Grid Think

I have written about the economics before, $4/lb or $9/kg of Chinese Vanadium Pentoxide makes $70/kWh in just the electrolyte cost of the Vanadium Flow batteries, this cost excludes converting the ore into battery grade electrolyte, tanks, pumps, pipes and cell stack (which adds up  quickly by the way), the total cost of the system can sit well above $200/kWh depending on the specs of the battery. Now if you want an LFP battery, its landed cost would be around $120/kWh. That's a 40% discount !! So the obvious question arises, who buys such an expensive battery ? And how does it make any financial sense to buy a VFB ? If you consider the upfront cost of VFBs they can never be competitive- You can say that LFP degrades and VFB doesn't, so over a long period of time, VFB would be cheaper, but VFB takes a lot more space, and that cost has to be accounted for, I have run some financial models but VFBs can never be competitive with LFPs, let alone much cheaper Sodium Ion batteries ab...

Nafion and FumaSep, both membranes are pretty expensive for me, and if they are expensive for me I don't think they would be any cheaper for any Flow Battery manufacturer. Because its basic economics, if your raw materials are expensive your end product can't be cheap. So most flow battery manufacturers don't really bother with inventing new membranes, they use a material called DARAMIC separator, it is made up of Polypropylene (PP) or Polyethylene (PE) sheets with micro level holes in them, nothing new, its a 50 year old separator material which is used to separate positive and negative side. Daramic is used in literally all batteries, you name it, Lithium Ion, Sodium Ion, Lead Acid , All- Iron Hybrid Batteries and yes even Vanadium Redox Flow Batteries.  Source There has been substantial amount of research on cheap membranes, but most of them last only a few weeks and the membranes that actually last.... well they are Nafion and Fumasep. But Daramic works in a fundamental...

After reading the Vanadium post, I am sure its pretty clear that VRFBs are expensive but they are one of the oldest, most stable, most deployed and proven redox flow battery chemistry yet. So, I feel its worth giving Vanadium another chance before dismissing it fully. Vanadium Supply Chain As of 2026, global Vanadium production is 100,000 metric tons, that may sound like a lot, but its tiny, to put that in perspective, we produce 3x more Lithium and we still need to discover and open new lithium mines, and Lithium supply chains are considered to be volatile.  Since we are talking about supply chain, its obvious to see when you buy Lithium or Vanadium ores, where exactly are they being dug up. Lithium producing countries- Source Vanadium producing countries - Source I'll be honest even I am a little surprised, I imagined Lithium to be produced in China, and its an obvious assumption, if the biggest lithium ion battery makers are Chinese, it would be obvious to think that its produce...

Search flow batteries anywhere on the internet, you'll find Vanadium's monopoly, ask any AI model about flow batteries and they'll assume vanadium and give you all the information. That's because Vanadium Redox Flow Batteries (or VRFBs in short) are already being commercialized, or at least they're trying their best.  I'll try to explain why, but before i move further, i forgot to explain the redox part in the last 2 posts. All Batteries are Redox Batteries- Batteries have 3 basic parts, positive side (cathode), negative side (anode) and a membrane or separator. So, when you connect a charger to your phone, the charger takes electrons from positive and gives it to the negative side, but if the positive and negative mix together they will neutralize each other, so they need to be separated by separator (or membrane). The word "redox" is made of two words : Reduction- gaining of electrons (by the negative side) Oxidation - loss of electrons (by the posit...