Research Project

MAFALDA: Manufacture, automation and integration of vanadium redox flow batteries in renewable energy systems

Type

National Project

Start Date

01/01/2022

End Date

31/12/2024

Project Code

PID2021-126001OB-C31

Project illustration

Staff

Project Description

Project PID2021-126001OB-C31 funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033/ and by "ERDF A way of making Europe"

Redox Flow Batteries are reversible electrochemical devices with a promising role in renewable power generation systems, where they can fulfil important functions, such as load balancing. In the current decarbonization context, they are expected to become a competitive solution with excellent trade-off between cost and lifetime, especially suitable for long-time large-scale energy storage. A main difference between Redox Flow Batteries and others types of batteries is that they are active elements and consequently a control system is required. The main subproject objective is the development of control systems that increase the system performance and efficiency in comparison with the results reported in the bibliography. At the same time, the control and monitoring systems of the prototypes manufactured and assembled within the project will be developed in this subproject, which will make it possible to test and characterize them in the laboratory and in their final applications.

In order to obtain better controllers, new dynamic control-oriented models that describe all the RFB relevant phenomena will be developed, including the causes of imbalance in both the amount of vanadium and the volume of electrolyte in the two half cells. The convenience of moving from lumped parameter models to distributed models will be deeply analyzed. Furthermore, experimental procedures and algorithms required for the fitting of the model parameters will be described. Based on these models, the use of additional actuators for dynamic control will be analyzed, and new controllers will be designed. One of the main issues for an optimal operation is the difficulty of knowing the RFB internal state, e.g., its state of charge or its state of health. This knowledge would enable restoration actions that improve performance and prevent accelerated degradation of components. For this reason, methods based on the use of state observers and nonlinear on-line parameter estimation techniques will be designed. Additionally, these techniques will be combined with artificial intelligence methods to improve their performance. The resulting estimation systems will be integrated with the controllers, implemented and validated experimentally with a commercial stack in the groups laboratory first, and with the project prototypes, later. At a higher level, the subproject will also develop supervisory controllers for the optimal power management in power plants that integrate VRFBs. Systems based on hydraulic machines an RFB will be especially studied because of the expected interesting synergies between these elements. Specifically, the RFB can enlarge the efficiency and useful life of the hydraulic turbine.

The subproject will contribute to the VRFBs performance improvement and that of the renewable generation plants that integrate them, what will impact positively the penetration of sustainable energy sources. It will help determining the VRFB limits and their most suitable application conditions and finally, it will advance the technological readiness of VRFB, giving to the productive sector the necessary knowledge for their production and commercialization.

Project Publications

Journal Publications

  • T.P. Puleston, M. Serra and R. Costa. Vanadium redox flow battery capacity loss mitigation strategy based on a comprehensive analysis of electrolyte imbalance effects. Applied Energy, 355: 122271, 2024, to appear.

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  • P. Cardona, R. Costa, V. Roda, J. Carroquino, L. Valiño, C. Ocampo-Martínez and M. Serra. Modelling and operation strategy approaches for on-site hydrogen refuelling stations. International Journal of Hydrogen Energy, 52: 49-64, 2024.

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  • T.P. Puleston, A. Cecilia, R. Costa and M. Serra. Nonlinear observer for online concentration estimation in vanadium flow batteries based on half-cell voltage measurements. Computers and Chemical Engineering, 185: 108664, 2024.

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  • T.P. Puleston, A. Trovò, G. Marini, M. Serra, R. Costa and M. Guarnieri. Design and experimental validation of an optimal remixing procedure for vanadium flow batteries affected by faradaic imbalance. Journal of Power Sources, 624: 235487, 2024, to appear.

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  • T.P. Puleston, A. Cecilia, R. Costa and M. Serra. Vanadium redox flow batteries real-time State of Charge and State of Health estimation under electrolyte imbalance condition. Journal of Energy Storage, 68: 107666, 2023.

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  • P. Fornaro, T.P. Puleston, P.F. Puleston, P. Battaiotto, R. Costa and M. Serra. Electric vehicle charging station based on wind energy: evaluation of the power profile for vanadium redox flow batteries estimation. IEEE Latin America Transactions , 21(9): 1056-1062, 2023.

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  • M. Marti, A. Cecilia and R. Costa. Modelling and estimation in lithium-ion batteries: a literature review. Energies, 16(19): 6846, 2023.

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  • A. Cecilia and R. Costa. Estimation of the liquid water saturation in PEM fuel cells: A low-power peaking-free dead-zone observer approach. ISA Transactions, 140: 368-384, 2023.

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  • Y. Xing, L. Bernadet, M. Torrell, A. Tarancón, R. Costa and J. Na. Offline and online parameter estimation of nonlinear systems: Application to a solid oxide fuel cell system. ISA Transactions, 133: 463-474, 2023.

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  • P. Cardona, R. Costa, V. Roda, J. Carroquino, L. Valiño and M. Serra. Model predictive control of an on-site green hydrogen production and refuelling station. International Journal of Hydrogen Energy, 48(47): 17995-18010, 2023.

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  • A. Clemente, M. Montiel, F. Barreras, A. Lozano and R. Costa. Experimental validation of a vanadium redox flow battery model for state of charge and state of health estimation. Electrochimica Acta, 449: 142117, 2023.

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  • A. Clemente, A. Cecilia and R. Costa. Online state of charge estimation for a vanadium redox flow battery with unequal flow rates. Journal of Energy Storage, 60: 106503, 2023.

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  • P. Fornaro, T.P. Puleston, P.F. Puleston, M. Serra, R. Costa and P. Battaiotto. Redox flow battery time-varying parameter estimation based on high-order sliding mode differentiators. International Journal of Energy Research, 46(12): 16576-16592, 2022.

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  • V. Sanz, R. Costa and C. Batlle. Literature review of energy management in combined heat and power systems based on high-temperature PEMFC for residential comfort applications. Energies, 15(17): 6423-6444, 2022.

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  • T.P. Puleston, A. Clemente, R. Costa and M. Serra. Modelling and estimation of vanadium redox flow batteries: a review. Batteries, 8(9): 121, 2022.

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Conference Publications

  • A. Clemente and R. Costa. Comparison of charging control techniques for electrochemical energy storage systems, 2023 IEEE International Conference on Emerging Technologies and Factory Automation, 2023, Sinaia (Romania), pp. 1-8.

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  • C. Fustero, A. Clemente, R. Costa and C. Ocampo-Martínez. Energy management using predictive control and neural networks in microgrid with hybrid storage system, 2023 IEEE International Conference on Emerging Technologies and Factory Automation, 2023, Sinaia (Romania), pp. 1-8.

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  • Á. Ruiz, B. Escachx and R. Costa. Gestión de energía, mediante control predictivo, de un vehículo de pila de combustible, XLIV Jornadas de Automática, 2023, Zaragoza, Spain, pp. 358-363.

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  • P. Fornaro, T.P. Puleston, P.F. Puleston, M. Serra, R. Costa and P. Battaiotto. Feasibility analysis of a class of high-order sliding-mode differentiators for redox flow batteries parameter estimation, 2022 International Workshop on Variable Structure Systems, 2022, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, pp. 153-158, IEEE.

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  • A. Clemente, A. Cecilia and R. Costa. Estimación del estado de carga de baterías de flujo redox con caudales desequilibrados, XLIII Jornadas de Automática, 2022, Logroño, pp. 353-359.

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