The Chinese Academy of Engineering journal "China Engineering Science" published an article titled "Demand Prediction and Supply Analysis of New Energy Storage Metal Vanadium Resources" by Long Tao, an assistant researcher at the Institute of Mineral Resources, Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences, and other researchers in the third issue of 2024.

The article analyzes the development trend of vanadium flow batteries in the future, setting up three scenarios: high-speed development, reference, and low-speed development. Combined with the unit vanadium consumption of vanadium flow batteries, it predicts the demand trend of vanadium resources in the energy storage field under different scenarios in the future. At the same time, combined with the advantages of vanadium flow batteries, it is pointed out that:

1. With the rapid development of the energy storage industry, vanadium flow batteries have the conditions for industrial application, and have high cost-effectiveness and good economy;

2. It emphasizes that vanadium flow batteries are water-based cyclic system batteries, with a dilute sulfuric acid aqueous solution of vanadium ions as the electrolyte. They can work at room temperature (5-40 ℃) without solid-state reactions during the charging and discharging process. As long as the charging and discharging cut-off voltage is controlled and the storage space of the battery system is well ventilated, it is inherently safe and has no hidden dangers such as fire and explosion. This is the most prominent advantage of vanadium flow batteries compared to other electrochemical batteries, with a longer duration (>4 hours) and simple expansion. It is considered suitable for applications that require large-scale, high-capacity, and long-term energy storage equipment;

3. The author found through practical research that the actual price of vanadium flow battery energy storage systems varies with different energy storage durations. As the energy storage duration increases, the price of the electrolyte energy storage system is shared more by the unit, resulting in lower actual costs. Therefore, vanadium flow batteries have lower lifecycle costs and better economic efficiency, making them the best choice for high-power, high-capacity, and long-term energy storage technologies.

At the same time, in response to the market "pain points" of core key materials in the vanadium flow battery industry, the following development suggestions are proposed: to improve the technological research and development efforts of vanadium flow batteries through technological innovation, such as increasing the concentration of electrolytes and increasing the energy density of vanadium flow batteries; Develop and optimize accessory materials such as electrodes, membranes, and bipolar plates, and develop high-performance and low-cost key materials, such as preparing thinner, more three-dimensional structured, and highly active electrode materials; Improve the stability and ion selectivity of domestic membranes, and promote their industrial application.

Finally, the study found that the demand for vanadium resources will grow rapidly in the future, especially in high growth scenarios. The global demand for vanadium resources in 2040 will increase by 276-338 times compared to 2021; Analyzing the global supply of vanadium resources, it is believed that the demand prospects for vanadium flow batteries are promising. With the rapid development of vanadium flow batteries, vanadium resources will be in short supply in the future.

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