rfbzero is a Python package for zero dimensional simulation of electrochemical cycling in redox flow batteries (RFBs).
This package includes modules to describe the initial flow cell setup, chemical and electrochemical properties of the redox-active electrolytes being cycled, cell cycling protocol selection, and optional inputs for capacity degradation mechanisms and active species crossover.
rfbzero can be installed from PyPI using pip.
pip install rfbzeroSee Getting started with rfbzero.py for instructions on simulating RFBs.
rfbzero.py requires:
- Python (>=3.10)
- SciPy
Several simulated RFB examples can be found in a notebook in docs/source/examples (requires Jupyter notebook/lab). The documentation can be found at rfbzero.readthedocs.
redox_flow_cell.py: Configures flow cell and electrolyte parametersexperiment.py: Specifies electrochemical cycling protocoldegradation.py: Optional degradation mechanism functionscrossover.py: Optional crossover mechanism
To simulate a full cell with constant current (CC) cycling:
fromrfbzero.redox_flow_cellimportZeroDModelfromrfbzero.experimentimportConstantCurrent# define full cell and electrolyte parameterscell=ZeroDModel(
volume_cls=0.005, # litersvolume_ncls=0.010, # litersc_ox_cls=0.01, # molarc_red_cls=0.01, # molarc_ox_ncls=0.01, # molarc_red_ncls=0.01, # molarocv_50_soc=1.0, # voltsresistance=0.5, # ohmsk_0_cls=1e-3, # cm/sk_0_ncls=1e-3, # cm/s
)
# define cycling protocolprotocol=ConstantCurrent(
voltage_limit_charge=1.5, # voltsvoltage_limit_discharge=0.5, # voltscurrent=0.1, # amps
)
# simulate cell via protocol for 1000 secondsresults=protocol.run(cell_model=cell, duration=1000)or a symmetric cell with constant current constant voltage (CCCV) cycling, with an electrolyte undergoing a first order chemical degradation in the reduced form:
fromrfbzero.redox_flow_cellimportZeroDModelfromrfbzero.degradationimportChemicalDegradationReducedfromrfbzero.experimentimportConstantCurrentConstantVoltage# define symmetric cell and electrolyte parameterscell=ZeroDModel(
volume_cls=0.005, # litersvolume_ncls=0.010, # litersc_ox_cls=0.01, # molarc_red_cls=0.01, # molarc_ox_ncls=0.01, # molarc_red_ncls=0.01, # molarocv_50_soc=0.0, # voltsresistance=0.5, # ohmsk_0_cls=1e-3, # cm/sk_0_ncls=1e-3, # cm/s
)
# define cycling protocolprotocol=ConstantCurrentConstantVoltage(
voltage_limit_charge=0.2, # voltsvoltage_limit_discharge=-0.2, # voltscurrent_cutoff_charge=0.005, # ampscurrent_cutoff_discharge=-0.005, # ampscurrent=0.1, # amps
)
# define first order chemical degradation mechanismchem_deg=ChemicalDegradationReduced(rate_order=1, rate_constant=1e-5)
# simulate cell via protocol for 1000 secondsresults=protocol.run(cell_model=cell, degradation=chem_deg, duration=1000)If you use RFBzero in your work, please cite our paper
Fell, E. M., Fell, J. A., & Aziz, M. J. (2024). RFBzero: A Python package for zero-dimensional simulation of redox flow battery cycling. Journal of Open Source Software, 9, 6537.
You can use the BibTeX
@article{Fell2024,
title = {{RFBzero: A Python package for zero-dimensional simulation of redox flow battery cycling}},
author = {Fell, Eric M. and Fell, Jeremy A. and Aziz, Michael J.},
doi = {10.21105/joss.06537}, journal = {Journal of Open Source Software},
publisher = {The Open Journal},
volume = {9}, number = {98}, pages = {6537},
year = {2024},
url = {https://doi.org/10.21105/joss.06537},
}