Honeywell, an international energy giant, announced on October 26th that it is developing a liquid flow battery technology that uses a water-based system to eliminate fire hazards, and uses non rare earth elements (such as vanadium) in electrolytes to reduce costs. It is suitable for 6-12 hour energy storage applications, namely long-term energy storage. Honeywell stated that the company has been secretly developing the flow battery technology for several years, but has not yet disclosed the specific electrolyte composition, which has attracted widespread attention and speculation.

We conducted some searches on Honeywell's patent applications and tried several keywords such as "Flowbattery", "Energy storage", "Electrical", "Electrolyte", etc., but found nothing. As Honeywell officially announced, the research and development of this technology was previously strictly confidential, so there have been no news reports or patent applications. Subsequently, a keyword search was conducted on the recruitment positions previously published by Honeywell, and no recruitment information related to flow battery was found. The author himself has been working in the field of liquid flow for ten years and has never heard of Honeywell developing liquid flow battery technology. It can only be said that they keep it too confidential.

However, Honeywell's announcement of this technology at this time is partly due to the emerging market demand for long-term energy storage, as mentioned in Honeywell's press release: industry data shows that by 2030, the US long-term energy storage market will reach $13.7 billion, requiring no less than 115GW of energy storage power to support wind and solar power generation. On the other hand, it may also be because the patents they applied for earlier may soon end their 18 month confidentiality period and become public information. So, perhaps in one or two months, we will be able to determine the specific electrolyte composition of the technology through publicly available patent information.

Honeywell plans to collaborate with a US grid company, Duke Energy, to test a 400kWh experimental reactor in 2022. If calculated based on an 8-hour energy storage time, the power of the experimental reactor will be 50kW. What is the scale of this experimental pile? Please refer to the following diagram for our company's 25kW all vanadium flow battery demonstration stack (1.4m x 0.8m x 0.6m). Therefore, the 50kW experimental stack is at least twice the size of the image stack. If the experimental reactor testing goes smoothly, Honeywell will start constructing a demonstration project with a total capacity of 60MWh in 2023.


Ben Owens, the Vice President of Honeywell responsible for this project, provided more information in an interview with reporters after the press conference. Our excerpts are as follows:

Reporter: When people hear about flow batteries, the first thing that comes to mind is all vanadium flow batteries. Can you provide more information about this technology?

Owens: I can't reveal any more information about electrolytes today, but I can tell you that it doesn't use rare earth elements, it has abundant reserves and is not expensive, making it easy to scale up production.

Reporter: When do you expect long-term energy storage to meet large-scale market demand?

Owens: The current energy storage market is still dominated by lithium batteries, and we have been working on lithium battery energy storage products. However, they can only be used in scenarios where the discharge time does not exceed 4 hours. With the increasing penetration rate of wind and solar power generation, we have obtained a definite prediction from both the power grid company and our own model that energy storage technology for 8 to 10 hours or even longer for 12 hours will be the main driving force of the future energy storage market. We will also need some seasonal peak shaving energy storage technology, which is likely to be achieved through hydrogen storage technology. But our model shows that if we want wind and solar power generation to account for more than half of the grid capacity, the technology of energy storage lasting up to 12 hours is essential, which is why we have decided to enter the field of long-term energy storage technology. We have seen the future development rhythm of wind and solar power generation, the speed of market progress, and it is just right for us to enter the field of long-term energy storage technology during this period. It is neither too early nor too late, which is also the reason why we want to announce this technology.

Reporter: The biggest selling point when promoting liquid flow technology is its safety. Why do current power companies mainly choose lithium battery energy storage products instead of large-scale construction of flow batteries?

Owens: Our Honeywell offers both lithium batteries and flow batteries. Although lithium batteries have a much higher energy density, they have many safety concerns, requiring additional cooling systems, fire protection systems, gas detection systems, and more. The addition of many control systems means an increase in cost. So I believe that from another perspective, security is still a matter of cost. If we didn't need to install so many safety and control systems for lithium batteries, perhaps we wouldn't need to look for other safer alternative technologies. However, I believe that the large-scale application of lithium batteries in the field of energy storage still poses significant challenges, as both cost and safety are difficult issues to solve.

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Reference:
one https://www.honeywell.com/us/en/press/2021/10/honeywell-introduces-new-flow-battery-technology-to-provide-safer-durable-solution-for-large-scale-renewable-energy-storage
two https://www.energy-storage.news/we-like-its-ability-to-scale-honeywell-targets-gigawatt-scale-storage-opportunity-with-flow-battery/

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Introduction to ZH Energy Storage Company:
Shenzhen ZH Energy Storage Technology Co., Ltd. is committed to the research and development, promotion, and application of energy storage technology, aiming to help achieve China's goal of "carbon neutrality" through the application of electrochemical energy storage technology. In the early stages of development, the company focused on providing technical support and consulting services to the Chinese energy storage market by leveraging its accumulated industry experience and outstanding research and development capabilities in the field of energy storage. At the same time, the company focuses on investigating and analyzing the Chinese energy storage market, developing or introducing the most advanced and effective energy storage technologies for the Chinese market, including but not limited to: liquid flow battery systems, lithium-ion battery materials, fuel cells, and ion exchange membranes.