Benchmarking organic active materials for aqueous redox flow batteries in terms of lifetime and cost

Flow batteries are one option for future, low-cost stationary energy storage. We present a perspective overview of the potential cost of organic active materials for aqueous flow batteries based on a comprehensive mathematical model. The battery capital costs for 38 different organic active materials, as well as the state-of-the-art vanadium system are elucidated. We reveal that only a small number of organic molecules would result in costs close to the vanadium reference system. We identify the most promising candidate as the phenazine 3,3 '-(phenazine-1,6-diylbis(azanediyl))dipropionic acid) [1,6-DPAP], suggesting costs even below that of the vanadium reference. Additional cost-saving potential can be expected by mass production of these active materials; major benefits lie in the reduced electrolyte costs as well as power costs, although plant maintenance is a major challenge when applying organic materials. Moreover, this work is designed to be expandable. The developed calculation tool (ReFlowLab) accompanying this publication is open for updates with new data. To guide research and implementation of aqueous organic redox flow batteries it is essential to estimate their potential costs. In this perspective, the authors present an overview of the potential cost of organic active materials for aqueous flow batteries and identify cost reduction routes.