Cell and stack design
Flow fields, electrode compression and shunt currents in multi-cell stacks.
Flow batteries and storage
Flow battery and long-duration energy storage engineering.
Judgement across cell design, electrolyte chemistry, membranes and test strategy, so storage programmes know which loss to fix first.
What we look at
What decides whether a flow battery holds up over years of cycling.
Electrolyte chemistry and stability
Vanadium, organic and other chemistries, capacity fade and side reactions.
Membranes and crossover
Selectivity versus resistance, and how crossover drives capacity loss and rebalancing needs.
Electrodes and activation
Carbon felt and paper electrodes, surface treatments and kinetic losses.
Efficiency and losses
Coulombic, voltage and energy efficiency, including pumping losses at system level.
Testing and validation strategy
Test plans that expose the risks that matter for long-duration duty.
Typical questions
Questions teams bring to us
- Which loss mechanism caps round-trip efficiency?
- Are the electrolyte and membrane stable for long-duration duty?
- Does the test plan expose the risks that matter for scale-up?
How evidence is built
Methods we design test plans around and interpret
Efficiency breakdown
Separating coulombic and voltage losses so improvements target the right component.
Capacity fade analysis
Distinguishing crossover, side reactions and electrolyte imbalance as causes of fade.
Polarisation and impedance testing
Locating resistance in membranes, electrodes and contacts.
Scale-aware test planning
Moving from single cells to stacks without losing the link to the original evidence.
Frequently asked questions
Which flow battery chemistries do you cover?
Vanadium redox flow batteries as well as organic, iron-based and other emerging chemistries. The questions are similar across them: efficiency, capacity retention, materials stability and cost at scale.
Why does capacity fade in flow batteries?
Common causes are crossover through the membrane, side reactions such as hydrogen evolution, and imbalance between the two electrolytes. Identifying which one dominates decides whether the fix is a material change, an operating change or rebalancing.
Can you help structure a flow battery validation plan?
Yes. The plan is built around the risks most likely to change confidence in the programme, with clear decision points between cell, stack and system testing.
Working on something in this area?
Describe the system, the decision and the evidence you already have. That is enough for a useful first conversation.