Design, assembly and operation of a primary Zinc-Air flow battery equiped with an automatic control system

The production of electrical energy from renewable sources can in principle replace the current technologies based on fossil fuels. Nevertheless, source integration with thermal systems cannot be avoided at the moment, owing to the lack of safe, reliable and efficient large-scale storage devices. In particular, storage systems for the power scales required for practical civil, automotive and industrial applications are not available presently. Among the battery technologies being actively investigated, the Zn-air system is highly promising since the anodic material is safe, widely accessible, low-cost, easily recyclable and environmentally benign. This paper expounds recent developments in the field of Zn-air fuel cells (ZAFC). Based on the experience accumulated with a 1st-generation ZAFC (1) on the one hand, we have implemented a series of improvements that have allowed to increase the power density by a factor of 2.5 and on the other hand, we have completely re-designed a 2nd-generation device for high power density and better durability and built by additive manufacturing.