LCA of in-House Produced Small-Sized Vanadium Redox-Flow Battery

Storage systems are becoming one of the most critical components in the energy management, mainly due to the discontinuity characteristics of renewable sources. Redox flow batteries (RFB) are one of the most promising technologies as electrochemical energy storage system, because of the independence of energy and power rating, fast response, room temperature operation, and extremely long life. It is susceptible of a strong increase of its use in the next future, in particular in combination to a wide range of renewable energy sources (e.g. solar, eolic, tidal). Key factors such as the energy density and the operating temperature range depend on the properties of the battery electrolyte. This promising feature brings new questions to solve: the sustainability is one of the most critical to be faced. In this work, the vanadium electrolyte environmental sustainability is analyzed. Electrolyte is one of the most important component of the battery, having a strong impact particularly on its use. A comparative LCA analysis is performed to appreciate its potentialities for domestic use under safety conditions, providing some useful indication on its drawbacks.