IDTechEx Discusses Future Market Penetration of the Redox Flow Battery

Author: Conrad Nichols, Senior Technology Analyst at IDTechEx

BOSTON, April 25, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- The evolution of the redox flow battery over several decades has seen various chemistries being developed, commercialized, or even abandoned due to factors such as poor electrochemical reversibility and cross-contamination of active species. The vanadium redox flow battery (VRFB) has prevailed as the most widely deployed and commercialized RFB chemistry over the last decade; despite this, the volume of their installations for stationary energy storage applications is still minimal compared to the incumbent Li-ion battery, with economic barriers inhibiting their market growth. However, as suggested in IDTechEx's market report, 'Redox Flow Batteries Market 2024-2034: Forecasts, Technologies, Markets', a combination of factors including developments in vanadium markets, development of cheaper RFB chemistries, and future demand for long duration energy storage (LDES) technologies, could see increasing penetration of the redox flow battery in the stationary energy storage market over the coming years. These developments will aid in RFB market growth and IDTechEx forecasts that by 2034, this market will be valued at US$2.8B.

Economic barriers for VRFBs

VRFBs have suffered from high upfront costs due to the vanadium electrolyte and membranes employed. Vanadium electrolyte accounts for 30-50% of the unit cost of a VRFB, and is influenced by overall system size, as well as duration of storage required. The membrane typically adopted in VRFBs are expensive cationic ion exchange membranes, such as Nafion^TM offered by The Chemours Company. Significant decreases in the cost of membranes are unlikely, given that cheaper versions could impact VRFB performance. This could include reduced ionic exchange capacity or ionic conductivity, higher permeation of active species, or reduced chemical resistance to aggressive species. However, upfront electrolyte cost reductions could be facilitated by the exploitation of new vanadium mines, thus increasing electrolyte supply or the adoption of vanadium electrolyte leasing models.