Towards Engineering Advanced Vanadium Flow Battery

Flow batteries were specifically invented by electric utilities in the 1960’s to store large amounts of electricity in a safe and practical way. The complexities and latent dangers of bulk electricity storage in confined spaces have become more evident in recent years with a series of thermal runaway events at multi-MW battery installations.  It is precisely in these areas that the inherent control stability , charge uniformity , thermal consistency and flexible form factor of flow batteries is most compelling. At small scale , flow batteries may appear complex compared with “a few lead-acid cells in series”. However , when extended life and significant scale is required , all batteries rapidly require a complex array of components to actively manage and maintain performance. In the case of flow batteries , these components are invariably simpler , cheaper , more reliable , and easier to control. Consequently , a thoughtful flow-battery system design can yield a significantly more compelling product than is possible with conventional static battery technologies. This paper discusses system level and cost-effective engineering of a compact , resilient and serviceable bulk electricity storage system. The paper further introduces the UniEnergy Technologies (UET) containerized product.