Negative electrolyte management system

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2024055643-A1
Application number	US-202318358877-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Jul 25, 2023
Priority date	Aug 9, 2022
Publication date	Feb 15, 2024
Grant date	—

Abstract

Systems and methods are provided for managing health of electrolytes of redox flow battery system. Components of the system may include a redox rebalancing cells and a gas storage system. The redox rebalancing cell may be operated by plating iron on a plating electrode, treating a negative electrolyte of the redox flow battery system with the plated iron and returning the negative electrolyte to an electrolyte tank. The gas storage system may include a set of expandable gas storage tanks coupled to at least one electrolyte storage tank and an electrolyte rebalancing system of the redox flow battery system.

First claim

1 . A gas storage system for a redox flow battery, comprising:
a set of expandable gas storage tanks coupled to at least one electrolyte storage tank and an electrolyte rebalancing system of the redox flow battery, the set of expandable gas storage tanks including a first gas storage tank fluidly coupled to a second gas storage tank, and wherein the first gas storage tank is configured to receive a gas from the at least one electrolyte storage tank before the second gas storage tank and the second gas storage tank is compressed by a distributed force.

2 . The gas storage system of claim 1 , wherein the first gas storage tank is configured to receive the gas until a volume of the first gas storage tank reaches a maximum volume, and to deliver the gas to the second gas storage tank after the first gas storage tank reaches the maximum volume.

3 . The gas storage system of claim 2 , wherein a pressure of the first gas storage tank at the maximum volume is substantially atmospheric pressure.

4 . The gas storage system of claim 2 , wherein the second gas storage tank is configured to receive the gas until a pressure of the gas storage system reaches a maximum pressure.

5 . The gas storage system of claim 4 , wherein the maximum pressure of the second gas storage tank is in a range of 0.5 kPa to 20 kPa.

6 . The gas storage system of claim 4 , wherein the second gas storage tank includes a pressure relief valve configured to open and vent excess gas when the pressure of the gas storage system is above the maximum pressure.

7 . The gas storage system of claim 1 , wherein the distributed force is a linear spring force or a distributed weight, and is configured to increase in force from a first side of the distributed force to a second side of the distributed force.

8 . The gas storage system of claim 1 , wherein the gas storage system further includes a pressure transducer configured to measure a pressure within the first gas storage tank and the second gas storage tank, wherein the pressure is related to a volume of gas in the gas storage system.

9 . The gas storage system of claim 1 , wherein the first gas storage tank has a smaller maximum volume than the second gas storage tank.

10 . A method for a gas storage system for a redox flow battery, comprising:
receiving gas from an electrolyte storage tank at a first expandable gas tank until a volume of the first expandable gas tank reaches a maximum volume; and receiving gas from the electrolyte storage tank at a second expandable gas tank via the first expandable gas tank, the second expandable gas tank compressed by a distributed force, when the first expandable gas tank is at the maximum volume.

11 . The method of claim 10 , further comprising using the gas stored in the first expandable gas tank to mitigate formation of a vacuum in the redox flow battery when the redox flow battery is shut down.

12 . The method of claim 10 , wherein the first expandable gas tank is maintained at substantially atmospheric pressure.

13 . The method of claim 10 , further comprising venting the second expandable gas tank via a pressure relief valve when the second expandable gas tank reaches a maximum pressure and additional gas is delivered to the second expandable gas tank.

14 . The method of claim 10 , wherein receiving gas from the second expandable gas tank causes a step change in pressure registered by a pressure transducer coupled to the gas storage system.

15 . A redox flow battery system, comprising:
a redox flow battery cell including a negative electrode compartment and a positive electrode compartment; an electrolyte storage tank fluidly coupled to the redox flow battery cell; a rebalancing reactor fluidly coupled to the redox flow battery cell and the electrolyte storage tank; a gas storage system including a first expandable gas tank fluidly coupled to the electrolyte storage tank and the rebalancing reactor, a second expandable gas tank fluidly coupled to the first expandable gas tank, a distributed force positioned on a top side of the second expandable gas tank; and a controller including executable instructions stored in non-transitory memory thereon to: measure a pressure of the gas storage system; in response to the pressure being greater than or equal to a threshold operating pressure, maintain fluidic coupling between the gas storage system and the rebalancing reactor; and in response to the pressure being less than the threshold operating pressure, decrease an amount of hydrogen gas in the rebalancing reactor.

16 . The redox flow battery system of claim 15 , wherein instructions to decrease the amount of hydrogen gas include to decouple the gas storage system from the rebalancing reactor or to remove an amount of electrolyte from to the rebalancing reactor.

17 . The redox flow battery system of claim 15 , wherein the pressure correlates to a volume of gas in the gas storage system.

18 . The redox flow battery system of claim 15 , wherein the gas storage system is configured to receive gas evolved from electrolytes stored in the electrolyte storage tank.

19 . The redox flow battery system of claim 15 , wherein the distributed force is a distributed weight, and a shape of the distributed weight is complementary to a shape of the second expandable gas tank.

20 . The redox flow battery system of claim 15 , wherein the electrolyte storage tank is a multi-chambered electrolyte storage tank including a gas head space to store gas evolved from an electrolyte of the redox flow battery system.

Assignees

• Ess Technology Inc

Inventors

• Kissick Sean
• Mcdonald Timothy J
• Song Yang

Classifications

• H01M8/188 Primary

  by recharging of redox couples containing fluids; Redox flow type batteries · CPC title

• H01M8/04276

  Arrangements for managing the electrolyte stream, e.g. heat exchange · CPC title

• H01M8/04425

  at auxiliary devices, e.g. reformers, compressors, burners · CPC title

• H01M8/04776

  at auxiliary devices, e.g. reformer, compressor, burner · CPC title

• F17C5/06

  for filling with compressed gases · CPC title