Flow Batteries From 1879 To 2022 And Beyond

We present a quantitative bibliometric study of flow battery technology from the first zinc-bromine cells in the 1870’s to megawatt vanadium RFB installations in the 2020’s. We emphasize, that the cost advantage of RFBs in multi-hour charge-discharge cycles is compromised by the inferior energy efficiency of these systems, and that there are limits on the efficiency improvement due to internal cross-over and the cost of power (at low current densities) and due to acceptable pressure drop (at high current densities). Differences between lithium-ion and vanadium redox flow batteries are discussed from the end-user perspective.