Researchers at Queen's University Belfast have developed a 3D-printed iron flow battery cell that they are sharing free with labs worldwide. Post‑doctoral researcher Dr Hugh O'Connor designed a cell that he says cost about £74 to build, compared with roughly £2,000-£3,000 for commercially available alternatives he needed during his PhD. The cell uses iron instead of the more costly and geopolitically concentrated vanadium and stores energy in liquids rather than solid electrodes, the BBC reports. O'Connor supplied an Ikea-style instruction manual to simplify assembly and distribution, and the team has sent cells around the world to improve reproducibility of flow battery research. As Illuminate Fellow Dr Josh Bailey and colleagues run coordinated multi-institution studies using the printed cell, the aim is to standardise experiments so results are more robust and easier to scale for renewable energy storage development.
