Flow Batteries

Hydrogen-bromine Flow Battery

At Berkeley Lab, we are working to understand the operation and durability and various types of flow cells in order to optimize operating conditions and cell components. Our effort focuses on catalyst materials, membrane separators, flowfield bipolar plates, electrolyte composition and cell assembly. In particular over the last few years, we have focused on the H₂/Br₂ couple due to its high performance and power density that will allow for less expensive stacks. The power density achieved is almost an order of magnitude greater than traditional RFBs and the performance is very reversible.

Redox Couples for Low-cost Grid-scale Applications

For possible reduced-cost electrolytes, we have also investigated the performance and durability of the H₂/Fe-ion couple using different iron salts, which is inherently a lower voltage system, but with extremely inexpensive electrolytes.