{"id":306381,"date":"2026-07-27T10:33:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-27T10:33:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/306381\/"},"modified":"2026-07-27T10:33:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-27T10:33:08","slug":"queens-university-belfast-open-sources-a-sustainable-3d-printed-flow-battery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/306381\/","title":{"rendered":"Queen’s University Belfast Open-Sources a Sustainable, 3D Printed Flow Battery"},"content":{"rendered":"

Researchers at Queen\u2019s University Belfast<\/a> have built a 3D printed flow battery cell that costs around \u00a375 to make, against the \u00a32,000\u2013\u00a33,000 a commercial lab-grade equivalent typically runs, and are giving the design away for free to labs worldwide.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Dr Hugh O\u2019Connor and Dr Josh Bailey, from the university\u2019s School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, say the cell could accelerate research into large-scale, long-duration storage for intermittent renewable power, and, unusually for a lab tool, the point isn\u2019t to sell it but to get every research group using the same hardware.<\/p>\n

The project grew out of a practical problem. During his PhD, O\u2019Connor found that buying a commercial flow battery test cell for his own experiments would cost thousands of pounds, so he began 3D printing his own instead. \u201cAs part of my PhD research, I realised how expensive it was to buy a flow battery cell, anything up to \u00a33,000, so I started 3D printing them,\u201d he said. \u201cAfter a lot of trial and error, eventually these started to work really well and I was able to create one for around \u00a375.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"DrDr Josh Bailey and Dr Hugh O\u2019Connor are the scientists behind the research. Photo via Queen\u2019s University Belfast.<\/p>\n

An Ikea-style fix for a field-wide problem<\/p>\n

What turned a cost-cutting workaround into a wider research tool was a second problem O\u2019Connor ran into once he started comparing notes with other labs: nobody\u2019s results matched. \u201cWhen I compared the results to other research, I realised that standards are not the same across different laboratories and nobody was getting the same results because we were all using our flow batteries differently,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Rather than patent or sell the design, O\u2019Connor and Bailey packaged the roughly ten-part kit,\u00a0 3D printed flow pieces, membrane, gaskets, electrodes and current collectors, with a step-by-step build guide O\u2019Connor calls \u201cIkea-style,\u201d and sent identical cells to research partners.\u00a0<\/p>\n

More than 35 groups are now using it to run matched experiments under the same protocols, including teams at MIT<\/a>, Harvard<\/a> and Cambridge<\/a>. \u201cIt\u2019s been fantastic to see that we\u2019re already making global impact,\u201d said Bailey. \u201cBy distributing the Queen\u2019s cell around the world, we have been able to lead a large, international research study.\u201d<\/p>\n

3D printing batteries, sustainably<\/p>\n

Sustainability sits at the centre of Queen\u2019s strategy, not on top of it. The team picked iron chemistry specifically to avoid the two materials that dog most competing battery technologies: cobalt, whose mining raises well-documented ethical and environmental concerns, and vanadium, which is scarce, geographically concentrated, and prone to volatile pricing. Iron is abundant and easy to source almost anywhere, which means the sustainability case doesn\u2019t rest on a single clever material substitution, it\u2019s built into the choice of chemistry from the outset, and it\u2019s what makes an iron flow battery a genuinely viable, scalable option for storing wind and solar power rather than just a cheaper lab curiosity.<\/p>\n

Other groups have approached sustainable battery-making from different angles, also using 3D printing as the enabling technology. Researchers at EMPA 3D printed a supercapacitor<\/a> from a cellulose-and-glycerol substrate patterned with carbon and graphite ink, engineered specifically to be biodegradable and compostable once its working life is over, aimed at cutting the electronic-waste burden of the billions of low-power IoT and wearable devices now in circulation.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"TheThe researchers\u2019 3D printed supercapacitor. Photo via EMPA. <\/p>\n

German firm Blackstone Technology<\/a>, meanwhile, has taken 3D printing into series production of lithium-ion cells<\/a> using a patented, water-based printing process the company says cuts waste material by half and energy use by a quarter compared with conventional cell manufacturing.<\/p>\n

Different chemistries, different scales, same underlying bet: that 3D printing isn\u2019t just a faster or cheaper way to build a battery, but a way to build a genuinely greener one. Queen\u2019s contribution is proof that sustainability and accessibility can be the same design decision. That\u2019s a small but real step toward batteries that are cleaner by construction.<\/p>\n

3D Printing Industry is inviting speakers for its 2026 Additive Manufacturing Applications (AMA) series, covering Energy, Healthcare, Automotive and Mobility, Aerospace, Space and Defense, and Software. Each online event focuses on real production deployments, qualification, and supply chain integration. Practitioners interested in contributing can complete the call for speakers form here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

To stay up to date with the latest 3D printing news, don\u2019t forget to subscribe to the 3D Printing Industry newsletter<\/a> or follow us on LinkedIn<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Explore the full Future of 3D Printing<\/a> and Executive Survey<\/a> series from 3D Printing Industry, featuring perspectives from CEOs, engineers, and industry leaders on the industrialization of additive manufacturing<\/a>, 3D printing industry trends 2026<\/a>, qualification, supply chains, and additive manufacturing industry analysis<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Featured image shows Dr Josh Bailey and Dr Hugh O\u2019Connor are the scientists behind the research. Photo via Queen\u2019s University Belfast.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Researchers at Queen\u2019s University Belfast have built a 3D printed flow battery cell that costs around \u00a375 to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":306382,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[115967,82194,115968,16204,115969,115970,37006,9,24,63,18247,122,124,123],"class_list":["post-306381","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-queens","tag-blackstone-technology","tag-cambridge","tag-empa","tag-harvard","tag-hugh-oconnor","tag-josh-bailey","tag-mit","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-queens-university-belfast","tag-queens","tag-queens-headlines","tag-queens-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/306381","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=306381"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/306381\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/306382"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=306381"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=306381"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=306381"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}