Cell Design and Materials: Alternative Chemistries

Innovative Batteries – Metal-Air and Flow

Electrode

Electrolyte

Membrane

Electrode Gas Diffusion Electrode

Electrolyte

Membrane

Electrolyte

Electrode Electrolyte tank

Gas Diffusion Electrode

Electrolyte tank

Metal Air Flow Batteries

Metal Air Batteries

Electrode

Membrane

Electrode

Redox Flow Batteries

Electrolyte tank

Pump

Key Advantage: RFB architecture allows scaling of power and energy density separately

Key Advantage: Metal-air batteries MAB) have extremely high energy densities

Key Advantage: Metal-air flow batteries MAFB combine the scalability of RFB with an increased energy density from the metal air couple

Types: Vanadium TRL 9, Iron TRL 4

Types: Iron TRL 45, Zinc TRL 24

Types: Lithium TRL 3, Iron TRL 2

Two tanks house the redox active solutions, these are flowed to the cell stack where reduction or oxidation occurs.

MAB employs a gas diffusion cathode for oxygen reduction during discharging. At the anode, metal is oxidized into ions in solution.

An MAFB increases the mass transport kinetics of oxygen reduction by flowing while keeping high energy density of MABs.

Source: Shoaib et al. Adv. Energy Mater, 2024;Li et al. ACS Energy Lett. 2017; Yu et al. J. Mater. Chem. A, 2019. Please see Volta Report 2024 for detailed cell specs.

Extracted from the PDF; charts and images may read imperfectly.