A greener battery
Another major advantage of the battery is its lower environmental impact. At present most batteries rely on rare or toxic metal compounds, such as lead and lithium.For example, vanadium salts are dissolved in acid to produce a traditional ‘redox flow battery’. But with this batter, polymers are used in a liquid salt solution.
"Inside our 'Redox Flow battery', we’ve dissolved an active material, small molecules or polymers. We can compare it to a little bit like how we dissolve salt when we’re cooking pasta or putting sugar in tea," said Martin Hager, the project's Polymers & Energy Group Leader.
"When we have enough wind, and electricity is available, we can bring an electron out of one side of the active material, to the other side of the other type of active materials - and in this way we can store the generated electricity." he added.
The battery set to transform renewable energy
Smart Regions travels to Germany to find out about a new battery that's been designed to better harness renewable energy. #SmartRegions
