“Unexpected” behaviour of the internal resistance of a vanadium redox flow battery

• The internal cell resistance of vanadium redox flow batteries is studied.
• A theoretical battery model based on the Butler–Volmer equation is constructed.
• A decrease of the internal resistance versus the electric current is found.
• The energy efficiency versus the electric current is measured and calculated.

This article presents the results of experimental and theoretical studies of energy losses owing to the internal resistance of vanadium redox flow batteries (VRFBs). A dependence of the internal cell resistance (ICR) on the electric current was measured and calculated. During the cyclic operation of a test battery, the internal resistance was halved by increasing the electric current from 3 A to 9 A. This is due to a strongly non-linear dependence of an over-potential of the electrochemical reactions on the current density. However, the energy efficiency does not increase due to a squared dependence of the energy losses on the increasing electric current. The energy efficiency of the test battery versus the electric current was measured and simulated. The deviation between the simulation results and experimental data is less than ±3.5%.