The Florida State University Institute on Energy Systems, … · 2016-07-26 · The Florida State University Institute on Energy Systems, Economics and Sustainability Renewable energy

The Florida State University Institute on

Energy Systems, Economics and Sustainability

Electrical energy storage via chemistry: drivers and challenges

Albert Migliori

Los Alamos National Laboratory and the National High Mgentic Field Lab

Accuracy of our ability to predict technology

"Who the hell wants to hear actors talk?" H.M. Warner, Warner Bros., 1927.

"Television won't be able to hold on to any market....People will soon get tired of

staring at a plywood box..." Darryl Zanuck, 20th Century Fox, 1946.

"There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home," Ken Olsen,

founder of mainframe-producer Digital Equipment Corp., 1977.

I said to my brother Orville that man would not fly for 50 years. Ever since, I have

distrusted myself and avoided all predictions. - Wilbur Wright

"There's no chance that the iPhone is going to get any significant market share. No

chance." -- Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft

The Florida State University Institute on Energy Systems, Economics and Sustainability www.ieses.fsu.edu


Renewable energy must be stored when available and recovered when needed

Renewable(wind) availability in New Mexico Electrical energy use in New Mexico

We know how to make electricity from sunlight.We know how to make electricity from wind.

It will be some time before we develop the technology to store enough renewables to make 25% renewable energy penetration of the grid possible.

Distributed electrical energy storage and the future?

From: Department of Energy “Report of the Basic Energy Sciences Workshop for Electrical Energy Storage” (April, 2007):“Revolutionary breakthroughs in electrical energy storage have been singled out as perhaps the most crucial need for this nation’s secure energy future.”

And another from BES on energy storage:“A systematic, highly coordinated research effort ... is critically needed to elucidate.. fundamental atomic- and molecular-level issues.”

Try this with your photovoltaics!


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Applications and effects of distributed energy storage

Distributed electrical energy storage on the utility grid in massive amounts helps not only renewable energy utilization but:

Keeps nuclear plants at full capacity, minimizing radioactive waste per unit of electricity produced.

Keeps coal plants at full capacity, minimizing atmospheric carbon per unit of electricity produced

Provides dual-use storage when your electric car is parked and plugged in to the grid.

Minimizes need for new transmission lines (electrical equivalent of growing it locally).

Stabilizes the grid and reduces outages.


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Necessary ingredients for energy storage solutions

• Technology

– Science

– Engineering

– Materials

• Economics

– Hidden traps

– The real costs revealed

• Environmental

– Let’s not make a bigger mess

• Legislative

– Legislative protection for new technology

– Legislation that matches new technology


Energy storage-chemistry will be a solution

(1 kwh=3.6MJ = $0.10)

Fuels: 4-40 kwh/kg(x Thermal Efficiency=0.8 to 8 kwh/kg if burned). This is very hard to ignore. Especially in fuel cells.

Gasoline: 12 kwh/kg

Zn-air battery: 0.45 kwh/kg

Li-ion battery : 0.15 kwh/kg

Supercapacitor: 0.02 kwh/kg

Antimatter 25,000,000,000 kwh/kg

There are a few hundred more axes: • cost/joule• size/joule

• loss/day• utilization factor, power/kg,…..


energy conversion storage

content efficiency weight range

Zn-air Battery = 1 x 0.9 x 0.9 = 240 miles

Gasoline= 26 x 0.2x 0.2= 300 miles

gasoline

Engine, transmission, driveline, exhaust

Gasoline car

Electric

motor

Battery

Electric car

220 miles 0-60 in 3.9 s

Zn-air battery and the electric car

$100,000.00???


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Chemistry is good

Entire system is expensive

battery

flywheel

magnet

capacitor

Cheap fuel tank-only converter is expensive

Pumped hydro

Compressed air

Fuel cell/electrolyzer

What is it we at LANL/FSU/CNSE/UF are trying to do?

The goal is to park and recover electrical energy in chemical bonds (make fuel from electricity).

• Tony Burrel's theorem: If the energy from electric fields is not transferred to chemicals, then we are not storing electrical energy. Seems obvious, but ...

• Consequence: pressure, heat, etc. do not count.

• We are not after better catalysts.

• What we are after is making the electrical energy in as nearly equal as possible to the chemical energy out.


Example: Making chemicals from electricity--a science problem, not a technology problem.

2 H2 + O2 (Hydrogen)

Energy lost to splitting O2 0.2VLosses to Gas crossover 0.1 VWater to steam 0.25 VOther losses 0.25VSo 1.5 V in yields 0.7 Volts out

Vol

tage

H2O (water)1.5 V Electricity in(1.25 volts if we start with steam)

0.7 V Electricity out

H2O (water)

The overpotential-goal is to reduce this


• Much innovative work has been done on direct conversion of bond energy to electricity (the fuel cell)

• but the reverse cycle (electrolysis) has not received as much attention.

N2

+ 6H+ + 6e- → 2NH3

CO2

+ 6H+ + 6e- → CH3OH + H

2O

4H+ + 4e- → 4H2

Alternatives to hydrogen: carbon capture?

We will attack the electrode problem


All I know about batteries


Solutions to distributed electrical energy storage cannot

be left to one team


You don’t actually have to do chemistry!

Figure : Snapshot of molecular dynamics simulation on a carbon nanotube with BF4-/TEA+/PC electrolyte

Figure : Coarse-grained model for nanotube forest with electrolyte

-

TEA+

BF4-


One approach: make it simple to promote understanding

• Focus on the electrocatalyst only

• Use thin metal films (thickness of order electron DeBroglie wavelengths)

• On thick substrates

• In simple electrolytes

– Simple enough to model accurately– Simple enough to make reproducible– Large enough to enable many measurements– Promoting mixing of electronic properties– Making possible control of electric fields


The Florida State University Institute on Energy Systems, … · 2016-07-26 · The Florida State University Institute on Energy Systems, Economics and Sustainability Renewable energy

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