A Thermally‐Regenerative Ammonia‐Based Flow Battery for Electrical Energy Recovery from Waste Heat

• DOI: 10.1002/cssc.201501513
• Publication Date: 2016-03-19T01:14:18Z
• Authors: Xiuping Zhu; Mohammad Rahimi; Christopher A. Go...; Bruce Logan
• Keywords: Flow battery; Power density; Carnot cycle; Thermal energy; Maximum power principle; Energy transformation

Abstract Large amounts of low‐grade waste heat (temperatures <130 °C) are released during many industrial, geothermal, and solar‐based processes. Using thermally‐regenerative ammonia solutions, thermal energy can be converted to electricity in battery systems. To improve reactor efficiency, a compact, ammonia‐based flow (AFB) was developed tested at different solution concentrations, rates, cell pairs, circuit connections. The AFB achieved maximum power density 45 W m −2 (15 kW −3 ) an 1260 Wh anolyte , with efficiency 0.7 % (5 relative the Carnot efficiency). densities were greater than those previously reported for thermoelectrochemical salinity‐gradient technologies, voltage or current could increased using stacked cells. These results demonstrated that is promising technology convert electricity.