This type of battery seems quite easy to DIY. Cheap materials, relatively safe, not flammable.
You can either maken individual cells or make a flow battery which is theoretically infinitely scalable. You’d be limited by the size of the electrode in how much power this battery can deliver.
Has anyone here tried to make a flow battery? And did you have any success with powering something large and energy consuming?
I guess it would also be possible to make a battery out of old buckets, carbon fiber mesh and separator material such as glass fiber.
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While relatively easy to build, they seem quite complex to manage and have a risk of explosive hydrogen gas production and even toxic bromide gas in rare cases.
Probably not a DIY project that is easy over all.
No experience on that front, sadly.
Compared to iron redox flow batteries, it has about 5 percentage points of more efficiency (75 vs. 70%), slightly better cell voltage (1.8 vs 1.2 V) and better energy density per electrode surface (0.2 W vs 0.05 W / cm2).
The “resetting” of cells seems like a nuisance however. Quoting Wikipedia:
Every 1–4 cycles the terminals must be shorted across a low-impedance shunt while running the electrolyte pump, to fully remove zinc from battery plates.[3]
It’s probably doable, but not a particularly attractive technology when compared to alternatives.
Hmm I didn’t notice the resetting part yet. That is indeed very inconvenient and not something I’m willing to build a system for.
Perhaps just individual cells is better in that sense. My goal is a set and forget style battery that only needs maintenance in a few months.
It’s probably doable, but not a particularly attractive technology when compared to alternatives.
Wondering why you feel that way? It would be easy to design packs of 4 that would have rotations where one cell does the resetting cycle while the others do the regular one? Is the reset cycle as long as the recharge one btw?
Yeah great idea, let’s bring back bromism
The bromine stays in the cell/tank. It’s not meant for human consumption.
Instructions unclear, dock got stuck in acid.
Jokes aside, my point is the “ermahgerd let’s build some batteries with buckets and wire”
