“A team of researchers at Harvard University claimed to have developed a new ‘flow’ battery that can store energy in organic molecules dissolved in PH-neutral water,” Graeme Burton reports for V3. “The researchers claim that the technique may not only enable the development of safe, non-toxic batteries, but batteries that can last for as long as ten years.”
“However, rather than solving the problem of exploding Samsung Galaxy Note 7s, the development, they suggest, would be more suitable used on a large scale for energy storage in the renewables sector,” Burton reports. “By modifying the structures of molecules used in the positive and negative electrolyte solutions, and making them water soluble, the Harvard team claim that it was able to engineer a battery that loses only one per cent of its capacity per 1000 cycles.”
Burton reports, “The technique should also cut costs, which would help to make renewable energy more competitive, as well as more reliable.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Good news for solar, wind, and other renewables!
SEE ALSO:
Apple expands renewable energy, new environmental initiatives in China – May 10, 2015
Tech giant Apple goes green with renewable energy – April 25, 2014
Apple pushes environmental efforts ahead of Earth Day – April 21, 2014
Greenpeace: Apple leading the way in creating a greener, more sustainable internet – April 2, 2014
Apple plans Nevada solar farm to generate clean power for data center – July 2, 2013
Apple now gets 75 percent of its total power needs from renewable energy – March 21, 2013
Apple’s NC and Oregon data centers to use 100 percent renewable energy – May 17, 2012
Bloom Energy confirms they will supply fuel cells for Apple’s North Carolina data center – April 30, 2012
New aerial images of Apple’s planned NC fuel cell, solar farms published – April 7, 2012
Apple’s massive fuel cell energy project to be largest in the U.S. – April 4, 2012
Apple plans USA’s largest private fuel cell energy project in North Carolina – April 1, 2012
How Apple took the lead on the environment – February 22, 2012
Apple patent application reveals next-gen fuel cell powered Macs and iOS devices – December 22, 2011
Apple’s Mothership campus solar roof will be among biggest in U.S. – December 7, 2011
Apple working with US company, Leaf Solar Power, on North Carolina solar farm – November 8, 2011
Apple patent app details highly-advanced hydrogen fuel cells to power portable devices – October 20, 2011
Apple building huge solar farm around its billion-dollar North Carolina data center – October 26, 2011
Is this technology the holy grail of battery storage? If so it makes Teslas Giga factory look redundant.
More likely it is just one more “breakthrough” anouncment that eventually goes nowhere. Or “more research is needed” and that will take ten years or so. The technology literature is filled with all sorts of “promising approaches” that are here today and gone tomorrow. It would be nice if I was wrong but history is not so encouraging.
These types of break throughs mean EVERYTHING. Yes it may take 10 years to make an impact on the market but batteries are a disaster for the environment. Very rarely does a new technology come to the mass market in less than 7 years. Think what cell phone and batteries were like in 2007 – in 2027 we will have some remarkable upgrades. 3 days is all we really need – 3 DAYS of “total usage” storage for wind or solar to re make the power grid and make a significant impact on the environment (not climate change nonsense) but on the carbon emissions, chemical waste, and mining.
Yeah but we’ve gotten research-based battery breakthroughs every 6 months around here for as long as I can remember. Dave’s right. It’s a long way from something interesting in a lab to a shipping product.
Yes, Tom, you have stated good reasons why we hope for a battery breakthrough. But can somebody create that breakthrough? That is what we want to know. (I don’t put much faith in the press-release of a Harvard researcher seeking funding for their next grant)
Probably a grant siphon.
The key is SIZE of storage unit. For your house, a pool is fine for a battery. For your pocket, power density is critical.
These batteries are being developed for domestic power storage. They are planning to sell batteries with a capacity of 5 to 20 kWh later this year. I’ve not seen any indication of what they are likely to cost. The report I’m referring to was published in 2015 so it’s not clear if they’re on track for getting to market this year.
In it’s present form it doesn’t seem to be a technology suited for hand held portable applications.
What is the relative energy density compared to li-ion, li-poly Batteries…. … that’s key to the holy grail solution.
Exactly. How will I power my Apple designed phaser at invading space aliens without a high energy density battery?
“Another advantage claimed for organic flow batteries is the high solubility of quinones in aqueous solutions, allowing for energy densities that are 2-3 times higher than lead-acid, lithium-ion, and vanadium redox flow chemistries.”
https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/harvards-organic-flow-battery-under-development-in-europe
👍 cool stuff
How many times have we heard about amazing new battery advances that will make lithium ion batteries obsolete? How many of these have panned out?
uuuhhh old guys like me remember in the early 2000’s when they were saying these new “Lithium Batteries” were going to make our Ni-Cad obsolete. I remember articles telling everyone that it wouldn’t happen because there wasn’t enough lithium and it was FAR too expensive to produce. Change is coming. Lithium Batteries will be replaced hopefully by something a little more earth friendly.
Sure, there has been a lot of hype about the next big thing in batteries over the years, and the vast majority of the hype was crap. Despite that fact, the industry developed several new battery chemistries over the last couple of decades and engineering Li-ion and Li-polymer to be very effective. I have no doubt that better batteries are already in development. But it will probably take years to commercialize the next breakthrough.
This article is about flow batteries. The idea is that the battery anode/cathode and electron exchange elements are sized to meet power requirement in Watts (Joules per second). The amount of fluid is driven by energy capacity in Joules which can also be expressed in terms of Watt-hours or kWh.
A flow battery could be very useful as an industrial or residential battery. The fluid tank would be sized for the desired energy capacity – say 24kWh and the battery would be sized by the peak power requirement – say 3 kW or so for a home. In industrial applications, the tanks could hold thousands of gallons of fluid and larger batteries or large arrays of batteries would be utilized to meet power requirements.
The key issue is the toxicity of the fluid and the ability to recycle/regenerate the fluid.
You’re pretty well right on most of your points there and clearly understand what this battery is intended for. These flow batteries are being developed for domestic storage with a maximum output of around 5kW with a capacity of 20kWh.
The organic quinone molecules used as a basis for the electrolyte are natural, organic products that present little or no health risk. Those molecules are also highly stable, even at elevated temperatures, and are less likely than other electrolyte options to cross the battery membrane, thanks to the organic molecules’ size and charge. The battery also uses other inexpensive elements, such as carbon electrodes.
It looks like a very promising development with excellent green credentials too because the key component is biodegradable and wouldn’t be a potential hazard in the case of an accident, or when the system had to be decommissioned.
For now I’ll put this in the same category as sapphire.
The only place these batteries will work is in large scale energy storage systems. You will never see one in a phone or laptop.
Water-based electrolytes are well-known and there are many examples. The issue is not the longevity/cycle life, it’s the voltage of the battery. Any water-based battery is limited in the voltage it can deliver because water will start to disproportionate into hydrogen and oxygen a -1.23 V. Which means you can never make one of these batteries with greater voltage than that, period.
The other consideration is that the charge carrier density is lower than traditional batteries, which means the current it can deliver is also far lower than what you get from today’s laptop batteries.
A lightweight high energy replacement for a lithium battery is something the world is waiting for. If you know how to make one, a billion dollar industry is just waiting to rise around your invention. I hope someone fight=res it out.
Figures it out.
What is the energy density of this supposed breakthrough? That has been the Achilles Heel of everything that proposes to replace fossil fuels.
Let’s see it in action and see how BIG it is. There’s a new New NEW! BATTERY! announcement once a month. Rarely do they pan out.
Remember the BIG! HYPE! about hydrogen fuel cells? Still waiting…
Flow batteries rely on massive tanks this is not small batteries for cars or phones. also this tech is already being sold by a company in the USA who makes them its called “The salt water battery” they use water as the electrolite (Aquion energy)
its exactly the same thing they are saying and the american army are already buying and using them.