DIY experimental Redox Flow Battery kit (fbrc.dev)

submitted 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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The guys at Flow Battery Research Collective have been designing a Redox Flow Battery development kit that you can build yourself using a 3d printer and a few tools. It's a desktop size flow battery that you can use to either do your own research, e.g. on different electrolytes or just to replicate their experimental findings.

Redox Flow Batteries have the potential to become grid scale or home electric energy storage solutions that are way better for the environment than current lithium based batteries. They can often scale power and capacity independently and allow for repairs.

The FBRC project wants to spread the knowledge on RFBs and help kickstart a global community that develops sustainable energy storage technology in an ope source fashion.

Beware that the project is still in its infancy and sourcing the materials can be a bit of a challenge. Be sure to ask around in the forums for help!

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[-] [email protected] 2 points 2 weeks ago

Plastic tubing wears out because its continuously deformed. Also the backflow

[-] [email protected] 2 points 2 weeks ago

Hmm.. I use cheapass silicone tubing, 5mm ID 7mm OD and wear hasn't been an issue. Perhaps you compress the tube too much. The tube should be held shut so that no liquid flows backwards but also not compressed so much that it wears the tubing out. Your pump should have a variable tensioner on it.

Perhaps also you don't have enough rollers. At least one roller needs to be in full contact with the tubing (compressing) so that there is no backflow.

[-] [email protected] 1 points 2 weeks ago

Not sure what applications you have for your stack, but runtime of tubes is significant when considering operational lifetime in design.

[-] [email protected] 2 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

Hmm. I have a 12 channel peristaltic pump at the moment that is meant for watering plants. Meaning they have a lot of downtime so the tubes are compressed for quite some time at the same spot.

Ignore the yellow rollers in the image below, that was experimental. The final version has 3 all metal rollers so the tube is always compressed at one point. Over the tubes are U shaped bracket is mounted for compression.

It's an entirely custom design from scratch and haven't uploaded the model to a 3D printing website yet but plan on doing so.

this post was submitted on 20 Jul 2025

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