Subsea Flow Battery UPS with Pressure Compensators
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Solution Overview
Problem
Subsea UPS systems face challenges with extremely thick, heavy, and costly pressure-resistant chambers required to withstand high pressures, leading to cooling difficulties and increased weight.
Innovation Solution
A subsea UPS unit utilizing a flow battery with electrolyte pressure compensators maintains 1 atm inside the unit while withstanding 300 bar ambient pressure, featuring a flow battery module with negative and positive electrode cells, electrolyte storage tanks, and a pressure compensator, allowing for compact design and efficient pressure balancing.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a pressure chamber is designed to contain UPS components and maintain 1 atm pressure, then the components are protected from high ambient pressure, but the chamber requires extremely thick walls leading to excessive weight and cost
Solution Approach 1:
The invention extracts the pressure containment function from the housing enclosing the UPS components. Instead of making the housing pressure-resistant, the electrolyte storage tanks are made pressure-resistant and placed outside the housing, allowing the housing to be lightweight and simple while still protecting components from ambient pressure.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention introduces pressure compensators as intermediary elements between the ambient high-pressure environment and the electrolyte storage tanks. These compensators maintain pressure balance, allowing the electrolyte tanks to withstand ambient pressure without requiring the UPS housing to be pressure-resistant.
2Strength
If a pressure chamber with thick walls is used to withstand high pressure, then pressure resistance is achieved, but cooling conditions become difficult and weight increases
Solution Approach 1:
The pressure resistance function is extracted from the UPS housing and assigned to the electrolyte storage tanks and pressure compensators. This allows the UPS housing to remain thin-walled and simple, improving heat dissipation and cooling efficiency while the pressure-resistant components are designed separately to handle thermal conditions.
3Volume of stationary object
If a pressure chamber is designed for considerable volume to contain UPS components, then component accommodation is improved, but the chamber requires extremely thick walls leading to high material cost
Solution Approach 1:
The invention separates the volume requirement for UPS components from the pressure resistance requirement. The electrolyte storage tanks provide the necessary volume and are made pressure-resistant, while the UPS housing can be simple and inexpensive, significantly reducing material costs.
4Reliability
If batteries are located inside pressure resistant chambers to maintain 1 atm pressure, then component protection is achieved, but the system becomes heavy and costly
Solution Approach 1:
The invention extracts the battery (UPS components) from the pressure-resistant environment. Instead of placing batteries inside a pressure-resistant chamber, the batteries remain in the UPS housing while pressure-resistant electrolyte storage tanks are positioned separately, eliminating the need for heavy pressure protection around the batteries.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The solution reduces weight, enables long-term discharge without damage, low self-discharge, and flexible energy capacity, while providing passive cooling and redundancy through electrolyte management and pressure compensation.
Implementation Method 1
a flow battery including: at least a flow battery module having at least a negative electrode cell and at least a positive electrode cell, a first electrolyte storage tank connected to the negative electrode cell to provide the negative electrode cell with a first electrolyte, a second electrolyte storage tank connected to the positive electrode cell to provide the positive electrode cell with a second electrolyte
Implementation Method 2
A subsea UPS unit utilizing a flow battery with electrolyte pressure compensators maintains 1 atm inside the unit while withstanding 300 bar ambient pressure
Data Source
AI summary
An uninterruptible power supply unit for subsea applications includes a flow battery including: at least one flow battery module including at least a negative electrode cell and a positive electrode cell, a first electrolyte storage tank connected to the negative electrode cell to provide the negative electrode cell with a first electrolyte, and a second electrolyte storage tank connected to the positive electrode cell to provide the positive electrode cell with a second electrolyte. The unit further includes at least one electrolyte pressure compensator, connected to the first electrolyte storage tank and connected to the second electrolyte storage tank, respectively, to provide pressure balancing between an ambient medium surrounding the at least one electrolyte pressure compensator and first electrolytes and second electrolytes inside the first electrolyte storage tank and inside the second electrolyte storage tank, respectively.