A numerical model of a zinc-para-benzoquinone membrane-free organic flow battery

Organic flow batteries have received a great deal of interest in the past five years as potential candidates for large-scale energy storage, due to their low costs, abundant active materials and multi-electron transfers. Membrane-less systems are particular attractive given the cost of high-performance membranes such as Nafion©. To overcome known limitations, and to design and optimize new systems, modeling and simulation can play a vital role. In this paper, a two-dimensional transient model of a membrane-less zinc-quinone flow battery incorporating the conservation of mass, charge and momentum in the battery and reservoir is developed and validated. The performance is studied under the influence of different electrolyte flow regimes and variations in key parameters, in order to provide new insights and recommendations for further development of the system, as well as similar systems.