Vanadium Redox Flow Battery for Utility-Scale Applications, Microgrids

Source: Emiliano Bellini · PV MAGAZINE · | December 14, 2020

A unit of Largo Resources is launching a new vanadium redox flow battery for utility-scale storage projects, microgrids, renewable energy integration, grid smoothing, and backup power. The battery will feature a modular architecture, based on 1 MW “building blocks” and 2 MWh blocks of storage capacity.

Image: Largo Clean Energy

Canada-based vanadium mining company Largo Resources has entered the energy storage business with the launch of its Delaware-based Largo Clean Energy unit.

The newly formed company will develop vanadium redox flow battery (VRFB) technology based on 12 patent families previously owned by U.S. storage specialist VionX Energy, whose assets it recently acquired for $3.8 million.

“We have also hired key team members previously employed by VionX Energy who we believe have developed one of the most advanced VRFB technologies in the world and when combined with Largo Resources' proven operational and commercial capabilities, will result in immediate synergies and unparalleled competitive advantages,” said Largo Resources CEO Paulo Misk.

Largo Clean Energy's new product line will be based on a proprietary vanadium electrolyte processing system.

“The advancement in power density in our VCharge± systems is largely the result of the development of the Inter-Digitated Flow Field (IDFF), patented technology based on 50+ years of dedicated VRFB research with our partners,” a company spokesperson told pv magazine. “In a flow battery, proton and electron exchange occurs as electrolyte flows across both the membrane and electrode; design of the exchange area (flow field) for flowing electrolyte across an electrode surface results in a trade-off of high pumping losses or high-pressure drop which typically occur as the result of the converse objective of having large amounts of contact surface area between the liquid and the electrode.”