Patent ID: 7537859

Claim:
A redox flow battery comprising: at least one redox fuel cell, the cell having: an anode in a catholyte compartment a cathode in an anolyte compartment and an ion selective membrane separator between the compartments, a pair of electrolyte reservoirs, one for anolyte and the other for catholyte, and electrolyte supply means for circulating anolyte from its reservoir, to the anolyte compartment in the cell and back to its reservoir and like circulating means for catholyte the battery including: connections to its electrolyte reservoirs and/or its electrolyte supply means so that the battery can be recharged by withdrawing spent electrolyte and replacing it with fresh electrolyte, further in combination with a recharging electrolyte connection having a movable selection member: the selection member having bores arranged to route a particular line of a complementary refueling connector, i.e. one of the fresh and spent, anolyte and catholyte lines, to a respective port of a selected one of corresponding lines to the connections for withdrawing and replacing electrolyte and the selection member being movable in sequence from: a first quiescent position in which all the ports of the corresponding lines are closed off by the selection member to, a first connection position in which respective ones of the bores in the selection member are aligned with bores in the selection member for recharging one end of each electrolyte reservoir with fresh electrolyte and for withdrawing electrolyte from the other end of the reservoirs to, a second quiescent position in which all the ports of the corresponding lines are closed off by the selection member to, a second connection position in which respective ones of the bores in the selection member are aligned with bores in the selection member for recharging the other end of each electrolyte reservoir with fresh electrolyte and for withdrawing electrolyte from the one end of the reservoirs and back to, the first quiescent position.