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Performance of vanadium-oxygen redox fuel cell

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Abstract

A promising approach to improving the energy density of the all-vanadium redox flow battery while also saving on raw materials costs, is to eliminate the positive half-cell electrolyte and replace it with an air electrode to produce a hybrid vanadium–oxygen redox fuel cell (VOFC). This concept was initially proposed by Kaneko et al. in 1992 and first evaluated at the University of New South Wales by Menictas and Skyllas-Kazacos in 1997. In this project the performance of the VOFC over a range of temperatures and using different types of membranes and air electrode assemblies was evaluated. Despite early problems with the membrane electrode assemblies that saw separation of the membrane due to swelling and expansion during hydration, with improved fabrication techniques, this problem was minimized and it was possible to operate a 5-cell VOFC system for a total of over 100 h without any deterioration in its performance.

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Acknowledgments

This work was originally funded by the New South Wales Department of Minerals and Energy through the State Energy Research and Development Fund.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Chemical Engineering, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, 2052, Australia

    Chris Menictas & Maria Skyllas-Kazacos

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  1. Chris Menictas
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  2. Maria Skyllas-Kazacos
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Correspondence to Maria Skyllas-Kazacos.

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Menictas, C., Skyllas-Kazacos, M. Performance of vanadium-oxygen redox fuel cell. J Appl Electrochem 41, 1223–1232 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10800-011-0342-8

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