BAoBaB
Relevant project information
Dates
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Role of CIRCE
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Description and objectives
The objective is to develop a new environmentally friendly, cost-competitive, scalable and water-based electrical energy storage system, the "Blue Acid/Base Battery", which stores electrical energy using differences in pH and salinity in water. The principle consists of altering the acid-base balance by making excess electricity available to obtain an acid and a base from their corresponding salt solution.
When electricity is needed, the acid and base are recombined in their corresponding salt solution, obtaining electrical work from the entropy and enthalpy gain. BAoBaB operates on a scale of hours to days and will enable greater penetration of distributed and intermittent renewable energy sources.
Not only are storage capacities enormous (kWh to MWh), resources are abundant (salt and water) and environmental risks are minimal. Coupled with the location independence and non-toxic nature, the penetration rate can be high within the EU and abroad, providing export opportunities for the EU.
Value proposition
- BAoBaB System Technology Advancement: Develop and extend the potential of the BAoBaB system, taking it from TRL3 to TRL5. Improve the energy conversion efficiency of the BAoBaB system, focusing on mass transfer in round-trip conversion techniques. Validate an automatically operated BAoBaB system, with battery management, at 1 kW power and 7 kWh energy storage scale under utility-accepted conditions.
- Paving the road for cost competitive energy storage: Establish a path towards cost competitive energy storage, considering life cycle costs and performance, with the goal of achieving a potential levelized cost of <0.05 €/kWh/cycle.
- Barrier Identification and Assessment: Develop a methodological approach to identify the implications of potential barriers to BAoBaB implementation.
- Evaluate barriers in terms of five criteria: technical, economic, maintenance, policy, and environmental. Use AHP model for prioritization of attributes, highlighting the importance of economic considerations, followed by technical aspects and environmental concerns.
- Sustainable Perspective and Facilitated Decision Making: To provide an evaluation approach that facilitates decision making for companies and public sector institutions. Address potential barriers in a holistic manner, considering technical, economic, environmental, maintenance and political aspects to achieve a sustainable implementation of the BAoBaB system.
Project partners
UNIPA, CIRCE, FUJIFILM AQUABATTERY BV, SMEDE