(123a) A Co-Axial Microtubular Electrochemical Flow Cell for High-Power Flow Batteries and Electrolyzers

Electrochemical flow cells, where electron exchange takes place, is a central component in flow batteries and electrolyzers. Improving the volumetric power density of the flow cell (W/L_cell) can reduce the size and cost of flow batteries and electrolyzers. While significant progress has been made on electrode and membrane materials, conventional flow cells based on planar cell configuration exhibit a large cell size with multiple bulky accessories such as flow distributors, resulting in low volumetric power density. In this talk, I will introduce a new co-axial microtubular (CAMT) flow cell configuration that significantly improves volumetric power density by reducing the membrane-to-membrane distance by almost 100 times and eliminating completely the bulky flow distributors. The CAMT cell has been applied to flow batteries and electrolyzers with various redox chemistry. The CAMT flow cell represents a device-level revolution to enhance the volumetric power of flow batteries and electrolyzers.

(also see our publication: DOI: 10.26434/chemrxiv-2022-d8sgv)