HIGH ENERGY DENSITY GEL ELECTRODES AND METHOD OF MAKING AND USING THE SAME (iEdison No. 0685901-22-0088)
The aqueous gel electrodes consisting of zinc chloride, potassium iodide or potassium bromide, carbon black and polymer, such as polyvinyl alcohol (PVA), is designed for long-duration energy storage. Figure 1 shows the proposed gel electrode design. The gel electrolyte is used as symmetric electrodes for both anode and cathode, while Nafion cation exchange membrane or separator is used as the electrolyte membrane. On the anode, a zinc foil is added to provide sufficient zinc source as the zinc may be trapped in the carbon black during the repeated plating/stripping process. In the fresh prepared gel electrolyte, Zn2+ is bonded to polymer, while I- is homogeneously dispersed in the gel. During the charge process, Zn2+ is reduced to Zn metal plating on the carbon black powder, while the I- is oxidized to I2 and remains evenly dispersed in the gel system. The start electrolyte gel of 7.5 M KI and 3.75 M ZnCl2 as well as 0.2 g carbon black powder and 0.2 g PVA a[YL1] re used to demonstrated as proof of concepts, providing a theoretical energy density of 120 Wh /L. In our design, a high energy density over 100 Wh /L is achieved (Figure 2). After removing the pipe and pump system, we are able to simplify the maintenance process and promote the system reliability. Additionally, the gel system can lower the overall cost by replacing the expensive carbon felt with carbon black powder. Last but not least, the mobile carbon black powder can mitigate the zinc dendrite issue, which is frequently observed in carbon felt electrode where zinc dendrite can puncture the electrolyte membrane and cause short-circuit. Overall, our gel electrode is promising for long-duration energy storage owing to its low cost, high energy density and high reliability. Figure.2. Charge/discharge profile for ZnI2 gel battery (the volume electrolyte for positive and negative electrode is 2.3ml)
CO-OLIGOMERIZATION METHOD EMBODIMENTS FOR PRODUCING JET-RANGE OLEFINS SUITABLE FOR MAKING JET FUEL (iEdison No. 0685901-22-0062)
To meet the immediate need for decarbonization of the aviation industry, leveraging existing commercial processes and feedstocks will be the most efficient path toward producing SAF in the near-term future. Syngas is one of the most attractive feed sources as it can be derived from a broad range of renewable and waste feedstocks via gasification, while benefiting from existing infrastructure throughout the petrochemical industry. Of the existing industrial processes for transforming syngas to synthetic fuels, none produce aviation fuel efficiently; however, methanol synthesis followed by methanol-to-olefin (MTO) processing offers an already established and active commercialized pathway to produce mixed light olefins, primarily ethylene and propylene. This mixture can potentially be directly oligomerized to jet-range products in a single reaction step. If demonstrated with high yield and selectivity, elevating this single operation unit to industrial scale would complete an end-to-end commercial pathway for producing SAF from syngas derived from various ecologically disadvantaged feedstocks.
SCAFFOLDED CURRENT COLLECTOR FOR METAL ANODE, METHOD OF MAKING, AND BATTERY USING (iEdison No. 0685901-22-0149)
Adopting porous current collector is one of the most effective approaches to suppress the dendrite growth in alkaline metal batteries. In this invention, a flexible, lightweight, porous, and electronically conductive metal@polymer composite material was successfully developed as the current collector for rechargeable alkaline metal batteries. This material is comprised of an electrospun polyimide (PI) polymer matrix coated with electrically conductive copper (Cu) film. To achieve a durable, uniform, and firm Cu coating on the electrospun PI matrix, a unique synthesis route was designed. PI matrix was first etched with potassium hydroxide solution to introduce potassium ions (K+) into the polymer backbone of PI. The K+ was substituted by silver ions (Ag+) via ion exchange, which were subsequently reduced to silver (Ag) nanoparticles on the surface of PI to yield the Ag@PI composite. Thereafter, the Ag@PI composite was plated with a Cu electroless plating solution, where Ag nanoparticles serve as the seed for Cu to deposit. The final electrically conductive Cu@PI composite material with three dimensional (3D) porous structure was thus obtained. The Cu@PI composite material exhibits good flexibility, low density, high porosity as well as excellent electronic conductivity, making it a highly attractive material for being used as the current collector in alkaline metal based batteries.
METHODS OF CHEMICAL SEPARATION USING SELECTIVE AND SEQUENTIAL PRECIPITATION IN REACTION-DIFFUSION GEL MEDIA (iEdison No. 0685901-23-0116)
We developed a strategy based on reaction-diffusion coupling to achieve selective precipitation from a multicomponent feedstock solution. As proof-of-concept, we demonstrated this approach for a solution of mixed metal salts, namely Mn-Co-Ni chlorides; an important problem in the context of critical materials recovery from recycled electrodes. The solution mixture is placed in a cylinder on top of an agarose hydrogel layer loaded with reacting counterions, in this case sodium hydroxide (Figure 1). As the metal ions diffuse into the gel, crystallization begins to take place in regions of high supersaturation, which locally depletes the ions, to be subsequently replenished by diffusive flux. This interplay of diffusion, nucleation, and growth kinetics results in a spatial unfolding of unique nonequilibrium conditions along the length of the reactor. We observe that the chemical composition of the precipitates showed a gradient along the length of the reactor, ultimately producing almost pure manganese (hydr)oxide beyond a sharp boundary of other mixed phases (Figure 3, unpublished). Note that this separation was accomplished without the use of complex membranes, binding agents, high temperature processing, or even electric fields. The metal ion mixture was simply placed on top of a hydrogel loaded with sodium hydroxide and allowed to 'develop" such that the various metal oxides were formed in order of their precipitation rates as they diffuse into the gel.
ELECTROLYTES FOR LITHIUM-ION BATTERIES OPERATING AT EXTREME CONDITIONS (iEdison No. 0685901-20-0027)
METHOD FOR ACTIVATING SOLID POLYMER ELECTROLYTE FOR USE IN SOLID-STATE POLYMER BATTERY (iEdison No. 0685901-23-0093)
This invention discloses a facile activation method to enable the operation of polymer-based solid-state batteries at room temperature (RT), including: 1) applying a heat treatment to cell components and/or whole cell at the temperatures of 40-150 degrees C. 2) applying a pressure of 20-200 psi to cell components and/or whole cell for > 15 min. 3) applying an ultrasound treatment to cell components and/or whole cell for
Decarboxylation of fatty acids for preparation of hydrocarbons
The direct route to "green diesel" from renewable derived fats and oils involves catalytic decarboxylation – decarbonylation of the free fatty acids. The product is expected to be the simple hydrocarbon or olefin derived from loss of CO2. Cyclization and aromatization as well as cracking are common side reactions paralleling deoxygenation (decarboxylation – decarbonylation).
Titania-graphene anode eletrode paper
We used a commercial titania (Degussa P-25) to prepare titania-graphene composite papers. cationic ammonium surfactants stabilized the titania and graphene in aqueous solutions.the homogeneous composite suspensions containing 80-90 wt% titania were filtered and extra surfactants were removed by thermal treatment at 400C under H2/Ar for 3 h. The composite powder was mixed with 7.0 wt% PTFE to make a paper. Electrochemical test showed steady and high performance (150 mAh/g).
REDOX FLOW BATTERIES BASED ON SUPPORTING SOLUTIONS CONTAINING CHLORIDE
Redox flow battery systems having a supporting solution that contains CD ions can exhibit improved performance and characteristics. Furthermore, a supporting solution having mixed S042- and CD ions can provide increased energy density and improved stability and solubility of one or more of the ionic species in the catholyte and/or anolyte. According to one example, a vanadium-based redox flow battery system is characterized by an anolyte having V2+ and V3+ in a supporting solution and a catholyte having V4+ and V5+ in a supporting solution. The supporting solution can contain CD ions or a mixture of S042- and CD ions.