The redox flow battery system has the potential to meet a portion of the growing global need for grid-level energy storage.  These systems have decoupled energy storage and electrochemical generation among other advantages, which adds flexibility to the design and can integrate well with the emergent renewable infrastructure.  In this talk, an overview of the potential applications for these systems will be given as well as an update on the speaker’s most recent research into all-vanadium redox flow batteries.  A systematic progression through advanced diagnostics and computational modeling has been applied to these systems to greatly advance the state-of-the-art in terms of fundamental understanding, performance and durability which will be discussed.  In particular, recent advances which greatly enhance the performance at high efficiency and low state of charge will be detailed.  A new experimental test system designed to measure the complex and coupled transport of individual charged species through the ionic membrane will also be discussed.     
 
Bio of Matthew M. Mench
Matthew Mench is the Department Head of Mechanical, Aerospace and Biomedical Engineering at the University of Tennessee.  He is also Professor and Condra Chair of Excellence in Mechanical Engineering, with joint appointments at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) and in Chemical Engineering.  He has published over 150 peer reviewed publications, numerous book chapters, has multiple patents granted, licensed, or under review, and authored the textbook Fuel Cell Engines.  He was selected by Thomson Reuters as a Highly Cited Researchers (HCR) for 2014 in the category of engineering.  This distinction is based on the greatest numbers of publications officially designated by Essential Science Indicators℠ as Highly Cited Papers—ranking among the top 1% most cited for their subject field and year of publication for the decade previous to selection.  Dr. Mench is an ASME Fellow, was elected by peers to serve on the Department Heads Executive Committee of the ASME, and also previously served as the Executive Vice President of the International Association for Hydrogen Energy.  He is an Associate Editor Emeritus for the International Journal of Hydrogen Energy and is currently an Assistant Editor with the ASME journal of Electrochemical Energy Conversion and Storage.  He was awarded a National Science Foundation Early Career Development Award in 2006, was a recipient of the Penn State Engineering Society Premier Teaching Award in 2009, a University of Tennessee Research Fellow award in 2013, and a UT Research Foundation Innovation award in 2015.  He also won a 2016 College of Engineering Translational Research award.  His research interests span multi-phase transport phenomena, degradation, dynamics, advanced diagnostics, sensors, and modeling of electrochemical power conversion and storage systems including polymer electrolyte fuel cells and flow batteries.