Increasing energy demands world-wide must be met with more effective systems to produce, store, and distribute energy. Ideally, these systems should avoid fossil fuels and incorporate renewable technologies. To accommodate for the intermittent nature of renewable energies, a rechargeable gallium-air flow battery system for electrical grid applications is suggested. Using liquid gallium-air flow batteries could meet the rigorous world-wide demands for storage capacity, discharge duration, and durability necessary for the electrical grid. Toward this goal, a batch gallium-air battery was build and investigated. The performance of the system has been incrementally improved to a 30 hour discharge duration. Some insights into the mechanism of the gallium-air reaction was also obtained. However, recharging experiments were mostly unsuccessful. Despite the failures caused by carbonation and the separator drying, the Ga-Air system remains promising.

Creator

• Howard, Tyler Trettel

Contributors

• Wang, Yan
• Deskins, N Aaron
• Datta, Ravindra
• Kazantzis, Nikolaos K.

Degree

• MS

Unit

• Chemical Engineering

Publisher

• Worcester Polytechnic Institute

Language

• English

Identifier

• etd-011217-181139

Keyword

• Metal-Air
• Battery

Advisor

• Datta, Ravindra

Committee

• Kazantzis, Nikolaos
• Deskins, N. Aaron
• Wang, Yan

Defense date

• 2016-12-16

Year

• 2017

Date created

• 2017-01-12

Resource type

• Thesis

Rights statement

• In Copyright

Last modified

• 2023-09-19