Under the advocacy of reduction of environmental pollution and energy conservation and emission reduction, clean energy such as wind and solar energy has gradually become the new favorites to replace the traditional fossil fuels such as coal, natural gas and oil. In the process of promoting carbon emission peak and carbon neutrality in the energy sector, energy storage technology has become the key to the development of clean energy, as well as an important basis to support a new power system.
When it comes to energy storage technology, people would think of dry batteries and lithium batteries. But do you know that water can also be used to make batteries? It's amazing, right? The technical term for this type of battery is redox flow battery (RFB).
Recently, Dr. Ji Yunlong's team from the School of Chemistry and Materials Science, Hangzhou Institute for Advanced Study (HIAS), UCAS, together with Dr. Wang Pan's team from Westlake University, found an organic material as an energy storage substance to achieve a stable and long charge and discharge cycle at high temperature for RFBs. Relevant findings have been published by the top energy journalJoule.
Dr. Ji Yunlong
Graduated from the Shanghai Institute of Organic Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2015, Dr. Ji Yunlong had worked as a postdoctoral fellow in Arizona State University and Harvard University. In 2021, he joined HIAS, UCAS to engage in the development of new organic energy storage and conversion materials and device applications.
Ji Yunlong said, "Unlike the lithium-ion batteries used in mobile phones or electric vehicles in our daily life, the energy storage system developed by the team uses water as the medium. So it features high safety factor, low cost and independently adjustable energy power, and is more suitable for large-scale scenarios of energy storage technology, such as a factory and a city".
Organic energy storage materials used in RFBs are based on carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen and other elements. They are not only rich in sources and cheap, but also green and eco-friendly, free of heavy metal pollutants.
Dr. Wang Pan
"In general, the PFP energy storage materials we have developed have shown extremely high cycle stability and capacity retention when applied to RFBs whether at normal or high temperatures. This indicates that such batteries have great potential for application even in extreme environments such as high temperature and strong alkaline," said Wang Pan.
In mid-July, the National Development and Reform Commission and the National Energy Administration issued theGuiding Opinions on Accelerating the Development of New Energy Storage, pointing out that long-term energy storage technologies such as flow batteries have entered the initial stage of commercial development.
Ji Yunlong said, "The system we have developed has met the requirements of commercialization. Next, we will strive to establish demonstration projects and promote the process of industrialization". Flow batteries can not only store clean energy such as solar energy and wind energy that are not easy to store, but can also achieve a more efficient configuration of the grid by regulating it, that is, increasing storage when electricity consumption is low, and releasing electricity when it is high, so as to reduce energy waste.
"In the future, I hope that such storage means can make people's lives more convenient and contribute to China's carbon emission peak and carbon neutrality," said Wang Pan.
Editor: Yang Qiaoying
