A 3D-printed flow battery cell costing around £74 could help accelerate renewable energy storage research.
Scientists at Queen’s University Belfast developed the cell as a cheaper alternative to commercial research equipment costing between £2,000 and £3,000, reported the BBC.
Flow batteries store energy in liquids rather than the solid electrodes used in lithium-ion batteries. They could provide large-scale storage for renewable electricity when wind and solar generation exceed demand.
Most current systems use vanadium which is produced in a limited number of countries and can be volatile in price. The Belfast team’s design uses more widely available iron.
Post-doctoral researcher Dr Hugh O’Connor began developing the cell while completing his PhD after discovering the high cost of commercial equipment.
He used 3D printing to produce multiple designs and gradually improved their performance. However comparisons with research elsewhere exposed another problem because laboratories were using different equipment and producing results that were difficult to reproduce.
The finished design uses around 10 components including printed flow sections, a membrane, gaskets, electrodes and current collectors.
Rather than commercialising the product the researchers released the design free to the international scientific community. It comes with a step-by-step assembly guide described by the team as an “Ikea-style instruction manual”.
Identical cells have now been distributed to researchers around the world to help create common testing standards.
Reliable and reproducible results could make it easier to compare different chemistries and identify which systems have the greatest commercial potential.
The technology could eventually help store renewable electricity that might otherwise be wasted or force wind turbines to switch off when networks cannot absorb their output.
The Belfast researchers are now testing larger stacks of printed cells to understand how the technology performs beyond individual laboratory units.
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