Safety and durability concerns caused by surface and interface instabilities of high-surface-activity energy materials are challenging modern electrochemical energy conversion and storage systems. I will present our most recent representative works on the surface and interface engineering of functional materials for energy devices with greatly improved safety under harsh operating conditions such as fast charging at high currents.

We perform a techno-economic investigation of chemistry design for redox flow batteries (RFBs). Specifically, we utilize levelized cost of storage modeling and supply chain analyses to explore the tradeoffs between upfront and long-term costs for various classes of RFB chemistries. Materials production studies also facilitate parallel considerations of scalability. The goal of this work is to inform research and development and bolster opportunities for RFB deployment.

Carbonaceous porous electrodes are performance-defining components of redox flow batteries as they provide surfaces for electrochemical reactions, conduct electrons and heat, and distributing fluids. However, our current arsenal of materials is limited to fibrous electrodes which have not been tailored to the unique challenges of redox flow batteries. Thus, there is the need to develop novel material sets with precise control over microstructure and composition, while employing synthetic methods that are compatible with large scale manufacturing. In this presentation, I will discuss a novel approach to synthesize porous electrodes suitable for redox flow batteries.

Within this presentation results of the project EMILAS are presented, in which used electric vehicle batteries are assembled as a buffer storage, together with a sophisticated energy management system for storing PV and CHP electricity in apartment buildings with the objective to increase self-sufficiency. Furthermore, this buffer storage allows flexible charging of electric vehicles in the garage of the building. Besides the system concept itself, efficient methods for qualification of used electric vehicle batteries are essential and will be discussed in this presentation as well.

While DC-fast charge (DCFC) infrastructure represents a fundamental step for the adoption of electric vehicles (EVs), the uncoordinated charging events could result in inefficient and unstable utilization of the grid. EV second life batteries (SLBs) are providing a low-cost energy storage solution for peak-shaving in DCFC installations and can generate additional revenue streams by participating in grid services, such as frequency regulation and demand response programs.

Electric vehicle batteries can be reused for grid energy storage systems. However, second life battery modules can have an imbalanced state of health (SOH) which can reduce battery safety, life, and depth of discharge. This work evaluates the economics of a novel Heterogeneous Unifying Battery reconditioning system that cycles battery modules to unify cells’ SOH to improve their second life battery performance to then be used for grid energy services.