MINING ENERGY
arbitrage activities and secure their own, independent power supply.
Energy storage such as this can also be used alongside diesel gensets or a combination of renewable and diesel assets. Storage allows operators to run gensets at optimal loads to charge the system, increasing efficiency and reducing wear on the engine – base load demand can then be met by the system, with the generator being used for ramping during demand spikes.
For these reasons, Africa is a key market for the company and the applications for redT ' s technology are wide ranging, from working alongside grid-connected solar to coupling with diesel gensets within the mining and extractives industries.
Vionx Energy further explains that the VRFB is a pure redox flow battery, which stores energy by employing vanadium redox couples( V2 +/ V3 + in the negative and V4 +/ V5 + in the positive halfcells). Like other vanadium redox flow batteries, the power and energy ratings of VRFBs are independent of each other and each may be optimised separately for a specific application. That means the volume of storage and the output of storage are scaled separately. All the other benefits and distinctions of pure redox flow batteries compared to other energy storage systems are realised by VRFBs. VRFBs are time tested— it’ s the same chemistry that powered the
batteries on the Apollo moon missions.
VNX1000 Series has a rated system power of 1MW and energy storage capacity: 6-10 MWh. The usable depth-of-discharge is 100 % and AC efficiency: 68 % @ PCC. The design lifetime is 20 years with a performance warranty of 10 years.
Vionx batteries employ vanadium flow chemistry, with a breakthrough optimisation invented by partner, United Technologies Corp( UTC) that provides twice the power at lower cost. Vionx says“ traditional vanadium flow batteries employ a range of components that include tanks of anolyte and catholyte fluids and a power cell at the centre of the system. How these fluids‘ flow through’ and‘ flow by’ each other in the power cell is at the heart of system performance.
“ Our breakthrough was a new process improvement within the cell called the‘ Interdigitated Flow Field’, by which the most efficient flow-through and flow-by processes are integrated to generate a much higher power density( 2X) at lower pressure. This increased power output combined with lower material costs now makes our VRFB energy storage system extremely competitive when compared with other long-term grid storage options.”
Vionx’ s energy storage system earns its durability from its roots in rechargeable polymer electrolyte membrane( PEM) fuel cells leveraged from decades of UTC fuel cell engineering to reliably forecast a multidecade expected life.
UTC’ s battery stack architecture is based on this fuel cell experience, on a vanadium chemistry for which there is over 20 years of actual operational experience, and on low pressure electrolyte flow that virtually eliminates any propensity for pressure related leakage. This durable design is scalable and relies on global leaders for components( 3M) and assembly( JABIL).
The Vionx design uses chemical and pharmaceutical industry standard piping, pumps, and supply for all wetted surfaces and procures equipment from premier chemical industry suppliers adhering to best industry practices.