Another advance is coming in electric vehicles, as exemplified in the QUANT e-Sportlimousine Concept, powered by a flow-cell battery system.
The redox flow-cell battery, developed and perfected by nanoFLOWCELL, in Germany, has a couple of distinct advantages over the current-best rechargeable battery technology, lithium-ion. First, the flow-cell battery, at 600 Wh/kg, has at least 200% more capacity than current-best-technology lithium-ion batteries, such as those used in the Nissan Leaf and Tesla Model S.
Second, because the liquid electrolyte is stored in onboard tanks, recharging isn’t necessarily done at a charging station at home or on the road. Rather, a flow-cell battery-powered electric vehicle can “recharge” by exchanging the liquid electrolyte at the proper fueling station, just minutes, instead of an hour or more with a lithium-ion battery-powered electric vehicle. The liquid electrolyte is, at least theoretically, infinitely recyclable, so it gets recharged at the station for use in the next vehicle.
Flow-cell battery technology is already in use as a ready and scalable backup power solution, for intermittent renewable power generation, for example, so why not in an electric vehicle? The QUANT e-Sportlimousine Concept’s liquid-electrolyte tanks have a each capacity of 200ℓ, containing equal amounts of anolyte and catholyte, giving the flow-cell battery-powered electric vehicle a range of up to 372 miles. The concept car is now showing at the 84th Annual Geneva Motor Show.
Image © nanoFLOWCELL AG