Scientists at Queen’s University Belfast have created a flow battery prototype using 3D printing technology and iron-based materials, addressing key limitations in current renewable energy storage solutions. The device was developed by postdoctoral researcher Dr. Hugh O’Connor, who initially designed it for his own research needs after discovering the high cost of commercially available flow batteries. Following experimentation and refinement, the team decided to distribute the design specifications to the global scientific community at no cost.
Flow batteries are considered essential infrastructure for scaling renewable energy systems, as they store electrical power in liquid form for use during periods when wind and solar generation are unavailable. Traditional flow batteries rely on vanadium, a metallic element that is produced in limited geographic locations and creates geopolitical and economic constraints on technology development. The QUB team’s iron-based alternative costs approximately £74 to assemble and uses roughly ten components, making it significantly more accessible than vanadium-based systems.
The decision to open-source the design rather than commercialize it was made to benefit the broader research community and accelerate progress toward renewable energy adoption. Researchers at multiple institutions worldwide have received the designs along with detailed assembly instructions, allowing them to conduct standardized experiments and compare results consistently. This approach addresses a longstanding challenge in the field where varied equipment across laboratories has made it difficult to validate findings and build upon prior research.
Dr. Josh Bailey, an Illuminate Fellow at QUB’s School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, leads collaborative studies involving universities globally that are using the standardized cells. The team is scaling up testing to larger stacks of printed cells to evaluate industrial applications. As renewable energy sources increasingly provide a larger share of global electricity generation, developing affordable and reliable storage solutions has become critical to meeting net zero emissions targets and reducing the need to curtail wind and solar generation during periods of low demand.