Proceedings of SEEP2014, 23-25 November 2014, Dubai LCA OF IN-HOUSE PRODUCED SMALL-SIZED VANADIUM REDOX-FLOW BATTERY Michele Dassisti 1 , Piero Mastrorilli 2 , Antonino Rizzuti 2 , Pasqua L’Abbate 2 , Gennaro Cozzolino 3, * , Michela Chimienti 3 1 DMMM, Politecnico di Bari (michele.dassisti)@poliba.i 2 DICATeCh, Politecnico di Bari (piero.mastrorilli; Antonio.rizzuti; pasqualabbate)@poliba.it 3 InResLab, (gennaro.cozzolino; michela.chimienti)@inreslab.org (*) corresponding author Abstract Storage systems are becoming one of the most critical components in the energy management, mainly due to the discontinuity characteristics of renewable sources. Redox flow batteries (RFB) are one of the most promising technologies as electrochemical energy storage system, because of the independence of energy and power rating, fast response, room temperature operation, and extremely long life. It is susceptible of a strong increase of its use in the next future, in particular in combination to a wide range of renewable energy sources (e.g. solar, eolic, tidal). Key factors such as the energy density and the operating temperature range depend on the properties of the battery electrolyte. This promising feature brings new questions to solve: the sustainability is one of the most critical to be faced. In this work, the vanadium electrolyte environmental sustainability is analyzed. Electrolyte is one of the most important component of the battery, having a strong impact particularly on its use. A comparative LCA analysis is performed to appreciate its potentialities for domestic use under safety conditions, providing some useful indication on its drawbacks. Keywords: Life Cycle Assessment; Energy and environmental planning tools. 1INTRODUCTION The energy production from renewable sources have grown dramatically in these last years. They present new challenges regarding the possibility to match the power requirements because of their fluctuation over time independently from demand [1]. This characteristic requires suitable storage methods to become completely reliable as primary sources of energy. Essentially, it is necessary to decouple the production from the use: energy from these sources must be stored when is produced in excess and then released when production levels are less than the required demand [2]. Redox flow batteries seems to be a promising device to win the challenge put to endeavour the renewable energy production systems. This descends from their almost infinite storage capability based on liquid electrolyte properties, the high reliability due to their technological simplicity as well as from their economical sustainability, being the overall investment competitive along the whole life cycle. Vanadium electrolytes have in fact an almost unlimited life cycle. All these facts make vanadium redox-flow batteries very interesting as a diffuse storage mean for most civil uses. Therefore, the question of their sustainability becomes of utmost importance, being these devices doomed to become our life companion in a near future. A preliminary life cycle assessment (LCA) study is here presented for an homemade short stack vanadium redox flow battery (VRFB). The battery was developed within an industrial funded research project aimed at optimising small-size VRFB for future widespread civil application. Before new technologies enter the market, in fact, their environmental superiority over competing technologies must be asserted