Flow Batteries
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Batteries that can be “refuelled” quickly could give electric cars greater range
PROTOTYPES of new electric vehicles that are soon to go on sale show lots of promise. They are clean, quiet and provide nippy performance. But even with advances in power systems and improved lithium-ion batteries, their range on a single charge is limited—and recharging can take hours. However, a team of German engineers thinks it may be possible to produce a battery for an electric car which can be recharged in minutes, in a manner similar to refuelling a car with petrol.
The technology that Jens Noack and his colleagues at the Fraunhofer Institute for Chemical Technology in Pfinztal are experimenting with is called a flow battery. All batteries work by converting electrical energy into chemical energy during charging, and then converting it back into electricity as the battery is discharged. Traditional batteries store the chemical energy in two solid electrodes; flow batteries store it in the liquid electrolyte in which the electrodes are immersed. The electrolyte is stored in an external tank and pumped through the battery’s cells to convert chemical energy into electricity. When the electrolyte has been discharged, it can be pumped back through again while a current is applied in order to recharge it.
There is, though, another way to recharge a flow battery: pump out the discharged electrolyte and replace it with a solution that has been recharged elsewhere. In a car, says Mr Noack, this process could be done at a garage in not much more time than it takes to fill up a conventional car with petrol.
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