FeEnCap - Encapsulated iron materials for new type of iron slurry/air batteries

Initial situation:

  • The increasing expansion of wind and solar power is leading to strong fluctuations in the amount of energy fed into the electricity grids.
  • Pumped storage power plants are only available regionally as electrical energy storage facilities to stabilise the grids.
  • Lithium-ion or vanadium redox storage systems are comparatively expensive for stationary energy storage and/or use toxic battery materials.

Project targets:

  • Research into a new type of low-cost iron slurry/air storage system in which an iron-containing battery mass can be pumped through the battery cell in the form of a slurry during operation and stored in a reservoir outside the cell
  • Improving the rechargeability of the battery by using slurry particles with a special core/shell design
  • Further development of electrolytic flow-through cells for iron slurry/air batteries

Innovative approaches:

  • Innovative use of iron in metal slurry/air batteries
  • Reduction of the contact resistance between the particles and avoidance of disruptiv iron deposits on the contact electrodes by using special iron-based composites and particles with a core/shell design

Benefits for the industry:

  • Scalability of the system, especially for high-capacity electrical energy storage
  • Use of environmental-friendly, low-cost and readily available battery materials for the production of electrical energy storage systems
  • Simple recycling of the battery mass
  • Starting materials and slurries can be produced on an industrial scale
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