UniEnergy Technologies & PNNL recognized for advanced vanadium redox flow battery
News Release
June 12, 2017 
RICHLAND, Wash. - A Washington state company that produces a battery based on technology developed at the D.O.E.'s Pacific Northwest National Lab has been recognized with a Green Chemistry Challenge Award, the E.P.A. announced.
UniEnergy Technologies - which is also known as UET, was founded in 2012, and has a 60,000 square-foot manufacturing facility near Seattle, Wash. - received the award in partnership with PNNL under the challenge's small business category. Both UET and PNNL will be recognized during a ceremony in Washington, D.C., on June 12. Vincent Sprenkle, who oversees PNNL's grid-scale energy storage research portfolio, will gain the award on behalf of the lab at the ceremony.
The company's advanced vanadium redox flow battery uses a new electrolyte chemistry developed at PNNL with backing from DOE's Office of Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability. The mixed-acid vanadium electrolyte can store 70 percent more energy and operates over a wider temperature range than conventional vanadium electrolytes.
"Research at PNNL has led to considerable technical enhancements and substantial cost reductions resulting in a commercially viable flow battery," said Imre Gyuk, director of energy storage research at DOE's Office of Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability. "As a result, we can now begin to move towards novel applications requiring longer storage durations."
The electrolyte enables UET's systems to store energy without experiencing degraded power or energy capacity, work over 20 years, have zero flammability, and be nearly 100 percent recyclable. UET's batteries are fully integrated with power electronics and controls, which helps the company's utility, independent power producer, microgrids and commercial and industrial customers make quick use of the energy storage system. The company's batteries have a lower total cost of ownership than batteries that use other chemistries such as lithium-ion batteries.
UET recently installed a two Megawatt/8 Megawatt-hour flow battery for Snohomish Public Utility District in Everett, Wash., that is the biggest containerized flow battery system in the world. To date, the company has installed in excess of 14 Megawatt-hours of flow batteries to support a variety of grid services, including integrating renewable energy onto the power grid and ensuring power quality at manufacturing facilities. With over 155 Megawatt-hours of further systems ordered or awarded, UET's sales thus far have been in 3 countries and 6 U.S. states.
The Green Chemistry Challenge Awards "recognize chemical technologies that incorporate the principles of green chemistry into chemical design, manufacture, and use." UET was one of 5 organizations to win the awards this year.
For more information, see the EPA's announcement.
Tags: Energy, Fundamental Science, Awards and Recognizes, Batteries, Green Energy, Energy Production, Chemistry
Interdisciplinary teams at Pacific Northwest National Lab address many of America's most pressing issues in energy, the environment and national security through advances in basic and applied science. Founded in 1965, PNNL employs 4,400 staff and has an yearly budget of nearly $1 billion. It is managed by Battelle for the D.O.E.'s Office of Science. As the single biggest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States, the Office of Science is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information on PNNL, visit the PNNL News Center, or follow PNNL on Facebook, Google+, Instagram, LinkedIn and Twitter.
