Modeling of Zinc Bromine redox flow battery with application to channel design

摘要

Here we present a 2-D combined mass transfer and electrochemical model of a zinc bromine redox flow battery (ZBFB). The model is successfully validated against experimental data. The model also includes a 3-D flow channel submodel, which is used to analyze the effects of flow conditions on battery performance. A comprehensive analysis of the effects of flow is included. We find that the zinc deposition decreases with flow distance during charging, and the opposite for the zinc de-plating process during discharging. The simulations also show that multiple curved flow channels can slightly improve the voltage efficiency of the ZBFB while the coulombic and energy efficiencies are slightly reduced. The model can be used for improving ZBFB design.