조국진·박진수
상명대학교 공과대학 환경공학과
Vanadium redox flow battery (VRFB) is an energy conversion device in which charging
and discharging are alternatively carried out by oxidation and reduction reactions of vanadium
ions with different oxidation states. VRFB consists of electrolyte, electrode, ion-exchange membrane,
etc. The role of ion-exchange membranes in VRFB separates anolyte and catholyte and
provides a high conductivity to hydrogen ions. Recently much attention has been devoted to
develop ideal ion-exchange membranes for VRFB. A number of developed ion-exchange membranes
should be evaluated to find out ideal ion-exchange membranes for VRFB. Long-term durability
test is a crucial characterization of ion-exchange membranes for commercialization, but is
very time-consuming. In this study, the life time prediction protocol of ion-exchange membranes
in VRFB cell tests was developed through short-term single cell performance evaluation (real total
operation time, 87.5 hrs) at three different current densities. We confirmed a decrease in test time
up to 96.2% of real durability tests (expected total operation time, 2,296 hrs) and 5~6% of relative
error discrepancy between the predicted and the real life time in a unit cell.
Keyword : Redox flow batteries, Ion exchange membranes, Life time prediction