Abstract
The vanadium redox flow battery is the most promising technology for large-scale energy storage due to its long lifetime, high safety and flexible design. However, its efficiency is largely limited by the use of ion exchange membranes, which are “borrowed” from other technologies. This problem was solved at Paul Scherrer Institut with the invention of a new membrane technology called amphoteric membrane, that improves the round-trip efficiency of vanadium flow batteries by up to 15%. The patent-pending technology can be also used in electrolysers and fuel cells and is currently commercialized by Gaia Membranes under the Amphion™ brand.
Was ist das Besondere an diesem Projekt?
The ion exchange membrane (IEM) sector saw its last major innovation over 50 years ago with the invention of the currently world-leading Nafion™ technology. The breakthrough innovation that this project focuses on represents a paradigm shift in the science of IEMs which had been theorised for decades but never satisfactorily achieved in practice.
IEMs based on the patent-pending Amphion™ technology can be tailored to optimally fulfil the target electrochemical application, whereas with competing IEM technologies it is the application that needs to be tailored to the limited functionalities of the membrane. In the case of VRFBs, the benefit is there for anybody to see: Amphion™ membranes are the first and only technology to enable a balanced transport of ions and water across the membrane so that VRFB can operate with a stable capacity throughout their lifetime.
Stand/Resultate
Gaia Membranes AG was founded in March 2019 in response to strong customer interest. Since the start of the project, the team managed on the one hand to grab the attention of the international flow battery community and on the other hand to generate interest among some of the leading global polymer film suppliers. The key focus over the next year is on completing the product development of our membrane technology for green hydrogen.
At present the team is evaluating industrial partners to bring its outstanding technology to production.
Publikationen
Accelerated Stress Test Method for the Assessment of Membrane Lifetime in Vanadium Redox Flow Batteries.
CS Appl. Mater. Interfaces (2019)Tackling Capacity Fading in Vanadium Redox Flow Batteries with Amphoteric PBI/Nafion Bilayer Membranes.
PChemSusChem (2019)Tackling capacity fading in vanadium flow batteries with amphoteric membranes. Journal of Power Sources (2017), 368, 68-72.
Medienecho
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Am Projekt beteiligte Personen
Letzte Aktualisierung dieser Projektdarstellung 11.02.2021