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Concept
Zinc–bromine battery
Summary
A zinc–bromine battery is a rechargeable battery system that uses the reaction between zinc metal and bromine to produce electric current, with an electrolyte composed of an aqueous solution of zinc bromide. Zinc has long been used as the negative electrode of primary cells. It is a widely available, relatively inexpensive metal. It is rather stable in contact with neutral and alkaline aqueous solutions. For this reason it is used today in zinc–carbon and alkaline primaries.
The leading potential application is stationary energy storage, either for the grid, or for domestic or stand-alone power systems. The aqueous electrolyte makes the system less prone to overheating and fire compared with lithium-ion battery systems.
Zinc–bromine batteries can be split into two groups: flow batteries and non-flow batteries.
Redflow (Australia) and Primus Power (US) are active in commercialising flow batteries, while Gelion (Australia) and EOS Energy Enterprises (US) are developing and commercialising non-flow systems.
Zinc–bromine batteries share six advantages over lithium-ion storage systems:
100% depth of discharge capability on a daily basis.
Little capacity degradation, enabling 5000+ cycles
Low fire risk, since the electrolytes are non-flammable
No need for cooling systems
Low-cost and readily available battery materials
Easy end-of-life recycling using existing processes
They share four disadvantages:
Lower energy density
Lower round-trip efficiency (partially offset by the energy needed to run cooling systems).
The need to be fully discharged every few days to prevent zinc dendrites, which can puncture the separator.
Lower charge and discharge rates
These features make zinc–bromine batteries unsuitable for many mobile applications (that typically require high charge/discharge rates and low weight), but suitable for stationary energy storage applications such as daily cycling to support solar power generation, off-grid systems, and load shifting.
The zinc–bromine flow battery (ZBRFB) is a hybrid flow battery.
Official source
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