Apparatus and method for use in storing energy

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9722236-B2
Application number	US-201313843489-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 15, 2013
Priority date	Mar 15, 2013
Publication date	Aug 1, 2017
Grant date	Aug 1, 2017

Abstract

Some embodiments provide energy storage systems that comprise: a first electrode; a second electrode; an electrolyte; the first electrode, the second electrode and the electrolyte are positioned such that the electrolyte is in contact with at least the first electrode; and a polarity reversal system electrically coupled with the first electrode and the second electrode, wherein the polarity reversal system is configured to allow the energy storage system to operate while a first polarity to charge and discharge electrical energy while operating in the first polarity, and the polarity reversal system is configured to reverse the voltage polarity across the first and second electrodes to a second polarity to allow the energy storage system to continue to operate while the second polarity is established across the first electrode and the second electrode to continue to charge and discharge electrical energy while operating in the second polarity.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An energy storage system comprising:
a first electrode;
a second electrode without a separator between the first electrode and the second electrode;
an electrolyte;
a housing in which at least a portion of the first electrode, at least a portion of the second electrode and at least a portion of the electrolyte are positioned such that the electrolyte is in contact with at least the first electrode;
a polarity reversal system electrically coupled with the first electrode and the second electrode, wherein the polarity reversal system is configured to allow the energy storage system to operate while a first polarity is established across the first electrode and the second electrode to repeatedly charge and discharge electrical energy while operating in the first polarity providing power to a load configured to be coupled to the first electrode and the second electrode, and the polarity reversal system is configured to reverse the voltage polarity across the first electrode and the second electrode to a second polarity that is opposite the first polarity to allow the energy storage system to continue to operate while the second polarity is established across the first electrode and the second electrode to continue to repeatedly charge and discharge electrical energy while operating in the second polarity providing power to the load;
multiple first electrodes and multiple second electrodes; and
multiple energy storage units electrically cooperated to provide electrical energy to the load, wherein each energy storage unit of the multiple energy storage units comprises one of the plurality of the first electrode and one of the plurality of the second electrode;
wherein the polarity reversal system is further configured to reverse the polarity of a first energy storage unit of the multiple energy storage units to operate in the second polarity while maintaining a second energy storage unit of the multiple energy storage units in the first polarity to simultaneously continue to operate to charge and discharge in the first polarity.

2. The energy storage system of claim 1 , wherein the polarity reversal system is further configured to allow the energy storage system to charge and discharge electrical energy over multiple cycles of charging and discharging while operating in the first polarity, and to charge and discharge electrical energy over multiple consecutive cycles of charging and discharging while operating in the second polarity.

3. The energy storage system of claim 2 , wherein the charging of the energy storage system in the first polarity comprises causing a chemical reaction within the housing to deposit a conductive material onto the first electrode, and wherein the charging of the energy storage system in the second polarity comprises causing the chemical reaction within the housing to deposit the conductive material onto the second electrode while the conductive material deposited on to the first electrode is removed from the first electrode.

4. The energy storage system of claim 3 , wherein the electrolyte comprises a liquid electrolyte comprising lead ions wherein the deposit of conductive material comprises lead;
wherein lead is deposited on the first electrode and lead dioxide is deposited on the second electrode while charging in the first polarity; and
wherein lead dioxide is deposited on the first electrode while lead is being removed from the first electrode while charging in the second polarity, and lead is deposited on the second electrode while lead dioxide is being removed from the second electrode while charging in the second polarity.

5. The energy storage system of claim 2 , further comprising:
a controller coupled with the polarity reversal system, wherein the controller is configured to determine whether a change in operation of the energy storage system has a predefined relationship with a threshold, and to cause the polarity reversal system to reverse the voltage polarity in response to determining that the change in operation of the energy storage system has the predefined relationship with the threshold.

6. The energy storage system of claim 1 , further comprising:
a controller coupled with the polarity reversal system, wherein the controller is configured to monitor an operational parameter of the energy storage system and to determine whether the operational parameter of the energy storage system has a predefined relationship with a threshold, and to cause the polarity reversal system to reverse the voltage polarity in response to determining that the operational parameter has the predefined relationship with the threshold.

7. The energy storage system of claim 6 , wherein the operational parameter comprises a number of charge and discharge cycles and the threshold comprises a threshold number of cycles.

8. The energy storage system of claim 1 , further comprising:
a pump cooperated with the housing, wherein the electrolyte comprises a fluid and the pump is configured to cause the electrolyte to flow within the housing such that the electrolyte is in contact with the first electrode and the second electrode, and wherein there is no separator between the first electrode and the second electrode.

9. An energy storage system comprising:
a first electrode;
a second electrode without a separator between the first electrode and the second electrode;
an electrolyte;
a housing in which at least a portion of the first electrode, at least a portion of the second electrode and at least a portion of the electrolyte are positioned such that the electrolyte is in contact with at least the first electrode;
a polarity reversal system electrically coupled with the first electrode and the second electrode, wherein the polarity reversal system is configured to allow the energy storage system to operate while a first polarity is established across the first electrode and the second electrode to repeatedly charge and discharge electrical energy while operating in the first polarity providing power to a load configured to be coupled to the first electrode and the second electrode, and the polarity reversal system is configured to reverse the voltage polarity across the first electrode and the second electrode to a second polarity that is opposite the first polarity to allow the energy storage system to continue to operate while the second polarity is established across the first electrode and the second electrode to continue to repeatedly charge and discharge electrical energy while operating in the second polarity providing power to the load;
multiple first electrodes and multiple second electrodes;
multiple energy storage units electrically cooperated to provide electrical energy to the load, wherein each energy storage unit of the multiple energy storage units comprises one of the plurality of the first electrode and one of the plurality of the second electrode; and
multiple stacks, wherein each stack of the multiple stacks comprises a plurality of energy storage units of the multiple energy storage units, and wherein the polarity reversal system is further configured to reverse the polarity of each energy storage unit of a first stack of the multiple stacks to operate in the second polarity while maintaining energy storage unit of a second stack of the multiple stacks in the first polarity to operate in the first polarity.

10. A method of providing electrical energy, the method comprising:
repeatedly charging and discharging a first energy storage unit while in a first polarity to provide electrical power during the discharging to a load configured to be coupled with the first energy storage unit, wherein the energy storage unit comprises a first electrode and a second e

Assignees

• General Atomics

Inventors

• Sathrum Aaron J

Classifications

• H02J7/865

  Battery or charger load switching, e.g. concurrent charging and load supply (H02J7/50 takes precedence) · CPC title

• Y02E60/126

  Cross-Sectional Technologies · mapped topic

• H01M2/342 Primary

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H01M10/06 Primary

  Lead-acid accumulators (semi-lead accumulators H01M10/20) · CPC title

• H02J7/0068

  Electricity · mapped topic