Chinese scientists have achieved a breakthrough in “all-iron flow battery” technology that could sharply reduce the cost of storing renewable energy while significantly extending battery lifespan. Lithium costs over 80 times more than iron as a raw industrial material at present. Iron-flow batteries address these challenges by combining the inherent advantages of redox flow technology with the cost-efficiency of iron. Unlike solid-state batteries, flow batteries separate energy storage from power delivery, allowing for independent scalability, longer lifetimes, and reduced. A research team at the Institute of Metal Research of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) has advanced “all-iron” flow battery technology. In particular, a newly formulated electrolyte facilitates thousands of charge-discharge cycles. A commonplace chemical used in water treatment facilities has been repurposed for large-scale energy storage in a new battery design by researchers at the Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National. The Iron Redox Flow Battery (IRFB), also known as Iron Salt Battery (ISB), stores and releases energy through the electrochemical reaction of iron salt.
