The Acid-Base Flow Battery: Sustainable Energy Storage via Reversible Water Dissociation with Bipolar Membranes.

The increasing share of renewables in electric grids nowadays causes a growing daily and seasonal mismatch between electricity generation and demand. In this regard, novel energy storage systems need to be developed, to allow large-scale storage of the excess electricity during low-demand time, and its distribution during peak demand time. Acid-base flow battery (ABFB) is a novel and environmentally friendly technology based on the reversible water dissociation by bipolar membranes, and it stores electricity in the form of chemical energy in acid and base solutions.

Multidimensional Observations of Dissolution-Driven Convection in Simple Porous Media Using X-ray CT Scanning.

We present an experimental study of dissolution-driven convection in a three-dimensional porous medium formed from a dense random packing of glass beads. Measurements are conducted using the model fluid system MEG/water in the regime of Rayleigh numbers, . X-ray computed tomography is applied to image the spatial and temporal evolution of the solute plume non-invasively.