Multi-physics Model for a Vanadium Redox Flow Battery

The raising global warming concerns, rising oil prices and the increasing electricity demand have led to an acceleration of the renewable energy contribution. Due to the fluctuating nature of renewable energy generation, the problem of matching the supply to meet the demand has emerged. Therefore, energy storage has become essential to compensate thisfluctuation. The all- vanadium redox-flow battery (VRB) is a promising and attractive candidate due to its long lifetime and the possibility of independent scale-up of nominal power and nominal energy. The present paper presents a VRB model accounting for the electrochemical reactions, pump losses, temperature changes within the VRB and aging prediction. The model is applicable for a wide range of different VRBs with different nominal power ratings, nominal capacities and different vanadium and sulfuric acid concentrations. The modeling results are discussed and proven to be consistent with current research in this field.