Flow Battery Research Collective

Oh, pardon me. I probably used the wrong term. I noticed that the catholyte tank electrolyte level had risen higher than the anolyte and there was electrolyte migration. I guess I "re-leveled" the electrolyte. There is a 1/4 inch (6.35 mm) shunt tube between both tanks but at the time, the shunt was not able to keep up with the migration.

Since I do not have a pump or a siphon or extra valves and tubing that are acid resistant, I blocked the gas pressure equalization tube between both tanks, reduced the pressure in the anolyte tank, and overpressured the catholyte tank until the atmospheric pressure on the catholyte allowed more flow through the shunt.

Then I restored the pressures to as expected.

In recent times, the shunt has been able to keep up with any electrolyte migration pressures.

What would you like to know?

I'm in the middle of Southern Africa, so part of it is making sure I can import the required equipment. I'm also looking for "How I would do it" bearing in mind my lack of decades of experience. I've rebalanced the system once on purpose but would prefer to have the right pumps, acid resistant fittings, valves, T connections and so on.

Hi, Alex here. Mainly interested in learning more about the skills that are developed behind the scenes. Currently have a 1 year old 10 kW 5 hour (50 kWh) VRFB running like a champ charging up to 120 amps but mostly around 80. Have had a few interesting lessons learned but have run the VRFB down to 0 every day in the end of June and have seen it hitting 100% capacity each day for the past 3 weeks in August/Sept. Am interested in automated rebalancing and automated methods for electrolyte reconditioning.