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.

  • perestroika@slrpnk.net
    3·
    1 year ago

    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.

    • RoliversOPEnglish
      2·
      1 year ago

      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.

    • keepthepace@slrpnk.net
      1·
      1 year ago

      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?