Concentrated Solution Model of Transport in All Vanadium Redox Flow Battery Membrane Separator

Abstract

A model of transport across the ion-exchange membrane in all-vanadium redox flow batteries has been proposed based on concentrated solution theory for species with high concentration. The model is based upon the Stefan-Maxwell multicomponent diffusion equation where the fluxes of the species including protons, bisulfate, water and the sulfonate functional groups are fully coupled. The driving force for species transport has been modeled in terms of concentration and electrostatic potential gradients. The ionic transference numbers as well as water electro-osmosis drag coefficient has been calculated for different acid concentrations.