Schulich researchers discover surprise ingredient for improved electricity grid capacity
Source: Joe McFarland · UCALGARY.CA · | December 10, 2021
Graphene modification improves both battery efficiency and cost
Source: Ted Roberts, left, and Ashutosh Singh, right, look on as PhD student Maedeh Pahelevaninezhad holds an electrode at their laboratory. Photo Courtesy Ted Roberts
University of Calgary researchers have found that one small change can make a big difference – particularly when it comes to electricity grid storage capacity.
Dr. Edward (Ted) Roberts, PhD, has been investigating battery storage options and was looking to increase the lifetime of a special kind of battery: a redox flow battery.
The Schulich School of Engineering professor and associate head (research) in the Department of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering hoped to modify the battery membrane with graphene, which is a unique carbon material measuring only one atom thick.
“We were surprised to find that, with the modified membrane, the battery efficiency and power density increased,” Roberts says. “Since the power density increases, this means that a smaller battery can be used for a given power requirement, reducing the cost of the battery.”
Flexible options
Redox flow batteries (RFBs) store electrical energy in liquids that are pumped through the battery.
Roberts says they are being developed for energy storage on electricity grids for things like managing intermittent renewable-energy generation.
For electricity grid storage, batteries are flexible and can be implemented anywhere, but they are expensive. Key metrics for batteries are the round-trip efficiency, power density, energy density and lifetime.
He adds that when you draw more power, efficiency drops, and a battery of a given size has a maximum amount of power it can produce.