On September 23rd, the US Department of Energy announced a funding of $17.9 million to support four US companies in the development of long-term energy storage flow battery production technology. This project aims to expand the US power grid's ability to absorb clean energy while also providing more stable power services to remote and underdeveloped areas. Its overall goal is to achieve carbon neutrality in the United States by 2050.



US Secretary of Energy Jennifer M. Granholm said, "We are advancing the development of renewable energy at the speed of light, and long-term energy storage technology is a key technology to achieve an increase in the proportion of renewable energy. The Department of Energy will increase support for the development of energy storage technology and vigorously promote our newly launched 'Social Energy Storage Equality Action' to help underdeveloped areas build electricity services that are more resistant to disaster events, provide more jobs, and ensure that all Americans can enjoy cleaner and healthier energy."



Liquid flow battery is an electrochemical energy storage technology that achieves more flexible system design by separating the reactor and energy storage electrolyte. It can make the system cost lower, operate more flexibly and safely, and have more diverse application scenarios. The selected companies will accelerate the development of large-scale production technologies for various components of liquid flow battery systems, and use these mass-produced components to build medium-sized demonstration stations for industrial and power grid applications. The four selected companies include:



1. Large Clean Energy and partners (headquartered in Massachusetts) will receive a funding of $4.19 million to develop efficient production processes for liquid flow systems to reduce the installation cost of liquid flow batteries and enable their wider application in power grid systems. Largo Clean Energy is a clean energy company established by Canada's Largo Resources Group in December last year after acquiring the American company Vionx Flow Battery. Vionx is a company established by Premium Power in the United States in 2016 using a patent authorization from United Technologies, specializing in the production of all vanadium flow batteries. United Technologies' all vanadium flow batteries were developed by the author at the company from 2012 to 2018.


2. TreadStone Technologies, Inc. and partners (headquartered in New Jersey) will receive $4.99 million in funding to develop a steel strip casting process that can continuously produce metal electrodes and bipolar conductive plates. TreadStone was founded by Chinese company Conghua Wang in 2006. Over the past decade, its main technology has been the development of protective coatings for metal electrodes in corrosive environments. This coating can be widely used in fuel cells, electrolysis devices, flow cells, and other systems.


3. OTORO Energy Inc. and partners (headquartered in Colorado) will receive $4.14 million in funding to develop a liquid flow system based on chelated metal electrolytes to reduce system costs, improve performance, and explore scaled up production processes. OTORO was just founded in September last year by Michael Marshak, a professor in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Colorado. The professor graduated with a PhD from the Michael Aziz team at Harvard University, which is renowned for its research on organic electrolyte flow systems. By consulting Professor Marshak's paper, it is inferred that the liquid flow system may use a chromium iron electrolyte system.


4. Quino Energy, Inc. and partners (headquartered in California) will receive $4.58 million in funding to develop liquid flow battery systems based on organic electrolytes, mainly focusing on cost reduction, capacity improvement, and continuous production processes for organic electrolytes. Quino Energy was just established in May this year, and its founders were all students and postdoctoral fellows from the Michael Aziz group at Harvard University. They were contacted for an award-winning project, which shows that Professor Aziz's influence in the field of liquid flow batteries in the United States is different. And the organic electrolyte technology based on Quino can be traced back to the period of 2016-2018. In the innovative liquid flow system research and development project funded by the US Department of Energy led by United Technologies, the Harvard Aziz team, as one of the subordinate members, mainly focused on the Quino electrolyte direction and achieved good research and development results at the end of the project. After a few years, we have finally entered the stage of commercialization, which is commendable.



The funding for liquid flow battery technology this time is part of the "Energy Storage Challenge" initiative launched by the US Department of Energy, which will play an extremely important role in reducing long-term energy storage costs by 90% by the end of this century.



The author will hold an online lecture on Sunday, September 26th from 20:00 to 21:30 Beijing time, to provide a detailed introduction to international cutting-edge electrochemical energy storage technologies, including prominent liquid flow technology companies in the United States in recent years. The author will also conduct some preliminary analysis of the cost calculation of various energy storage systems to help everyone explore the development direction of long-term energy storage technology in the future. Please scan the QR code in the picture below to join the online lecture WeChat group and obtain the lecture live streaming link.





**The article is only for communication, because the official account can not open the message function, if you have questions or suggestions, please send a message to the official account, and we will reply as soon as possible, thank you! Scan the following QR code to follow ZH Energy Storage official account.





Reference:

one https://www.energy.gov/eere/articles/department-energy-invests-179-million-long-duration-energy-storage-technologies



Related articles:

The prospect and problems of cascading utilization of retired power batteries to energy storage

How to use technology to eliminate hidden dangers in an energy storage explosion accident that occurred in Beijing?

The latest technological progress of Quantum Scape solid-state batteries: 10-layer Pouch Cell



Author Introduction:

Dr. Xie Wei, Bachelor and Master of Materials Science from Tsinghua University, and Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Texas (Austin) in the United States. Mainly engaged in the development of energy storage batteries, has held important positions in multinational corporations and startups, led multiple research and development projects funded by the US Department of Energy, and won the 2013 US Annual 100 Best Research and Development Technology Award. Published 17 papers in top journals in materials science and energy storage, served as a reviewer for 5 international journals, and has applied for 17 international invention patents.



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.