This is what a vanadium redox flow battery looks like for teaching purposes. We use a very diluted vanadium solution here, on the one hand to make the four color transitions visible and on the other hand to keep the charging and discharging times low. The battery here has a very low energy density, but can be fully charged in 15 minutes. Yellow and purple colored vanadium solutions show a fully charged battery, green and blue solutions a fully discharged battery.
Here is an iron/iron redox flow battery set up for educational purposes. A Fe/Fe-RFB uses a green Fe(II) salt solution as the initial solution in the discharged state, whereby the solution is only slightly acidic. During the charging process, more brown iron(III) ions are formed in the positive solution. The negative solution becomes paler because the concentration of iron(II) ions in the solution decreases with the state of charge due to the deposition of elemental iron. As a result, the state of charge can also be detected very well here.
Today I met with the Dean of International Cooperation at UTS to discuss possible joint activities in collaboration with Fraunhofer and the University of New South Wales. We will undertake further reciprocal visits in the future and expand our joint activities.
Prof. Dr. Chris Menictas and I discussed today the possibilites of maker spaces for energy storage development and teaching.
I am attending this year’s 242nd Electrochemical Society Conference in Atlanta/USA with several presentations. One lecture is about the development and results of a vanadium/water electrolyser and the other lecture is an invited lecture to the Symposium in Honor of D. Noel Buckley on the results of iron/iron redox flow battery developments.
Update:
Spontaneously I had the opportunity to give another talk on flow battery developments at Fraunhofer ICT over the last 14 years. The talk took place in the symposium in honor to Robert Savinells 70th birthday.
