Quino Energy
Assembly Line
Quino Energy Achieves Manufacturing Readiness Level 7 for its First-of-its-Kind Zero-Waste, Continuous Production Organic Flow Battery Process
Quino Energy, a company developing water-based organic flow batteries, has achieved manufacturing readiness level (MRL) 7 for its battery active material pilot production line. This designation confirms that the line is ready for low-rate initial production of Quino Energy’s proprietary quinone battery active material, a key component of commercial and grid-scale flow batteries.
The pilot line converts cheap and abundant dyestuff chemicals into high-performance, long-lifetime quinone battery active material through an electrochemical reaction, using a modified flow battery stack itself as the chemical reactor. The product from the reaction does not require downstream purification – meaning zero chemical waste – and can be directly cycled inside a commercial flow battery system. At full production rate, the line can produce up to 100 kWh of these organic battery material reactants per day at a cost comparable to or lower than vanadium, a critical material commonly sourced from Russia or China that has been used in most flow batteries to date. This production line represents the first example of U.S. domestic manufacturing of flow battery active material and showcases how easily Quino Energy’s proprietary zero-waste production process can be scaled up to achieve lower costs.