General description
The Fraunhofer Institute for Chemical Technology ICT is one of about 70 Fraunhofer institutes in Germany. Its department for Applied Electrochemistry covers research on secondary batteries, fuel cells, redox flow batteries and electrochemical sensors. The redox flow battery group is active in the development of all vanadium redox flow battery (VRFB) systems for stationary applications including materials, battery design, prototyping, performance and safety tests. Apart from VRFB technology, the simulation of the smart and micro grids with RFB storage, control algorithms for battery management systems and control strategy for battery storage are also an increasing research topic of the group. At Fraunhofer ICT the largest VRFB research battery has been installed, which supplies the research campus with peak power of 1.5 MW power. The installation with a 2 MW wind turbine features new DC-bus connection of the battery storage via the DC-intermittent circuit of the wind turbine. Fraunhofer ICT plans also to increase generation capacity by installing a 500 kw solar power also connected to the DC-intermittent circuit in 2020, to improve availability.