Flow Battery Research Collective

Video of the talk is now available here! https://video.fosdem.org/2026/aw1126/3EEZZB-open-source-batteries.av1.webm

Hello, I recently found out about flow batteries. I can imagine that a working cheap diy battery would help in decarbonisation. I am usually jumping into projects and helping out where help is needed. I do mostly software, organize open communities in my town in Austria, and doing all sorts of diy stuff at home.

This guy made a zinc/iron cell. He put carbon felt in the iron side chamber and some sort of fiber glass in the zinc side to control dendrites. Would have to go through the video again to see. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cp3tvMAlrkE

I'm no chemist, so this may not apply here, but I've been looking at info on different batteries. I looked at Nickel/Iron because of their known long life. One change mention from original Edison design is adding a little Lithium oxide or dioxide ( forget exactly) to the electrolyte To extend the life of the Iron electrode. There was also something about making plates (instead of just using sheets of iron) using iron powder with carbon (for conductivity) and something else which I forget that reduced the production of hydrogen.