Associative metal-free ElectROlytes for Battery Energy STorage

Battery energy storage systems (BESS) offer attractive alternatives to pumped hydroelectric and compressed air energy storage methods on account of their modularity, flexibility, and independence from geographical conditions.

However, new BESS installations are primarily lithium-ion batteries alongside increasing market share for vanadium redox flow batteries, which both rely heavily on key metals with significant cost and safety implications as well as geopolitical concerns.

The EU-funded AERO BEST project will address this problem through use of metal-free associative electrolytes for air-stable BESS and exploration of its commercialisation potential through feasibility studies and market research.

Our associative electrolytes serve as fully organic electrolytes in aqueous flow battery systems, they provide a paradigm shift through self-protective supramolecular assembly, mitigating against detrimental interactions with oxygen while providing extended battery life-time.

The system will be scaled allowing validation of the technology through a battery demonstrator and a sustainable business model will be developed for commercialisation of the electrolytes.

AERO BEST has potential to revolutionise energy storage, realising a purely sustainable energy ecosystem independent from geopolitics, offering a substantial reduction in the cost of both electrolytes as well as in costs of battery manufacturing.

As these electrolytes demonstrate air stability, they offer simplified battery system operation and maintenance, with an opportunity to democratise the BESS market, especially benefiting developing nations.