In the design of batteries, based on the principles of flow of liquid electrolyte from one reservoir to another (liquid flow battery), the commonly used valves and pumps, enabling the movement of the electrolyte. The electrolyte or electrolytes of two different types separated by an ionic membrane, move through the chamber with the electrodes which creates the electric potential.
The disadvantages of such batteries include the complexity of their design, but they have one undeniable advantage after all the electrolyte has flowed from one container to another, for reuse it is necessary to direct the fluid flow in the opposite direction. Using this principle, researchers from mit have created an “eternal” battery, the electrolyte flowing only under the influence of gravity. And in order to “recharge” the battery, you only need to turn it like a sandglass.
In the prototype batteries use a liquid electrolyte fills only one side of the battery, the second is filled with metal lithium. The researchers reported that the hybrid version is an intermediate version, designed to verify their idea. And in the very near future they are going to make a new prototype, inside of which will be only a liquid electrolyte. However, such a hybrid battery has a future, because this approach will allow you to create high-performance sources and energy storage device that will take the best features of solid state batteries and batteries with a liquid electrolyte.
The apparent simplicity of the design of the new battery is very deceptive. To create the scientists had to delve deeply into the subtleties of the flow of liquid to find the optimum composition of the liquid electrolyte and to develop the construction of the battery itself. But all your effort was worth the result, because the source of electrical energy is a simple and less expensive than other similar solutions.
The design of the new battery is a scalable, on its basis you can create arbitrarily large modular system, which will act as a buffer between intermittent sources of energy such as Sun and wind, and end users. “We managed to build a bridge between two very different areas between the dynamics of the motion of liquids and electrochemistry” – the researchers write, “In equipment for pumping liquids account for the bulk of the cost of liquid batteries. And our technology allows you to completely get rid of.
