Recent developments in zinc/bromine battery technology at Johnson Controls

Zinc/bromine battery technology is being developed for use in electric vehicles, and for electric utility load leveling applications. The authors describe the zinc/bromine system and discuss its performance characteristics. The bipolar electrode design gives 2-3 times the energy storage of existing lead acid batteries and is capable of delivering power densities as high as 200 W/kg. The electrolyte is circulated to reduce self-discharge of the battery and to improve the thermal management of the system. The battery operates at room temperature, consists of nearly all plastic parts, uses conventional molding and plastic joining methods for construction, and is almost totally recyclable. Zinc/bromine is a low cost, rechargeable system with a potentially long cycle life. Recent advances made in computer modeling of this technology are also reported