Queen's University Belfast researchers led by post-doctoral researcher Dr Hugh O'Connor developed a 3D-printed iron-based flow battery and have distributed the design free to labs worldwide. O'Connor began printing cells while working on his PhD after commercial units would have cost about £2,000 to £3,000; his printed design costs roughly £74 and uses about ten components including a membrane, gaskets, electrodes and current collectors. The team provided an Ikea-style assembly guide to improve reproducibility and has sent cells to multiple institutions to standardise testing. Flow batteries store energy in liquids rather than solid electrodes and are seen as important for long-duration renewable storage, but many use vanadium, which is expensive and geopolitically concentrated. Queen's researchers say the iron-based cell should make research more reliable and scalable, and Illuminate Fellow Dr Josh Bailey is leading multi-institution studies using the affordable cell. The group hopes wider use of an identical, low-cost cell will accelerate development and give scientists robust, comparable evidence across experiments.
