Bartek Glowacki

Abstract:

The requirement for easy and low-cost access to energy storage technologies is increasing with the continued growth of renewable energy in the attempt of reducing fossil fuels consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. Advanced energy storage capabilities are necessary for load levelling and maximising the penetration of renewable energy into the grid. Hydrogen is a well-known energy carrier that can be used for energy storage. The strong synergy between natural gas and hydrogen anticipates that new efficient methods of hydrogen production such as microwave plasma and solar/thermal processing of natural gas will have a leading role. Furthermore, these novel approaches will allow added value from the hydrogen production path to be achieved. The aforementioned processes can produce valuable carbon allotropes that can have different applications including conductive and high-strength composites, hydrogen storage media etc. Redox-flow batteries (RFB) have promising storage characteristics and, as the power and energy capacity of the battery are independent, they can be optimised to maximise performance and minimise cost. A technical and economic comparison of vanadium and all-iron flow batteries will be explored within the present study. Selective carbon allotropes from microwave plasma processing can be used as an integral part of low-cost large-scale energy storage in RFB functionalised electrodes, providing a valuable link between two different methods where one can also supply materials for the other technology. Here, this link will be investigated by looking at the system economics and by comparing all-iron and vanadium redox flow batteries with regard to technical performances. The manuscript will also look into the carbon allotropes value within hydrogen production pathways.