As previously noted in the blog, the Tissandier Brothers flew their Siemens-powered electric airship in 1883 using a flow battery of their own design for energy storage. This technology gets a lot of attention for grid-based energy storage, but might have use in more mobile applications. Nano Flow Cell Technologies in Switzerland, for instance, used different salt waters to power their Quant and Quantino automobiles. Howard Handelman, a regular reader of the blog, shared the following two researches into modernizing flow cells. Stanford and Harvard researchers both cooked up different ingredients than one would normally find in a flow battery. Both groups achieved better than average performance and longevity. Stanford’s Liquid Metal Approach Stanford’s battery uses liquid metal that more than doubles the maximum voltage of conventional flow batteries. Things happen at normal temperatures, unlike flow batteries that need extremely high temperatures. The metals used are low-cost and non-toxic, unlike the dangerous fluids used in other flow batteries. William Chueh, …
