The NSF Sustainable Energy pathways (SEP) Program, under the umbrella of the NSF Science, Engineering and Education for Sustainability (SEES) initiative, will support the research program of Prof. Levi Thompson and co-workers at the University of Michigan Ann Arbor to develop new non-aqueous redox flow battery chemistries for sustainable energy storage devices. Electricity accounts for ~40% of the energy consumed in the U.S. and most is derived from non-renewable resources including fossil and nuclear fuels. Pathways to greater energy sustainability will require the use of renewable resources. The lack of reliable, low-cost energy storage is one of the key challenges to large-scale integration of renewables, with their intermittency, into the grid. This Sustainable Energy Pathways (SEP) project will deliver the transformative scientific and engineering outcomes needed to demonstrate cost-competitive, non-aqueous redox flow batteries (RFBs) for grid storage applications. The research has three objectives. Objective 1: Detailed structure-composition-function relationships will be developed for metal beta-diketonate complexes in organic and ionic liquid electrolytes. These relationships will be used to identify the most promising chemistries for characterization of the kinetics and mechanisms at engineered electrodes. Objective 2: The results will be used to design and fabricate small-scale flow cells to evaluate large-scale RFB relevant performance characteristics. Objective 3: An integrated sustainable design and assessment framework will be developed and used to guide the research and evaluate sustainability performance across the electrochemistry, device, and grid integration levels. The results will be compared to those for other storage technologies.
This SEP research project will consider the scientific, technical, environmental, economic, and societal issues associated with energy storage, and establish a new sustainable energy pathway for advancing fundamental battery chemistries to large-scale RFBs for utility scale storage. The students, post-doctoral scholars and other researchers participating in the project will be part of an interdisciplinary team working on technology that address key societal and economic and environmental challenges facing our nation. On completion, they will be well prepared for leadership positions in industry, government, and/or academia.
The chemistries developed in this SEP project will provide the basis for RFBs with an attractive combination of benefits including low cost when compared to other energy storage solutions being considered for grid applications; flexibility in design due to the decoupled energy and power (like fuel cells); simplified thermal management leading to enhanced safety; little or no self-discharge resulting in high efficiencies; and modularity allowing easy scaling, maintenance and modification. The introduction of sustainable, low-cost RFB-based energy storage technologies will improve the integration of intermittent renewable energy sources such as wind and solar into the electricity grid and significantly reduce emissions of greenhouse gases and other pollutants produced from fossil resources including coal and natural gas.
