Particular embodiments described herein provide for an electrode for a battery. The electrode including a current collector frame and an electrode substrate coupled to the current collector frame. An electrically conductive adhesive layer can be between the current collector frame and the electrode substrate and the electrically conductive adhesive layer can include a polymer binder and a conductive filler. The electrode substrate includes a porous material and active electrode material within the porous material. The porous material is copper foam, nickel foam, stainless steel foam, titanium foam, carbon felt, carbon cloth, or a carbon paper conductive polymer. The active electrode material includes one or more of manganese oxide, nickel oxide, vanadium oxide, titanium oxide, iron oxide, zinc metal, lead oxide, or lead.

An organic flow battery having a positive electrode electrolyte containing organic compounds with extended conjugation and/or cyclic side chains is provided. The flow battery includes a positive electrode and a positive electrode electrolyte including first solvent and a first redox couple. The positive electrode electrolyte flows over and contacting the positive electrode. The first redox couple includes a first organic compound and a reduction product of the first organic compound. The flow battery also includes a negative electrode and a negative electrode electrolyte including a second solvent and a second redox couple. The negative electrode electrolyte flows g over and contacts the positive electrode. Typically, an ion exchange membrane is interposed between the positive electrode and the negative electrode Characteristically, the first organic compound resists crossover through the ion exchange membrane.

A bipolar flat element comprising a coating that contains expanded graphite and a binder, the coating being applied to at least one of the two primary surfaces of a flat, electrically conductive element.

Systems and methods for vanadium battery state-of-charge balance are disclosed. An example system includes a state-of-charge detection module, a state detection module, a control module and a plurality of vanadium battery modules in series. Each vanadium battery module includes positive and negative electrode electrolyte tanks, and a balance pipeline with a controllable switch between the positive and negative electrode electrolyte tanks of any two vanadium battery modules. The state-of-charge detection module detects and outputs the state-of-charge value of each vanadium battery module. The state detection module detects and outputs the charge and discharge states of the vanadium battery modules. The control module controls the vanadium battery modules to stop charging and discharging when the state-of-charge difference of any two vanadium battery modules is larger than a predetermined value, or controls the on-off state of the corresponding controllable switch according to the charging and discharging state and the state-of-charge difference value.

An energy storage system includes a vanadium redox battery that interfaces with a control system to optimize performance and efficiency. The control system calculates optimal pump speeds, electrolyte temperature ranges, and charge and discharge rates. The control system instructs the vanadium redox battery to operate in accordance with the prescribed parameters. The control system further calculates optimal temperature ranges and charge and discharge rates for the vanadium redox battery.

A redox battery energy storage system including multiple energy storage stacks having multiple reactor cells is disclosed. Each of the energy storage stacks may include an integrated DC/DC converter configured to convert an output voltage of the stacks to a higher output voltage. The output of the DC/DC converts may be coupled in parallel to an energy storage system output bus. By configuring the energy storage system in this manner, inefficiencies and losses caused by shunt electrical currents in the systems may be decreased.

Provided in this patent disclosure are a novel titanium redox flow battery having a nitrogen-enriched catalyst, and a binary redox flow battery comprised of one unit that converts electricity into chemical energy to be stored in electrolytes and a separate second unit that converts the chemical energy from electrolytes back into electricity.

A molten metal battery system includes a plurality of secondary cells electrically connected in series with each other and comprising a plurality of molten metal anodes arranged fluidly in parallel with each other. The system also includes a plurality of electrically isolated molten metal reservoirs, each of the molten metal reservoirs fluidly connected to a corresponding secondary cell of the plurality of secondary cells and configured to exchange molten metal with the corresponding secondary cell while preventing electrical shunt current from flowing between the plurality of secondary cells via the molten metal.

A method of determining a distribution of electrolytes in a flow battery includes providing a flow battery with a fixed amount of fluid electrolyte having a common electrochemically active specie, a portion of the fluid electrolyte serving as an anolyte and a remainder of the fluid electrolyte serving as a catholyte. An average oxidation state of the common electrochemically active specie is determined in the anolyte and the catholyte and, responsive to the determined average oxidation state, a molar ratio of the common electrochemically active specie between the anolyte and the catholyte is adjusted to increase an energy discharge capacity of the flow battery for the determined average oxidation state.

Methods and systems are provided for manufacturing a bipolar plate for a redox flow battery. In one example, the bipolar plate is fabricated by a roll-to-roll process. The bipolar plate includes a non-conductive substrate that is coupled to a negative electrode on a first surface and coupled to a positive electrode on a second surface, the first surface opposite of the second surface.