Have we found the missing link in the energy storage equation?

Utility scale energy storage solutions are evolving very quickly as more and more intermittent energy sources are being connected to global electricity grids. Manganese dioxide flow batteries may offer a very cost effective way of bridging the gap between short duration lithium-ion batteries and longer duration technologies like hydrogen. But can they be produced at commercial scale?

Help support this channels independence at

Or with a donation via Paypal by clicking here

Video Transcripts available at our website

Research Links

MIT

Main Research Paper

Check out other YouTube Climate Communicators

zentouro:

Climate Adam:

Kurtis Baute:

Levi Hildebrand:

Simon Clark:

Sarah Karvner:

Jack Harries:

Our Changing Climate :

[boklasarmarkus]

I’d love for you to revisit grid scale storage solutions you’ve covered in the past, to see if they are still being developed or if they have been abandoned.

[smferreiro]

A screw pump is usually the choice. The technology is fairly developed pumping cement to high buildings under construction.

[m.pearce]

A fine good morning. I wanted to thank you extremely as this is one of YouTube's Best Series that lives up to its title and every time I watch one it has me thinking on these surmountable problems. Both my Daughters share my opinion that this should be required watched in schools.

You are doing the most valued services to Science. The Thought Process. We are avid watchers have now seen all of the complete series and lively discussion issues from each thoughtful programmes.

[gwr]

Keep the revolutionary small scale lab experiments coming!
Cheers

[ianseaweed]

Interesting to read so many comments from ‘engineering minds’ who understand all this stuff coming up with solutions to problems. I guess the more people that are set to a task, the more probable it is to find the solution. Reminds me of Charlie Dukes answer to the question why haven’t people gone back to the moon since the Apollo program? His response is along the lines of ‘back then we had 400, 000 people working on the mission and an unlimited budget, can’t get that kind of thing anymore’. So I think it’s heartening that there are various groups tackling these problems but find it more disheartening that no government will mobilise the necessary number of people and money to work the problem. I guess the carbon disinformation war is still being won by the petrochemical giants on the key battle fields.

[qcca-fv]

for paste batteries, maintenance of the reciprocating pumps sounds like a pain. It would be fun to analyze rather than recprocating pumps, to just manipulate entire tanks with, say, an electric lift. You put one tank above the "fuel cell", and an empty one below. Gravity pushes the paste across the exchange membrane. If gravity alone isn't enough, apply air pressure (positive on the top, negative on the bottom) as an assist to gravity.

If you have whole rows of tanks in a rack, as depicted in the illustration. all the movement will be exchanges of tanks of equal mass, so the lift only needs to deal with inertia, not actually lifting large heavy tanks, aside from at the exchange membrane itself.

So... with this kind of system, rather than trying to move pastes across long distances in pipelines, you only need one air pump near the fuel cell, to charge a compresed air reservoir, perhaps a vacuum pump for bottom extrusion... none of the pumps have to deal with the actual fluid, just air. the rest is done by lift motors moving entire tanks. much longer life, standard components, easier maintenance.

[trottermalone]

Refreshing to see a bit of honesty in the advertising... Cheers!

[dylanbrown]

LCD displays were in the lab for 30 years until they swept CRT technology away in a couple of years. It can happen and I hope it does quicker for battery and all other forms of renewable energy storage technologies. The planet is screwed if it doesn’t happen.

[antoniomromo]

Just wanted to pop in to say that I loved the intro. Never stop being awesome and witty good sir 🤣.

[Zanzopan]

"which is a fairly highly regard academic institution" has got to be the best dry humor deadpan statement from you yet. I loved it.

[starmole]

brilliant intro!

About the many "gamechangers" - the important thing is that people are looking for them! As long as there's a decent amount of money being spent on looking at the questions, we will eventually get to the answers :)

[steve-o]

There are so many unanswered questions, but it's a nice tidbit of information, thanks...

[timehaley]

Hell of an intro. lol After watching, I was impressed at what could be achieved if money was thought out in it's uses before you throw it at something that won't work. Good solid approach to research. Well done to MIT and this channel for bringing it to my attention.

[PSRautoharp]

The weak point is the membrane which is susseptable to pressure, chemical attack and membrane blinding. The area of the membrane is the controlling factor to the size of the plant. Great idea, but not there yet.

[markcox]

Hi, I watch your channel on a regular basis and really admire your early stage examinations. I loved the humor you used in the beginning of this one! I'm a professional in the renewable energy space in finance and wanted to direct your attention to a couple of areas which are potentially very hot and could do with a "Just Have a Think" treatment. One is at last a breakthrough in cellulose in the unexpected shape of a mechanical method of breaking biomass, cellulose into lignin and glucose. The promise is that this can happen in less than a minute for a 100% conversion, which blows away the 7 or so alternative methods of doing it both by time and cost, and opens up a whole world of possibility with the emergence of sugars not just from the fruits of plants, but from the substance of plants themselves. The company is called Blue Biofuels and is based in Florida and is well worth a look. This is the year they intend to go commercial.
The other idea, which you have touched on previously, is the green ammonia from N in the atmosphere and electrolysed H2 in water using renewable energy as the energy input. Another company called Fuel Positive in Canada has an edge in this arena and I believe it might be eye opening also. All the best and keep the good work coming!

[rajeshchheda]

Thanks for another wonderful video,
A very large number of technologies succeed in lab, fewer in prototype and very rare ones make it on commercial scale.

[dogphlap]

Your videos have just got steadily better over time as your subtle humor and personality sneak through the factual stuff like precious gems.

[brunski]

Laughed out loud at your opening statement! Haven't even watched the video yet, but needed to comment. High Five, please keep up the awesome content, love your videos!

[toyuyn]

It's amazing the vast range of technologies that can be explored once you realize that energy storage can be literally any reversible process that takes in electricity.
Everyone's scrambling to push their technology to market since the winner won't necessarily be the cheapest and most efficient, but whoever can capitalize on the first-mover advantage.

[anonymous.youtuber]

Thank you for having the earth mockup rotate in the correct sense.