Kirk Smith and Colleagues Aim to "Democratize Flow Batteries" with an Open Source Development Kit
Scientist Kirk Smith has shared fresh details on an ongoing effort to "democratize flow batteries" — with the creation and release of a development kit for an open source battery, tailored for the capture and storage of renewable energy.
"There's not really a great option for an open-source battery," Smith explains of the inspiration behind the project. "And even if there was an open-source lithium battery, you'd probably need a billion dollars to set up a factory to produce it according to the requirements. That's why I'm working primarily on water-based batteries, particularly flow batteries. We started a project called the Flow Battery Research Collective. We've already made a development kit that lets us test different flow battery chemistries at a two-centimeter scale, and we're in the process of testing different chemistries in this kit and then trying to scale it up."
The current boom in renewables means it's possible...
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