Fuel Cells & Flow Batteries

Modern society is founded on simple electric cells referred to as primary and secondary batteries which propel small scale electronics to electric cars and large scale storing of electrical energy systems. The need to use older forms of battery such as lead-acid and alkaline cells in the past, and still today, in some critical applications such as the dependability and low costs of this battery type is being supplanted by lithium-ion batteries because of its high energy densities, performance, and long cycle lives. The important concepts in determining the performance of the battery, its size and weight, and use in a specific application are energy density and energy efficiency. Batteries are fast becoming a part of electric mobility, portable electronics, medical devices, integration into renewable energy sources and are establishing enormous technological advancement and environmental sustainability. Nevertheless, safety and material availability, cost, and environmental effects imply that there must always be innovation. It is desired that, in the future, changes in battery chemistry, battery design and battery recycling will resolve these and be able to offer safer and greener methods of energy storage that will be more efficient. In conclusion, batteries will remain as one of the pillars of the present day energy systems and will be the determiners of the sustainable, electrified and a sustainable, energy efficient future.