Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology (SKT)

Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology (SKT) is a private graduate research institute in Moscow, Russia. Established in 2011 in collaboration with MIT, SKT cultivates a new generation of researchers and entrepreneurs, promotes advanced scientific knowledge and fosters innovative technology to address critical issues facing the world. SKT applies the best Russian and international research and educational practices, with particular emphasis on entrepreneurship and innovation. The Center for Energy Science and Technology (CEST) is one of the SKT research centers which is focused on the research and development of energy systems and technologies required by the growing applications of energy conversion and storage technologies in various end-user industries (renewable energy power generation). One of the key research areas of CEST is investigation of new materials and development of modelling tools for different electrochemical storage technologies including redox flow batteries and supercapacitors, and hence the proposed tasks within this proposal fits very well into this topic.

SKT has expertise in the field of modeling of power electronic components (e.g. inverters and converters, from Prof. Federico Ibanez’s experience) and redox flow batteries (from Sergei Parsegov and Mikhail Pugach). Regarding energy management system and battery management systems (BMS), Federico Ibanez has been working on balancing for supercapacitors and development of power converters for electric buses where communication with the battery allows protecting the system for running out of the safe operation area. The results of his previous works in active balance for supercapacitors and development of robust DC/DC converters were published in high impact journals and presented at international conferences, for example IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technologies and IET Power Electronics. Regarding the vanadium redox flow battery research experience, SKT group has developed a zero-dimensional model for vanadium flow batteries that is able to predict the dynamic behavior of these systems in real time simulations and thus can be implemented in advanced control strategies. The group also has proposed a new strategy for flow rate regulation that was proven to be robust and efficient under dynamically changing loading conditions.