Symposium S.EN09-Flow-Based Open Electrochemical Systems

An open electrochemical system involves one or more reagents circulating through cell compartments for electrochemical reactions. The flow-based systems span over a variety of systems such as flow batteries, fuel cells, electrolyzers, capacitive deionization, flow synthesis, etc. for applications in grid and transportation energy storage, water desalination, catalysis, hydrogen production, and large-scale chemical production. Although significant progress has been achieved, materials development has represented common challenges for these technical fields, which have hampered the widespread commercial update of these technologies. Especially, the fundamental understandings of electrochemical processes and mechanisms in these systems are rather limited, including experimental and computational approaches for elucidating solvation structures, electrolyte/electrode interfaces, new membranes and electrodes, failure/degradation pathways, and transport properties. The knowledge is critically important to achieve technical breakthroughs and enable ubiquitous technological implementation. Moreover, high-level developmental needs have been identified for system-level optimizations, such as stack prototype, flow field, safety diagnostics, cost analysis, and field analytics. In addition, recent hybrid flow technologies integrating two or more electrochemical systems, such as solar flow batteries, photocatalytic fuel cells, continuous-flow synthesis of battery materials, have opened a promising avenue to harvest the advantages of both technologies. This symposium will encourage discussion of new concepts and challenges at the cutting-edge through both fundamental and applied studies of materials and systems. It will bring together a diverse mix of leading researchers and emerging talents to promote further synergy across fields.

Topics will include:

Redox materials and solvation chemistry for flow batteries
Fuel cells, electrolyzers
Membranes, electrode, catalysts
Heat, mass, and electron transports
Capacitive deionization systems
Continuous-flow synthesis
Characterizations and diagnostics
Failure/degradation mechanisms
Hybrid flow systems (solar-involved flow batteries and fuel cells)
Computational modeling, cost analysis
Flow field, stack prototyping, field analytics, safety

Invited Speakers:

Hye Ryung Byon (Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Republic of Korea)
Shelley Minteer (University of Utah, USA)
Qing Wang (The Pennsylvania State University, USA)
Huamin Zhang (Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, China)
Lu Zhang (Argonne National Laboratory, USA)
Guihua Yu (University of Texas at Austin, USA)
Song Jin (University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA)
Joaquín Rodríguez-López (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA)
Michael Aziz (Harvard University, USA)
Fikile Brushett (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA)
Tianbiao Liu (Utah State University, USA)
Zhengjin Yang (University of Science & Technology of China, China)
Hui Ying Yang (Singapore University of Technology and Design, Singapore)
Sri Narayan (University of Southern California, USA)
Ertan Agar (University of Massachusetts Lowell, USA)
Travis Anderson (Sandia National Laboratories, USA)
Chris Capuano (Proton OnSite, USA)
Huyen Dinh (National Renewable Energy Laboratory, USA)
Lauren Greenlee (University of Arkansas, USA)
Burcu Gurkan (Case Western Reserve University, USA)
Dirk Henkensmeier (Korea Institute of Science and Technology, Republic of Korea)
James McKone (University of Pittsburgh, USA)
Zhenmeng Peng (The University of Akron, USA)
Christo Sevov (The Ohio State University, USA)
Roswitha Zeis (Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Germany)