You can read BALIHT’s third newsletter by following this link.
Organic redox flow batteries (oRFBs) are one of the most promising approaches to sustaining a grid powered by the sun and wind, improving grid flexibility and stability and providing high-performance charging points for electric cars. BALIHT project aims to design a new kind of oRFB working at warm temperatures with a higher energy efficiency.
Our project started one and a half year ago, which means that it reached halftime of this duration. It is therefore an appropriate time to look back to what has been achieved so far in our project, and to address the challenges and further developments waiting for us for the next 18 months. As an EU-funded project under H2020 frame-programme, we are proud that the European Commission assessed and validated the project execution and management during the first half of the project.
Over the past months, BALIHT partners strengthened their commitment to the objectives of the project, despite the challenges posed by the extraordinary pandemic breakout last year. The partners involved in the selection and development of materials or components for the functioning of the battery have been dedicating their time to reach the requirements defined in the early stages of the project. Thanks to these efforts, it is possible to continue on time with the installation and validation of the prototype in the upcoming months. Moreover, a preliminary economic assessment was conducted for this battery, both for BALIHT’s prototype and for a series production. The strategy for the life cycle assessment of the BALIHT’s battery was defined based on a deep literature review. The system boundaries and data needs for the environmental and social assessment are defined and shared among the consortium partners.
The consortium is highly active on communicating both the progresses of the project and other related news affecting redox flow batteries. Indeed, BALIHT project joined in January 2021 the FLORES initiative (Flow Battery Research Initiatives) to boost the networking of the RFB related projects. Our involvement in FLORES allowed us to host last July a workshop at the International Flow Battery Forum, a global event dedicated to RFBs gathering experts and academics from all around the world. Our project is also going through an extensive work on the follow-up of our exploitation roadmap and the definition of business models and plans for the key exploitable results and tentative project outputs.
BALIHT project is now entering the most challenging but exciting phase: the integration, installation and validation of the final organic redox flow battery. The integration of the different tailored and optimised components in a single functional battery to be tested under real conditions will be the most fascinating achievement. We are optimistic that our prototype will validate the potential of sustainable organic electrolytes use in redox flow batteries fully operating in warm environments. The economic, environmental and social performances of this new oRFB will be closely monitored and assessed, to make sure that this oRFB is a sustainable and efficient solution to be used for energy storage applications.
Thus, there is yet a lot of work to do to achieve our expected results and make this project successful. But we are confident that the outcomes of BALIHT will be positive, with a fully functional organic redox flow battery. We cannot wait to provide an effective technological solution to support Europe’s ambitions to become the first climate-neutral continent by providing reliable energy supply from renewable energy!
In light of our past achievements and promising developments to come, we hope that this third newsletter will give you a greater interest in our project, and in redox flow batteries as a whole!
Javier Peña — AIMPLAS, Project Coordinator
You can read BALIHT’s third newsletter by following this link.