system can be fully automatic and closed, with low manufacturing cost, environmental protection and no pollution.
The performance of batteries with high natural adaptability to the environment is less affected by environmental temperature. When the ambient temperature is completely restored, the battery capacity can also be completely restored. The system can work in full-automatic closed mode, and will not produce organic gas and waste electrolyte.
4. It is not as easy to cause explosion as a lithium-ion battery, and its safety is high.
Security is tight. Because its active substance exists in the electrolyte, it will not cause image change, and it can be deeply discharged without affecting the battery life. In addition, H2 and other gases will not be generated in the reaction process, and there is no explosion danger and short circuit fault.
5. High energy efficiency, high cost performance and long service life.
Long life and strong deep discharge cycle performance, the capacity can be easily and completely recovered by recharging after overdischarge, and the ultra-deep discharge will not cause irreversible damage to the battery.
Disadvantages: 1 Energy storage technology is too expensive to be applied on a large scale.
The cost of energy storage technology of all-vanadium redox flow battery is still relatively high. This brings difficulties to large-scale application.
2. The technical production process is unstable, and the leakage technology has not been overcome.
Vanadium flow battery is also restricted by important materials such as electrolyte and ion exchange membrane. How much progress will be made in the end depends on technology and market.
Development prospect of all-vanadium redox flow battery As a rookie in the field of energy storage, why does all-vanadium redox flow battery receive so much attention? What is the future development prospect of all-vanadium redox flow battery? To this end, the reporter interviewed a number of insiders.
The advantages of safety and recycling are obvious.
All-vanadium redox flow battery realizes the charging and discharging process of storing and releasing chemical energy through the mutual transformation of vanadium ions with different valence States. Different from the non-aqueous electrolyte lithium-ion battery, which is the mainstream battery of energy storage power station at present, the possibility of overheating explosion is greatly reduced because the electrolyte ions of all-vanadium flow battery exist in aqueous solution, and the safety performance of flow battery makes it stand out in the battery field.
"Frankly speaking, lithium-ion batteries still face safety challenges. The explosion accident caused by lithium ion is not only a problem of economic loss, but also a serious personal injury. " Zhang Huamin, director of the energy storage technology research department of the National Laboratory of Clean Energy, Dalian Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, said, "But all-vanadium batteries are aqueous solutions of dilute sulfuric acid and vanadium. As long as it is properly managed, there is no danger of explosion. "
Beijing Puneng Century Technology Co., Ltd. has built all-vanadium flow battery energy storage projects in many places across the country. Kuang Zhenren, the company's Asia-Pacific manager, told the reporter, "Compared with lithium-ion batteries, all-vanadium redox flow batteries have outstanding characteristics. The biggest feature is safety. All-vanadium redox flow battery can achieve megawatt level and hundred megawatt level. It is more suitable for lithium-ion batteries of electric vehicle scale, but it is not so safe when it is bigger. "
At the same time, Zhang Huamin pointed out that another advantage of all-vanadium redox flow battery is that its electrolyte can be reused after waste recovery. In recent years, with the expansion of electric vehicle industry, a large number of discarded lithium-ion batteries have to be recycled on a large scale because they contain heavy metals such as nickel and cobalt, which has become an urgent problem in the industry. The charge and discharge of all-vanadium redox flow battery is mainly due to the change of valence state of vanadium ion. Zhang Huamin pointed out that "the electrolyte will not produce impurities and environmental pollutants during charging and discharging, and the recovered electrolyte still has use value after treatment, which is equivalent to a' semi-permanent' product that can preserve value."
It is worth mentioning that all-vanadium redox flow battery has the advantages of safety and recycling, and its life cycle is relatively longer. The service life of the energy storage power station currently under construction can reach about 15 years. "The construction cost of all-vanadium flow battery energy storage power station is high, but the kilowatt-hour electricity fee may be lower than that of lithium-ion battery." Ren Yan said. Fluctuation of raw material cost. Although all-vanadium flow battery has outstanding advantages, as a rare metal, the raw material cost of vanadium is an important factor limiting the development of all-vanadium flow battery. It is understood that vanadium usually exists in the earth's crust in the form of compounds, and its important distribution areas are China, Russian Federation and South Africa, among which China's vanadium resources account for about 1/3 of the global total. "In terms of material mastery, vanadium, the key material of all-vanadium flow battery, has the advantage of mine production area in China, so it has development value." Lu, research manager of consulting firm EnergyTrend, said. In fact, vanadium is widely used, and the most important application is in the iron and steel industry. As an alloying element of iron, vanadium can improve the hardness of steel. As early as 20 12, the National Development and Reform Commission issued the Twelfth Five-Year Plan for Comprehensive Utilization of Vanadium and Titanium Resources and Industrial Development, which put forward the requirements of improving the utilization level of resources and eliminating backward production capacity. "The performance of vanadium in 20 18 is very outstanding, and it once rose to 5 or 6 times the price of 20 17." Ren Yan said. The reason for such a sharp increase is that the country raised the steel standard on 20 18, which greatly increased the demand for raw material vanadium; Second, due to the "one size fits all" national environmental protection policy, some vanadium mines were shut down due to environmental failure, resulting in a decrease in vanadium supply. According to the reporter, at present, the cost of vanadium electrolyte accounts for more than 60% of the cost of all-vanadium flow battery energy storage power station. "If the price of vanadium can return to the normal level, it will be very important to reduce the cost." However, the rising price of vanadium has also driven the enthusiasm of vanadium mine developers. From the market point of view, the supply of vanadium has picked up recently. Kuang Zhenren said, "Since the end of 20 18, the price of vanadium has declined. It is predicted that the price of 20 19 vanadium will continue to decline, but the future still depends on the comprehensive performance of policies and markets. " It will take time for the industrial chain to form. The data show that in recent years, the electric cost of all-vanadium redox flow battery has been greatly reduced. 20 15-year all-vanadium flow battery energy storage power station's electricity fee is about 4500 yuan. It is predicted that by 2020, the electricity bill will be reduced to 2000 yuan. The battery cost is reduced, and the technical advantages are obvious. How far is it from the large-scale development of all-vanadium flow battery? "The development time of all-vanadium redox flow battery is relatively short. At present, the state's support for flow batteries is relatively small. From the perspective of scientific research funds and industrial support, the state's investment in all-vanadium flow batteries is far less than that in lithium-ion batteries. It takes time to form a complete industrial chain from materials to applications like lithium-ion batteries. " Zhang Huamin said frankly. In addition, the reporter learned that due to the solubility of vanadium in water, all-vanadium redox flow battery always has the disadvantage of low energy density compared with lithium-ion battery and another energy storage "hot spot" all-solid-state battery. The electrolyte solution leads to a relatively large battery volume, which requires a complex piping system. Therefore, the flow battery is not suitable for mobile devices such as electric vehicles, and is limited to fixed energy storage. Although its application is still limited, many industry experts have expressed confidence in it. "If the investment is increased, there is still a lot of room for development in the performance and cost control of all-vanadium redox flow batteries, far from touching the' ceiling'." Zhang Huamin said. Lu also believes that all-vanadium redox flow battery will be safer and more reliable than lithium-ion battery and lead-acid battery at low temperature or extremely high temperature, and it still has its specific market demand.