Sciencemadness Discussion Board

Vanadium: The metal that may soon be powering your neighbourhood

hissingnoise - 14-6-2014 at 02:19

Another interesting (and useful?) side to vanadium?

Zyklon-A - 14-6-2014 at 09:10

Wow, very interesting indeed. Vanadium is pretty cool already. I wonder if this will actually happen.

mnick12 - 14-6-2014 at 09:56

Its interesting, but doesn't seem very practical. A giant vat full of sulfuric acid and vanadium salts, and the cheapest one is 100k. What happens if one leaks? Maybe if the technology improves it will happen, but I don't think it will any time soon. Around here people who are completely solar (cabins, summer homes), usually store the power in a bank of lead acid batteries. While maybe not as efficient it is a lot cheaper than 100k.

rskennymore - 15-6-2014 at 05:01

Quote: Originally posted by mnick12  
Its interesting, but doesn't seem very practical. A giant vat full of sulfuric acid and vanadium salts, and the cheapest one is 100k. What happens if one leaks? Maybe if the technology improves it will happen, but I don't think it will any time soon. Around here people who are completely solar (cabins, summer homes), usually store the power in a bank of lead acid batteries. While maybe not as efficient it is a lot cheaper than 100k.


What technology needs to improve? Assuming the scale is the same as a similar lead-acid system, as far as I can tell the only barrier would be up-front cost due to the rarity of Vanadium and the possible toxicity of whatever electrodes they have to use.

For large battery storage systems, having a single tank of liquid has to be considerably easier to deal with than dozens of small lead acid tanks. You only have to check one fluid level to know if there's a leak in the system. Even if they have to use a mercury amalgam, a few pounds of it in one place has to be preferable to a few tons of lead/lead oxide spread across dozens of individual cells.

I bet it's cheaper up-front too. Think of all the copper you have to use to inter-connect 300 lead-acid cells. All the plastic casings, anodes, cathodes, ventilating the hydrogen gas so it doesn't explode, sturdy racks to hold rows of 200lb batteries...

I hope it takes off. Battery tech could use some change.

hyfalcon - 15-6-2014 at 05:31

Anyone track down a patent on this process? It would be great if there was something that could be done on a DIY basis with this technology. I wonder how large the tanks would have to be to take care of a 4 kw solar system?

Could this be what they are speaking of?

https://www.google.com/patents/WO2013027076A1?cl=en&dq=v...

[Edited on 15-6-2014 by hyfalcon]

arkoma - 15-6-2014 at 08:16

Wow--this mine is only about 150 miles east of me on US50 "The loneliest Road in America"
Quote:
Inspired by the July 1987 story in Life magazine that dubbed US-50 “The Loneliest Road,” the state-run Nevada Commission on Tourism (800/237-0774) sponsors a tongue-in-cheek promotion in which trans-Nevada travelers can earn themselves a certificate saying “I Survived the Loneliest Road in America.” Get your official US-50 travel passport stamped at visitors centers along the highway.


From http://www.roadtripusa.com/routes/loneliestroad/nevada/lon_n...

S.C. Wack - 15-6-2014 at 10:49

Quote: Originally posted by hyfalcon  
Anyone track down a patent on this process?


http://www.sciencemadness.org/talk/viewthread.php?tid=12021

I'm not sure if large lead batteries would be as acceptable as vanadium in areas such as CA and OR...and have been looking into investing in vanadium for a while now We might have to wait for the end of the shale boom in the US...the pipeline situation in Europe and the nuclear situation in Japan might suddenly get this moving though...PS DMG Mori Seiki AG share price is doubled over 2 years, and there has been a higher ceiling available for American Vanadium Corp than where they're at now, so the potential is there if buzz keeps coming (look at Tesla Motors for the power of buzz on price:earnings/book). Now's not the best time to buy, but it rarely is.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/06/11/us-vanadium-energy...

[Edited on 15-6-2014 by S.C. Wack]

jock88 - 15-6-2014 at 12:34


The energy is actually stored in the electrolyte. The capacity of the battery in dictated by how much electrolyte you want to store (lots of tanks of the stuff). The actual power you can take off is dictated by the area of the electrodes that 'suck' the power from the electrolyte.

Done the road, got the badge and seen the tree with all the shoes........
There is a place you can go off south near Eureka to see an earth quake fault line/earth shift.