![[IMAGE]](AIRPOLLW.JPG)
the first installment on the destruction of our planet's very fragile gas-sheath
A (badly compiled) description of a device which can single-handedly change our destructive ways, and allows us to keep the luxury we enjoy
IN A NUT-SHELL:
Manufacturing: Some special moulds and materials (ion-exchange membrane) are needed. Size & shape of the actual battery stack can vary, but so far very few designs have been done. Medium to huge capacity, i.e. kilo-Watts to Mega-Watts. A megawatt-vanadium battery is already in development in Japan. There are enough possibilities for entrepreneurs, the technology is there.
With the possibilities for electric vehicles it seems that we have found a way to improve the earths atmosphere and to halt the destruction of our fragile environment. It seems realistic that we can very significantly reduce airpollution in the next 5-10 years. The political will may be there; most people should realise the need for action; the greater populus probably doesn't need much convincing, if presented with the facts (see IPCC).
If anyone has a close look at the state of the NORTHERN HEMISPERE'S
atmosphere and compare it to the southern one, it is a shock.
Up to 2 km in height the air is thick with brown particles, so much
so that is not possible to view farther than 30km on a clear
summer's day in continental europe. This "brown-haze" is also
visible in the Rocky Mountains, Caribbean Is. and other not likely
industrialised places. It is a constant feature North America, too.
Just have a look towards the horizon with the Sun in your back and
imagine that the sky is actually blue near the horizon in the southern
hemisphere. You can also see the n-hemi muck well in the sunset and
sunrise. Usually it is most shocking at sunrise, when the air has
settled and the band of pollution is extra dense above the ground.
Consider the fragility of our "breathable" atmosphere. If Earth was
reduced to the size of a bowling ball, it would be thick as your
fingerprint. You couldn't even feel Mount Everest!
From my observations while flying from New Zealand to Europe, this
extreme pollution exists all around the globe between 40 and 70 deg
northern latitude.
The winds circle the globe very rapidly and distribute the pollution
widely. This we know since the chinese atmospheric atom-bomb test,
where the radioactive particles took only 10 days to circle the
globe. And the northern hemisphere is "filling up" because of the
shear magnitude of the emissions.
The load of particles is so enormous that it must have an effect on the
food-chain by itself. This is (or will be) a contributor to the slow
contamination with dangerous substances of soil and water. An example is
the air-borne fertilisation of the otherwise nutrient-poor
dune-landscape in northern Germany. This effect will *in time*
neccessarily overtake the chemical poisoning of soil and water.
BTW: 2,4 D is still in use in New Zealand. There has been massive use
of DDT in New Zealand until quite recently. Only this year (1996) we
have actually stopped selling leaded gasoline !!!
The vanadium battery, if made a high priority, would only need a short
time of development by dedicated engineers/industry and it can
eventually be massproduced.
Infrastructure ("vanadium-gas-stations") could be widely installed in as
short a time as a year, if a country would see the cleaning up of the
atmosphere as being of national interest and enact the legislation.
Germany seems particularly well suited.
I would like this message to get through to auto-manufactures,
public officials and enterprising people who can disseminate and
implement such information. Read this material. If you are convinced
(as I am) after examining the technical data that this vanadium battery
should be commercially available in many forms e.g. for electric
vehicles, energy-autonomous homes and industry, I think it might be a
good idea to send this on to influential contacts that you may have, so
that they can explore the possibilities of the vanadium battery.
So, here are the completly unsorted articles & abstracts which I have
gathered on the subject, since I heard it on a Radio Australia science
programme. There are 4 email-parts:
1 ENERGY FOCUS magazine article (this email you are reading now; 46k)
3 PHOTOVOLTAICS AND VANADIUM BATTERIES (59k)
4 STATUS OF THE VANADIUM BATTERY DEVELOPMENT (60k)
5 UNIKEN, ENERGY FOCUS (magazine), Swedish experiments (25k)
(Adopted from a lecture by Maria Skyllas-Kazacos to the 1994 ERDC
Annual General Meeting)
With increasing public awareness and concern over greenhouse gas
emissions, ozone layer depletion and high levels of pollution in
major cities around the world, the last decade has seen renewed
interest in renewable and alternative energy technologies.
One of the critical obstacles in the implementation of renewable
energy systems, has been the lack of a suitable energy storage
system which will allow supply to better match energy demand.
SimiIarly, the recent strong push in USA for zero emission vehicles
in an effort to decrease the intolerably high levels of pollution
from motor cars, has led to a major effort around the world to
develop suitable rechargeable batteries which will be able to slowly
replace the internal combustion engine as power sources for vehicles.
Electrochemical systems such as secondary batteries and fuel cells
convert the energy from electrochemical reactions directly into low
voltage, direct current electricity.
They are ideally suited for energy storage as they offer the
possibility of practical energy efficiency as high as 90%.
Batteries have a very wide range of energy storage applications. To
date the only commercially available battery system that is feasible
for any of these applications is the lead acid battery.
Unfortunately, this battery possesses a number of limitations for
such energy storage applications and this has led to an ongoing
effort around the world to solve the problem of energy storage using
advanced battery systems.
One of the largest co-ordinated programmes to develop alternative
energy and energy storage technologies was initiated in the early
1980s in Japan with the establishment of the New Energy Development
Organisation (NEDO).
Japan's leading role in this area was prompted by the nation's
almost total dependence on imported oil, which makes its energy
supply structure extremely vulnerable.
As part of research and development, efforts in alternative energy
technologies, NEDO initiated a large programme in energy conversion
and storage. In addition to further improvements in lead acid
technology, four new battery systems were selccted for initial
evaluation at up to the 60 kW size. These systems were zinc
chlorine, zinc bromine, sodium sulphur and iron chromium (Fe Cr)
redox flow battery.
Following initial research and development efforts with all four
systems, the zinc-bromine and sodium sulphur batteries were selected
for the lMW demonstration phase, based on their superior performance
and footprint energy density compared to the other two systems.
The Fe Cr battery system has shortcomings but in 1984 thc attractive
features offercd by redox flow battery systems prompted The
University of New South Wales (UNSW) to investigate using alternative
redox couples to overcome some of the limitations.
To eliminate the inherent problem of cross contamination of the two
electrolyte solutions, vanadium was selectcd as it exists in several
oxidation states (0. 2, 3, 4, & 5) giving rise to a number of
potentially useful redox couples.
The development of the vanadium redox battery at the UNSW,began in
1985 under a Commonwealth NERDC Grant.Since then, further research
and development has been funded by the NSW Department of Minerals and
Energy (now the Department of Energy), Mount Resources Ltd and
recently by the Energy Research and Development Corporation (ERDC)
and the Australian Research Council (ARC).
The vanadium battery is now at a relatively advanced stage of
development with three 1 to 3 kW prototype batteries already
constructed and tested.
Overall energy efficiency as high as 90% has been achieved to date,
not including pumping energy losses.
Pumping losses have been estimatcd at 2 to 3% so that even at 87 to
88% overall energy efficiency, the vanadium battery is proving to be
one of the most efficient energy storage systems currently under
development.
To date two commercial licenses have been granted by Unisearch Ltd
for the commercialisation of the vanadium redox battery in
stationary energy storage applications.
Thai Gypsum Products in Thailand has been granted a Unisearch
license to manufacture and use the vanadium redox battery in
residential photovoltaic applications and in non grid interactive
commercial peak shaving in South East Asia.
A consortium comprised of Mitsubishi Petrochemicals and Kashima Kita
Power Corporation of Japan have also been licensed to further
develop and commercialise the vanadium redox battery world wide,
excluding South East Asia. China and Australia, in large scale load
levelling systems and other stationary applications.
The consortium's plans are to construct and test a 300 kW vanadium
battery system by 1996, and commission a 2 MW demonstration load
levelling system in the Tokyo area by 1999.
In December1992, a 1kW/12 kWh vanadium battery was installed in a
Solar Demonstration House in Thailand by the UNSW Vanadium Battery
Development Group in collaboration with the UNSW Centre for
Photovoltaic (PV) Devices and Systems and Thai Gypsum Products Co
Ltd.
The PV/battery system is a precommercial prototype version of a grid
interactive system that the battery licensee,Thai Gypsum, is
intending to install in residential developments in Thailand and
other Asian countries.
The first demonstration system was designcd to operate with
alternating current loads and power a small air conditioner of less
than 8OO watts. A National CU-700 K split system compressor type air
conditioner was chosen as the load. The 1 kW/12 kWh battery
included a 12 cell stack, giving a system voltage of 16.8 volts.
Each of the two reservoirs contains 200 litres of electrolyte.
A roof mounted array of 36 Kyocera LA441K63 photovoltaic modules
provided 2.2 kW of installed PV.
Butler Solar Products, Australia, designers of the Siemens range of
SUNSINE inverters, modified an existing 1 kW, 12 V stand alone
SUNSINE inverter for the 16.8 volt PV/vanadium battery system.
A 36 cell stack has subsequently been constructed at UNSW and sent
to Thailand to replace the 12 cell stack in the solar house.
A 4 kVA Geebung grid interactive inverter is currently being tested
with the vanadium battery which is operating with a microprocessor
controller built by the UNSW Centre for Photovoltaic Systems and
Devices.
The controller was designed to optimise the efficiency of the
battery in this application.
In addition to the field testing, Thai Gypsum is currently
undertaking manufacturing trials of the battery components.
Some further development is now required to optimise the conducting
plastic electrode fabrication so as to achieve the target
resistivity of 2 ohm per 2 square centimetre for a cell.
It is expected that by mid 1995, Thai Gypsum will have completed the
first production prototype stacks for more extensive field trials.
The vanadium redox battery is continuing to show great promise as an
efficient, low cost energy storage system for stationary
applications.
A refuellable battery such as the vanadium redox system would also
be the ideal approach for electric vehicles since it could offer an
instant recharge by exchanging electrolytes at special refuelling
stations.
The redox cell battery is the only type of battery system available
that offers the possibility of instant recharge while still
permitting conventional electrical recharge to be employed.
This means the vanadium redox battery electrolyte could be treated
as an alternative liquid fuel but one that can be regenerated
indefinitely.
This feature is of enormous significance in electric vehicle
applications where public acceptance will be more readily achieved
if behaviour patterns do not need to be radically modified.
There has been considerable interest in the area of electric
vehiclcs for many years but until fairly recently this has mainly
come from a small group of enthusiasts.
The introduction of the stringent California exhaust emission
standards, which, from 1998 will require major manufacturers to
ensure 2% of their sales are of zero emission vebicles, has turned
the situation around.
Car manufacturers around the world are now embarking on major
programmes to develop electric vehicles.
The three major US car manufacturers - General Motors, Ford and
Chrysler - have formed the Advanced Battery Consortium to identify
and develop advanced batteries that are able to meet strict
performance and range requirements.
The aim is to provide an electric vehicle alternative that will be
fully traffic compatible.
The General Motors Impact, a high performance electric sports car,
demonstrates electric cars has moved beyond the golf buggy era.
Other companies such as BMW, Mercedes, Hyundai, Mazda, Mitsubishi
and Peugeot haye also embarked on major electric vehicle programmes
utilising various battery technologies. Mercedes has been
investigating sodium nickel chloride batteries, Peugeot nickel
cadmium batteries and Hyundai nickel hydride batteries.
At present the vanadium battery system is suited to stationary or
niche mobile applications due to its low energy density of 20 to 25
Wh/kg and resultant large size in high capacity units.
Research currently underway at the UNSW is showing that an energy
density of 80 to100 Wh/ kg could be achieved within the next five
years.
In an effort to demonstrate the concept of the vanadium redox
battery for electric vehicles,a seed grant was obtained from Pacific
Power to construct a battery and install it in an electric golf
buggy.
A commercially available gulf buggy powered by lead acid batteries
was loaned by the US manufacturer E-Z-Go through its Australian
distributor, which is Deep Down Distribution P/L. The golf buggy was
originally powered by six, 6 volt lead acid batteries located under
the seat.
Calculations showed that the size of battery required to power the
vehicle was a 30 cell stack with an electric area of 500 square
centimetres. Budget limitations procluded the fabrication of
separate flow frame and electrode moulds for such a battery stack so
it was necessary to use the larger, 1,500 square centimetre moulds
manufactured for the solar house battery project in Thailand. This
resulted in a battery approximately 50% longer and roughly three
times the cross sectional area that would have been required with
specifically designed moulds.
The oversized battery was mounted on the back of the golf buggy with
the two tanks containing the vanadium electrolytes positioned under
the seat.
Preliminary road trials have been undertaken and the vanadium
battery powered golf buggy was found to perform exceptionally well.
It carried two passengers with ease despite a total vehicle weight
including the two passengers in excess of 400 kg.
Because of its relatively low energy density, the vanadium battery
would presently be limited to larger vehicles such as trucks, buses
and vans.
The energy density is related to the amount of vanadium, as
sulphate. dissolved in solution and is tied to the solubility of the
vanadium salts in sulphuric acid, approximately 2 Moles/litre.
Early studies with modified electrolytes are showing great promise
and solutions of over 4 moles per litre of vanadium have already ben
prepared in the laboratory.
Combining these concentrated electrolytes with an oxygen
regeneration system for the positive electrolyte could give energy
densities of 80 to lO0 Wh/kg within the next five years.
This would lead to a battery which would meet all the requirements
stipulated by car manufacturers when assessing the current and
future battery technologies for electric vehicles.
Whether it is the vanadium battery or some other technology, the
time will certainly come when quiet, pollution free vehicles will be
driven around our cities and we can look forward to the day when we
can all breathe clean air once again.
The vanadium redox flow battery was developed by Professor Maria
Skyllas-Kazacos and her team at the University of New South Wales.
It is a low Cost, low environmental impact battery that has a
superior deep cycling life and can be mechanically refuelled in
minutes.
Today's lead acid batteries, commonly used to start cars store
energy in solid electrodes while the vanadium redox battery stores
energy in a liquid electrolyte solution of vanadium pentoxide
dissolved in sulphuric acid.
The electrolyte can be charged or discharged by pumping it through
the battery stack and either supplying electric power to the stack
or taking power from the stack. It can also be recharged by having
the spent electrolyte pumped out and a fresh charge of electrolyte
pumped in.
The spent electrolyte can then be recharged in another battery with
elcctricity from the mains or from renewable energy eources.
This raises the opportunity for the establishment of refuelling
stations so that electric vehicles could exchange their electrolyte
and then continue on their way with no more delay than if refuelling
with petrol or diesel.
Development of the vanadium redox flow battery has been assisted by
funding from the State Energy Research and Development Fund, SERDF,
which is administered by the NSW Department of Energy.
SERDF is currently funding 54 energy research and development
projects that are important to NSW with a total SERDF contribution
of $7,500,000.
For further information on SERDF, please phone Dr David Hemming, NSW
Department of Energy +61 2 99018836.
Vanadium redox flow battery technology is protected under a number
of patents and further patent applications are in progress.
Licences have been granted to Mitsubishi Chemicals Corp, Kashima
Power Corp and Thai Gypsum Products Public Co for stationary
applications. Very large batteries in the Megawatt hour range are
expected to be in commercial production by 1998.
Licences are available for some stationary applications in some of
the largest countries of Asia and for vehicular applications
throughout the world.
There are currently no licences issued for the use of the technology
in China.
With mandated zero emission targets for urban traffic in parts of
USA and other initiatives in Europe, the world market for electric
vehicle batteries is expected to exceed $US5 billion by 2004.
For further information, please phone Wal Lamberth of Unisearch Ltd,
the commercial arm of the University or NSW on +62 2 385 5401.
or email: w.lamberth@unsw.edu.au
(from "Energy Focus" August 1995, Magazine of the NSW Department of
Energy, 29-57 Christie St. (PO Box 536), St Leonards, NSW 2065,
Australia. Phone +61 2 9901 8223 fax: +61 2 9901 8246 )
picture:Vanadloo.gif
2) Status of development, Science paperMy (somewhat detailed) concern:
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Looking Forward to Breathing Fresh Air
Developed in NSW
Where do you get it?
![[IMAGE]](Vanadloo.gif)
Positive electrode: V (V) + e- <---> V (IV)
Negative electrode: V (II) <---> V (III) + e-
--------------------------------------------
Overall: V (V) + V (II) <---> V (IV) + V (III)
Charge
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