{"id":4444,"date":"2025-09-09T06:56:09","date_gmt":"2025-09-09T06:56:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/4444\/"},"modified":"2025-09-09T06:56:09","modified_gmt":"2025-09-09T06:56:09","slug":"inexpensive-new-liquid-battery-could-replace-10000-lithium-systems","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/4444\/","title":{"rendered":"Inexpensive New Liquid Battery Could Replace $10,000 Lithium Systems"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\"Advanced<\/a>Researchers in Australia have created a new kind of water-based \u201cflow battery\u201d that could transform how households store rooftop solar energy. Credit: Stock<\/p>\n

Monash scientists designed a fast, safe liquid battery for home solar. The system could outperform expensive lithium-ion options.<\/p>\n

Engineers have created a new water-based battery designed to make rooftop solar storage in Australian homes safer, more affordable, and more efficient.<\/p>\n

This next-generation \u201cflow battery\u201d paves the way for compact, high-performance energy systems suitable for households and is projected to cost far less than today\u2019s lithium-ion setups, which are priced around $10,000.<\/p>\n

Breakthrough membrane design<\/p>\n

Although flow batteries have existed for decades, they have mostly been limited to large-scale energy storage because of their bulk and relatively slow charging times.<\/p>\n

Wanqiao Liang, the study\u2019s lead author and a PhD candidate in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, explained that the team\u2019s redesigned membrane solves this speed limitation, making the technology practical for homes and positioning it as a strong contender in the renewable energy market.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve taken a safe, affordable chemistry and made it fast enough to capture rooftop solar in real time,\u201d Ms Liang said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve engineered a membrane that finally makes organic flow batteries competitive for residential and mid-scale storage. It opens the door to systems that are not only cheaper, but also safer and simpler to scale.\u201d<\/p>\n

Outperforming industry standards<\/p>\n

Although several companies already manufacture flow batteries, the version developed at Monash is distinctive for uniting safety, affordability, and rapid performance. Very few systems globally have been able to achieve this balance.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe key was improving ion selectivity; letting the good ions through quickly while keeping unwanted ones out. Our new membrane achieves this balance, allowing fast, stable operation even at high current densities,\u201d Ms Liang said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe outperformed the industry-standard Nafion membrane in both speed and stability \u2013 running 600 high-current cycles with virtually no capacity loss \u2013 that\u2019s a major leap forward for this kind of battery.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Wanqiao<\/a>Study lead author and Monash PhD candidate, Wanqiao Liang. Credit: Monash University<\/p>\n

Wanqiao said a careful balance was crucial to making these batteries work for rooftop solar at home.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the kind of battery you\u2019d want in your garage,\u201d Ms Liang said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s non-toxic, non-flammable, and made from abundant materials, all while keeping up with solar power on a sunny day.\u201d<\/p>\n

The team is now 3D printing prototype systems and testing them under real-world conditions.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the prototypes keep performing the way we expect, this could be on the market in a few years\u2019 time,\u201d Ms Liang said.<\/p>\n

How flow batteries work<\/p>\n

Dr Cara Doherty, a study co-author from the CSIRO, said flow batteries store energy in liquids rather than solid materials like those found in lithium-ion batteries, making them cheaper to manufacture, safer to operate, and easier to scale.<\/p>\n

\u201cFlow batteries work a bit like two fish tanks joined by a membrane barrier that allows ions to pass through, enabling energy storage and release,\u201d Dr Doherty said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve developed a new type of membrane inside the battery that guides the flow of materials better \u2013 kind of like adding lanes to a highway. That means faster charging, longer battery life, and better performance overall.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 2018, Monash installed a 1MWh redT energy (now known as Invinity energy) storage system \u2013 the largest behind-the-meter commercial setup in Australia and the first of its kind globally \u2013 as a core part of the microgrid at its Clayton campus. The Monash microgrid plays a central role in the University\u2019s goal to become 100 per cent energy self-sufficient and is a key part of achieving Net Zero emissions by 2030.<\/p>\n

Now, Monash is home to the next big leap in clean energy storage.<\/p>\n

Reference: \u201cFlow Battery with Remarkably Stable Performance at High Current Density: Development of A Nonfluorinated Separator with Concurrent Rejection and Conductivity\u201d by Wanqiao Liang, Ehsan Ghasemiestahbanati, Nathan T. Eden, Durga Acharya, Cara M. Doherty, Mainak Majumder and Matthew R. Hill, 19 May 2025, Angewandte Chemie International Edition.
DOI: 10.1002\/anie.202505383<\/a><\/p>\n

Never miss a breakthrough: Join the SciTechDaily newsletter.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Researchers in Australia have created a new kind of water-based \u201cflow battery\u201d that could transform how households store…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4445,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[5534,1435,85,46,5535,5536,141,5537],"class_list":{"0":"post-4444","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-science","8":"tag-battery-technology","9":"tag-energy","10":"tag-il","11":"tag-israel","12":"tag-monash-university","13":"tag-renewable-energy","14":"tag-science","15":"tag-solar-power"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4444","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4444"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4444\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4445"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4444"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4444"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4444"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}