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Vanadium Industry Update
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Apella Resources Advisory Board Member,
Maria Skyllas-Kazacos to participate in the:
Equinox Summit: Energy 2030
Professor Emeritus, School of Chemical Sciences and Engineering
University of New South Wales
Dr.
Maria Skyllas-Kazacos is a chemical engineer whose invention of the Vanadium
Redox Battery (VRB) in the late 1980s may revolutionize how we store energy.
The
VRB is a unique type of flow battery that can repeatedly absorb and release huge
amounts of electricity, making them possibly the best partner for renewable energy.
Over the last twenty years, Dr.
Skyllas-Kazacos has been improving the technology
and finding commercial applications in various markets to reduce the cost and make
the VRB a feasible solution to our energy storage challenges.
Dr.
Skyllas-Kazacos
VRB technology can already be found in action in Japan, USA, Europe, and Australia
for storing wind and solar energy and balancing peak electricity demand.
Dr.
Skyllas-Kazacos
recently joined the Advisory Board for Apella Resources Inc.
to help grow their
presence in the vanadium markets.
She is Professor Emeritus for the University
of New South Wales in Australia where she received her PhD in 1978.
As a distinguished
academic, Dr.
Skyllas-Kazacos has won numerous awards for her research including
the R.K.
Murphy Medal from the Royal Australian Chemical Institute in 2000 and
the Order of Australia in 1999.
Please register to view contact details
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Equinox Summit: Energy 2030
05 June 2011 - 09 June 2011 Perimeter Institute
* Location: Waterloo, Ontario, Canada
* Venue: Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics
* Ticket prices: Free, but advance tickets are required.
Inspiring Ingenuity in Energy Solutions - Presenting Equinox Summit: Energy 2030
from the Waterloo Global Science Initiative
Flash forward 20 years...
What if our best efforts to lower carbon emissions, wean
off fossil fuels, and plan for a soaring population werent enough? Would we ask
ourselves why we didnt take action sooner, transforming the ideas from our greatest
innovators into the technologies needed to prepare for a more secure and sustainable
future?
June 5 to 9, 2011 in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, the Waterloo Global Science Initiative
presents the Equinox Summit: Energy 2030 - a global conversation on how science
and technology can help solve our current energy crisis.
Equinox Summit: Energy 2030 will examine the worlds energy concerns and the specific
need for cleaner and more sustainable production, distribution and storage of electricity.
The Summit will bring together pioneering scientific experts with next-generation
leaders from around the globe, all of whom are supported by the mentorship of seasoned
advisors from science, engineering, public policy, and industry.
The Summit is focused around the cooperative creation of a blueprint document that
shortlists a set of key technologies that could transform the current carbon-heavy
scenario, as well as providing a roadmap on how to implement these innovations
by 2030.
The outcomes will be summarized during a special "report card" session on June 9th,
2011.
To accompany the working sessions, Equinox Summit: Energy 2030 will host a series
of events for students and the general public - facilitating participation both
on location and online by providing an interactive avenue for global engagement
in this important energy dialogue.
From June 5 to 9, 2011, people from around the
world can stream live and on-demand daily speakers, videos, televised panel debates,
and the final presentation of the Summits key findings.
About Waterloo Global Science Initiative (WGSI)
Waterloo Global Science Initiative (WGSI) is a non-profit partnership, founded
in October 2009, between Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics and the University
of Waterloo.
WGSIs mandate is to catalyze long term thinking and solutions to
the worlds most fundamental social, environmental and economic challenges using
science and technology.
WGSI provides a rare opportunity for great minds to come
together, share new ideas and collectively work toward a secure and sustainable
future.
Apella Resources Vice President of Corporate Communications,
W.
Adrian Bakkerto present at the:
Critical Materials Investment Symposium - June 3-4, 2011
Apella Resources Inc.
has been selected by the associated team of senior advisors
to
participate in this highly anticipated event.
The Westin Bayshore
1601 Bayshore Drive Vancouver
Overview
The Critical Materials Investment Symposium is the first series of conferences
in the world to bring together the multitude of parties involved in finding solutions
to the developing world crisis in the supply shortage of rare earth and strategic
metals.
The symposiums bring together:
- Speakers internationally recognized for their expertise and understanding of the
supply problems and possible solutions
- Financial institutions and brokerage firms with funds to support companies exploring
for metals
- Sophisticated and large stakeholder investors
- End users
- Manufactures in need of supplies
- Industry media
"The developing world supply crisis of critical metals will be met only by the
determination and imagination of Canadian mineral exploration companies that will
find, over time, and with the assistance of financial organizations and end user
manufacturers, mineable deposits of these metals."
~Joe Martin, Chairman, Cambridge House International Inc., The Worlds Resource
Investment Conference Company
*Concierge Service
Throughout the entire event a concierge service will set up private meetings between
companies, interested investors and speakers
Cost to Attend: $495.00
cheb_template_6_08
Upgrading the vanadium redox battery
March 17, 2011Share This!
* Frances White [mailto:], PNNL, (509) 375-6904
New electrolyte mix increases energy storage by 70 percent
*
Vanadium Redox Flow Batteries
Original Image
This artists rendering of an upgraded vanadium redox battery shows how using both
hydrochloric and sulfuric acids in the electrolyte significantly improves the batterys
performance and could also improve the electric grids reliability and help connect
more wind turbines and solar panels to the grid.
1 of 1
RICHLAND, Wash.
- Though considered a promising large-scale energy storage
device, the vanadium redox batterys use has been limited by its inability to
work well in a wide range of temperatures and its high cost.
But new research indicates
that modifying the batterys electrolyte solution significantly improves its performance.
So much so that the upgraded battery could improve the electric grids reliability
and help connect more wind turbines and solar panels to the grid.
In a paper published by the journal Advanced Energy Materials
researchers at the Department of Energys Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
found that adding hydrochloric acid to the sulfuric acid typically used in vanadium
batteries increased the batteries energy storage capacity by 70 percent and expanded
the temperature range in which they operate.
"Our small adjustments greatly improve the vanadium redox battery," said lead author
and PNNL chemist Liyu Li.
"And with just a little more work, the battery could
potentially increase the use of wind, solar and other renewable power sources across
the electric grid."
Unlike traditional power, which is generated in a reliable, consistent stream of
electricity by controlling how much coal is burned or water is sent through dam
turbines, renewable power production depends on uncontrollable natural phenomena
such as sunshine and wind.
Storing electricity can help smooth out the intermittency
of renewable power while also improving the reliability of the electric grid that
transmits it.
Vanadium batteries can hold on to renewable power until people turn on their lights
and run their dishwashers.
Other benefits of vanadium batteries include high efficiency
and the ability to quickly generate power when its needed as well as sit idle
for long periods of time without losing storage capacity.
A vanadium battery is a type of flow battery, meaning it generates power by pumping
liquid from external tanks to the batterys central stack, or a chamber where the
liquids are mixed.
The tanks contain electrolytes, which are liquids that conduct
electricity.
One tank has the positively-charged vanadium ion V5+ floating in its
electrolyte.
And the other tank holds an electrolyte full of a different vanadium
ion, V2+.
When energy is needed, pumps move the ion-saturated electrolyte from
both tanks into the stack, where a chemical reaction causes the ions to change
their charge, creating electricity.
To charge the battery, electricity is sent to the vanadium batterys stack.
This
causes another reaction that restores the original charge of vanadium ions.
The
electrical energy is converted into chemical energy stored in the vanadium ions.
The electrolytes with their respective ions are pumped back into to their tanks,
where they wait until electricity is needed and the cycle is started again.
A batterys capacity to generate electricity is limited by how many ions it can
pack into the electrolyte.
Vanadium batteries traditionally use pure sulfuric
acid for their electrolyte.
But sulfuric acid can only absorb so many vanadium
ions.
Another drawback is that sulfuric acid-based vanadium batteries only work between
about 50 and 104 degrees Fahrenheit (10 to 40 Celsius).
Below that temperature
range, the ion-infused sulfuric acid crystallizes.
The larger concern, however,
is the battery overheating, which causes an unwanted solid to form and renders
the battery useless.
To regulate the temperature, air conditioners or circulating
cooling water are used, which causes up to 20 percent energy loss and significantly
increasing the batterys operating cost, the researchers noted.
Wanting to improve the batterys performance, Li and his colleagues began searching
for a new electrolyte.
They tried a pure hydrochloric acid electrolyte, but found
it caused one of the vanadium ions to form an unwanted solid.
Next, they experimented
with various mixtures of both hydrochloric and sulfuric acids.
PNNL scientists
found the ideal balance when they mixed 6 parts hydrochloric acid with 2.5 parts
sulfuric acid.
They verified the electrolyte and ion molecules present in the
solution with a nuclear magnetic resonance instrument and the Chinook supercomputer
at EMSL, DOEs Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory at PNNL.
Tests showed that the new electrolyte mixture could hold 70 percent more vanadium
ions, making the batterys electricity capacity 70 percent higher.
The discovery
means that smaller tanks can be used to generate the same amount of power as larger
tanks filled with the old electrolyte.
And the new mixture allowed the battery to work in both warmer and colder temperatures,
between 23 and 122 degrees Fahrenheit (-5 to 50 Celsius), greatly reducing the
need for costly cooling systems.
At room temperature, a battery with the new electrolyte
mixture maintained an 87 percent energy efficiency rate for 20 days, which is about
the same efficiency of the old solution.
The results are promising, but more research is needed, the authors noted.
The
batterys stack and overall physical structure could be improved to increase power
generation and decrease cost.
"Vanadium redox batteries have been around for more than 20 years, but their use
has been limited by a relatively narrow temperature range," Li said.
"Something
as simple as adjusting the batteries electrolyte means they can be used in more
places without having to divert power output to regulate heat."
File:Chinese Academy of Sciences logo.jpg
Nanofiltration for Better Energy Storage
2011-04-14
Scientists in China have found that nanofiltration membranes could enhance the
efficiency of vanadium redox flow batteries (VRBs) making them a more viable tool
for large-scale energy storage.
Xianfeng Li from the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Dalian and his team made the
membranes, which separate two components in the batteries, from polyacrylonitrile.
Pores in the membrane can be adjusted, allowing scientists to have more control
over the ions passing from one side of the battery to the other during charge-discharge
cycles, improving the batterys performance.
The random and intermittent nature of renewable wind and solar energy sources can
limit the power output quality, says Li, who adds that energy storage is the key
to solving this problem.
VRBs can store a significant amount of energy.
In these
batteries, two electrolyte tanks, containing species of vanadium in different
valance states, are separated by an ion exchange membrane.
When the battery is
charged, the vanadium ions are oxidised or reduced, converting chemical energy
into electrical energy.
Ion exchange membranes should prevent the crossover of vanadium ions, while allowing
protons to pass through.
But the ones most commonly used - perfluorinated polymers
such as Nafion - let vanadium ions through and are expensive to buy, despite showing
high proton conductivity and chemical stability.
Other low-cost membranes need
additional ion-exchange groups, which lower their stability.
The difficulty in
finding a suitable membrane has limited the commercialisation of VRBs, Li explains.
The team adjusted the polyacrylonitrile membranes pore size distribution by varying
the polymer concentration.
They measured their membranes selectivity between vanadium
ions and protons by placing the membrane in a cell with vanadyl sulfate in sulfuric
acid on one side and deionised water on the other.
They collected samples from
the right side over time and analysed them with a UV-visible spectrometer and a
pH meter.
They found that the membrane showed increased selectivity for protons
over vanadium with a smaller pore size distribution.
They observed that the performance
was comparable to Nafion, but at a lower cost.
John Varcoe, who develops systems for clean and sustainable energy generation at
the University of Surrey, UK, says that using nanofiltration membranes in redox
flow batteries is an exciting new development in the field.
The simplicity
of the system does not lead to a sacrifice in performance and efficiency, he adds,
but he points out that further stability tests are needed.
(Source: Chemistry World)
File:Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft 2009 logo.svg
Research News
Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft
Hannover Messe: Giant batteries for green power
Press Release 31.03.2011
In the future, the growing amounts of solar and wind energy will need to be stored
for dark or low-wind periods.
One solution is redox flow batteries that can supply
current for up to 2000 households.
Several Fraunhofer Institutes are working jointly
on these fluid batteries of the future.
The researchers will present their large
battery installation at the Hannover Messe (April 4-8, 2011, Hall 13, Booth C41).
Green power is an unstable commodity.
Photovoltaic plants rest at night, and wind
turbines stand still when there are lulls in the wind.
This is why in the future
there will be a need for intermediate storage of considerable amounts of environmentally
friendly power.
One of the hot topics at the moment is the use of electric cars
for intermediate power storage.
Experts agree that this alone will not suffice.
Instead, large-scale stationary storage facilities will be needed, substations
centrally located in the grid and capable of buffering energy in megawatt quantities
for low-current periods.
A Fraunhofer consortium is currently driving the development of large-scale energy-storage
systems known as redox flow batteries.
The experts long-term goal is to build
a handball-court-sized battery installation with a capacity of 20 MWh - enough
energy to provide power to roughly 2000 households through a long winters night
or a cloudy day.
The results have not advanced quite so far: At the moment, the
largest laboratory facilities at the Fraunhofer Institute for Environmental,
Safety and Energy Technology UMSICHT have an output of several kW.
At the Hanover Fair (Hannover Messe), the researchers will demonstrate the operation
of the redox flow battery using a 2-kW plant.
Three Fraunhofer institutes are involved
in the consortium working to expedite the development of these storage batteries.
"The process already works reliably," notes Dr.
Christian Dtsch, business unit
manager for Energy Efficiency Technologies at UMSICHT, one of the participating
institutes.
"The challenge lies in the upscale version, the enlargement of these
plants." Redox flow batteries are large-scale vanadium-based liquid batteries in
which chemical vanadium bonds alternately pick up and emit electrons along membranes.
Because these batteries use only vanadium bonds and not two different fluids at
the same time as found in other systems, impurities are eliminated.
"This makes
it possible to build very robust and durable batteries - a decisive advantage of
this battery technology," emphasizes Dr.
Tom Smolinka, in charge of coordinating
the work at the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE.
The vanadium charges and discharges in tiny reaction chambers.
Several of these
chambers are arrayed in stacks to increase a battery installations output even
further.
Currently, the membranes - and hence the individual cells - have a surface
area roughly equal to that of a DIN A4 sheet of office paper.
"To achieve megawatt
values, we need to reach a size of at least DIN A0 (ca.
85 120 cm)," estimates
Dr.
Jens Tbke, division director at the third project partner, the Fraunhofer
Institute for Chemical Technology ICT.
One of the challenges is to insure that
the vanadium fluid flows smoothly through these large membranes and past the felt-like
carbon electrodes in the cells themselves.
To accomplish this, Fraunhofer researchers
are therefore using flow simulations to further improve the design of the cells.
Since last year, the Fraunhofer consortium has also been working on new membrane
materials and battery designs in a cooperation project funded by the German federal
ministry for the environment.
Another project is scheduled to begin this year and
will involve industry participation.
On principle, batteries with up to 80 kW
of storage capacity can be built in the new Fraunhofer redox flow laboratory -
and a 20-kW plant is scheduled to go into operation at the end of next year.
The
researchers hope to cross the megawatt threshold in roughly five years.
For further information contact,
W.
Adrian Bakker
Vice President of Corporate Communications
Apella Resources Inc.
APA - TSX-V
Suite 1600, The Bower Building
543 Granville Street
Vancouver, BC V6C 1X8
Ph: 604-683-8990
Direct: 604-641-4474
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