this video is brought to you by incognate there's no shortage of potential solutions to
the world's critical need for renewable energy storage but there is a shortage of accessible
and cheap resources to use for those Solutions with the limitations of materials like lithium
and Vanadium in mind it's logical to look for Alternatives that are basically Limitless how
about regular run-of-the-mill salt just a little sodium chloride actually dude it's solved that's
what I said sodium chloride redox flow batteries or rfps can exploit the abundance of elements
like sodium and iron one US company already has salt water batteries ready to go with at least
two others developing iron flow variations built effectively to run on Rust they promise to last
longer and be far cheaper than the competition so what happens if we go with the flow I'm Matt
Farrell welcome to undecided [Music] before we get into why regular old salt maybe a winning
ingredient to our energy storage needs it's important to understand what it's up against
two major problems hold back renewable energy intermittency and curtailment you could sum
it up as being an issue of feast or famine we can't rely on the forces of sunshine and
wind 24 7 and at the same time without proper infrastructure we lose out on a lot of power
when Supply overtakes demand to complete the renewable energy transition and cheapen energy
for everybody we need long-term storage for Excess power and that's where grid storage systems come
into play Lithium-ion batteries are a popular powerful option but they can be unstable both
in the cost of materials and on a chemical level it's just not feasible to rely on lithium-ion
as the primary storage option by comparison flow batteries are a lot cheaper and some chemistries
can lower or even eliminate the risk of fire ultimately each approach serves its own purpose
generally speaking Lithium-ion batteries are light and compact flow batteries tend to be broken
that said they're inherently scalable in ways that lithium-ion isn't now we've covered flow
batteries before both Vanadium and bromine but if RFB sounds more like a music genre than a battery
to you here's a quick rundown of how they work a redox flow battery or RFB takes the form of two
tanks a catholite and an analyte now these tanks surround a chamber that split down the middle and
the liquid electrolytes flow from the tanks into either side the process of reduction oxidation
also known as redox since the electrons from the catholite to the analyte when the battery
is being charged and the reverse happens when the battery is being discharged when it comes to the
design a major Edge that rfps offer is the direct control over their energy and storage capacities
as long as you have enough electrolyte you can theoretically increase the storage as much as you
want by increasing the size of the tanks and if you increase the number of electrode cell
Stacks or the middle bit between the tanks that means more power there's an overwhelming number
of variations in RFB electrolyte but Vanadium is currently the gold or maybe the rainbow standard
it has the capacity to exist in multiple oxidation states which allows Vanadium rfbs to function with
fewer electroactive components as a result of how the redox reaction works out vrfbs last longer
relative to other chemistries for more detailed look at the science behind this you can check out
our previous video on it here's where Vanadium like just pretty much everything else runs into
trouble and that's costs the element is notorious for its price volatility it's one of the most used
materials in the industrial sector like alloying steel so vanadium's Beauty and flexibility does
not come cheap according to a 2016 study the chemicals needed for vrfbs can represent nearly
60 percent of the overall cost of the system newer research shows that the prices have only gone up a
2021 study by the University of California Irvine found that electrolyte using Vanadium pentoxide
accounted for a whopping 80 percent of a vrfb's total cost now here's where things get salty
us-based company infinity turbine has proposed its cell Gen X flow battery is an answer to this
problem it functions the same way as any other RFB does except one of its tanks contains chlorine
gas dissolved into a proprietary electrolyte and the other is full of nothing but good old
sodium chloride and water in the company's words it's just add water but with salt now the source
could be the ocean geothermal brine power plant cooling ponds you get the idea now before I get
into what makes this salt battery so special I'd like to think incogni for sponsoring this portion
of today's video I've mentioned this before but I signed up for a newsletter from a small online
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receiving from companies that I've never heard of and that's because they sold my information to a
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for quite a while now and I'm very happy with the results I've noticed a difference if you
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cognity thanks to incognate and to all of you for supporting the channel now back to a very salty
battery now as you might expect taking advantage of the ubiquity of salt water means saving a lot
of money a 2022 US Department of energy study estimates that depending on the acid and grade
of the Vanadium used vrfb electrolytes can cost between 105 and 180 per kilowatt hour meanwhile
salgenex claims that the cost of its batteries electrolytes is less than five dollars per
kilowatt hour as for how the celgenex battery Stacks up to existing products on the market
infinity turbine claims that it's less expensive to acquire and faster to deploy than the Tesla
mega pack but notes that the mega pack involves less moving parts but the saltonx battery does
have a simplified configuration relative to other flow batteries and unlike most types of rfps the
salginx battery has no membrane separating the electrode instead they take advantage of the
natural immiscibility of the electrolytes fluids to keep the components separated think oil and
water on its website infinity turbine argues that the cell gen X's lack of a membrane saves huge
upfront purchase costs maintenance and consumable expenses the idea does hold water that's because
the batteries typically rely on ION permeable membranes to limit what's known as crossover
it's a crossover which can tank the battery's capacity and these membranes also play a big role
in the voltage and Energy Efficiency of the RFB striking this delicate balance is pricey to put
these costs into perspective a 2014 study found that the ion exchange membranes were undoubtedly
an expensive component of the flow batteries with their calculated price coming out to several times
more than the battery's plates and electrodes they estimated the future cost the membranes would drop
significantly but the cost range was still much higher relative to the rest of the battery's parts
economics aren't the only thing that South Nexus battery has going for it according to
their website they list saltwater flow batteries round-trip efficiency at 91 which is impressive
and on par with many lithium-ion battery chemistries the company also advertises an
energy density of 125.7 Watt hours per liter but it is important to note that's markedly less than
the average energy density of a lithium-based battery regardless of what kind figures from
the U.S national renewable energy laboratory or nrel between Lithium ion phosphate lithium nickel
Cobalt aluminum and lithium nickel manganese Cobalt you're looking at energy densities from
at least 210 Watt hours per liter to as high as 600 watt hours per liter however infinity
turbine has unique applications in store in March the company revealed its ongoing development of a
desalination system that uses the celgenex battery with this Tech the same movement of ions between
the electrodes that generates power would also produce fresh water at the same time now this
has big implications for places like cruise ship liners cargo ships and military bases and just
this month the company announced that the salginx redox process can also be adapted to produce
graphene for example the fiberglass and carbon fiber fabrication industry could essentially
use esselgenex battery as both a source of power and a graphene making machine infinity turbine
claims the savings would be serious cutting the cost of graphene from an average of 100
to 400 a gram to 1.25 cents a gram but take that with a grain of salt because that still has to
be proven out another American company is also experimenting with saltwater FBS and if you've
seen our previous video on floating solar it's doing so in a very familiar place in February ESS
and iron salt battery manufacturer announced its collaboration with the Turlock Irrigation District
a california-based utility as part of project Nexus the district's initiative is to install
solar panels over the state's irrigation canals ess's batteries will provide long duration energy
storage the plan is to finish Construction in 2024 ESS will also be installing iron
flow battery facilities in Sacramento California as part of a collaboration with the Sacramento
Municipal Utility District starting this year so what makes ess's energy Warehouse batteries so
special well like cell genex's battery it operates with a saltwater electrolyte but it's using iron
salts in the water instead which is particularly advantageous because iron is at least two orders
of magnitude more Bountiful than Vanadium we're talking about a crustal abundance of about 52
000 parts per million compared to 138. on top of that Vanadium is more difficult to substitute
and remember we really like it for our steel production now in contrast the ferrous chloride
that's present in the energy Warehouse electrolyte can actually be produced from steel making waste
the chemical cocktail and iron flow batteries has the potential to make use of the dregs that's left
behind what steel makers call pickle liquor which sounds like something you'd be drinking
while playing pickleball now so ironically what makes Vanadium expensive and difficult
to obtain is exactly why iron can be so easy to use in rfps where Vanadium electrolyte represent
as much as 80 percent of a flow battery's costs iron electrolyte makes up only about four percent
now iron flow batteries are also non-toxic which is obviously very helpful in light of the high
toxicity of vanadium oxides now ESS claims that its energy Warehouse reduces or eliminates the
need for hazardous permits for transport HVAC fire suppression and end-of-life Disposal planning this
is consistent with the conveniences of other flow batteries that use water-based electrolytes like
zinc bromine and just like other rfps iron salts and salt water batteries allow for higher degree
of safety in comparison with lithium ion you don't worry about thermal runaway when a battery
just isn't flammable in the first place as for longevity both the energy warehouse and celgenex
boast a life expectancy of about 25 years the energy Warehouse also knocks other batteries out
of the park in terms of cycle life and broadly speaking the number of cycles of lithium-ion
battery can last is usually limited to just over one thousand to two thousand Cycles zinc bromine
batteries can last up to about 5000 cycles and ESS holds that energy Warehouse can last for over 20
000 Cycles that's truly the battery that just keeps on going the duration is another leg up
that ESS claims over lithium-ion which translates into lower costs the company estimates that past
the four hour storage duration Mark its iron flow batteries remain cheaper than lithium-ion all the
way up to their maximum of 12 hours when you take all of this into account you can see why a
lot of people are excited about the potential for salt and iron in rfps readily available materials
that are cheap and safe which could help answer the growing demand for energy storage and not to
get salty here but when someone says to me just go fill in your favorite tech here like just go
nuclear just go solar just go whatever it is it drives me a little nuts there's not one energy
storage or generation option to rule them all here we need a wide array of options to satisfy
all the different use cases that we have and this salty one may be a great one to add to
the mix even if it's just for flavor so what do you think jump in the comments and let me know
and be sure to check out my follow-up podcast still to be determined we'll be discussing some
of your feedback and thanks to all my patrons who get ad-free versions of every video and a welcome
to New supporter plus member dryfrog and thanks to all of you for watching see in the next one