According to the plan, the installation of the pilot plant of the project has been successfully completed during the month of March. It is a zinc-air flow battery of 1 kW and 4 kWh consisting of three modules, which will serve as a test bed for the next phase of the project.
The cells of the battery are connected in series to provide a nominal voltage of 24 V and a maximum current of 90 A. For its part, the energy is stored in about 1 m3 of electrolyte which is circulated through the cells using pumps. Regarding the air necessary to discharge the battery, it is driven directly from the atmosphere, previously passing through a conventional filter. The whole plant is built in plastic, inexpensive and recyclable materials. In addition, the electrolyte is nonflammable, which gives the plant greater security.
The battery incorporates a monitoring system to carry out the measurement and recording of all necessary system parameters. The test plan scheduled for 12 months duration has been defined in the first stage of the project based on international protocols and standards, according to the intended applications for the technology under study.
After the testing stage, and from data collected during its progress, a technical and economic study to validate the operation of a large-scale plant equivalent will be carried out.