Review—Highlights of UNSW All-Vanadium Redox Battery Development: 1983 to Present

Abstract

The Vanadium Flow Battery (VFB) was taken from the initial concept stage at UNSW in 1983 through the development and demonstration of several 1–5 kW prototypes in stationary and electric vehicle applications in the 1990s with on-going research activities continuing to the present day. As part of this 38 year R&D program, a wide range of research projects was undertaken in the areas of electrodes and membranes, electrolyte process development and characterisation, electrolyte additives and precipitation inhibitors, conducting plastic bipolar plate formulation and manufacturing trials, mathematical modelling of membrane transfer, shunt currents and pumping energy losses in bipolar stacks, thermal modelling of redox cells under a range of operating conditions, impedance spectroscopy and control system development, sensors and state-of-charge monitoring, chemical and electrochemical rebalancing, gelled electrolyte, vanadium bromide cell and V/O redox fuel cell. Several field trials of the VFB were conducted by UNSW in the mid-1990s with early licensing leading to large-scale demonstrations and significant commercialisation activities in a wide range of applications around the world. This paper presents an historical overview of the research, development and early field trials of the All-Vanadium Redox Flow Battery at UNSW between 1983 and 2021.