Engineering the Physical Backbone of a Flow Cell Battery Storage & Developing the Energy Storage Platform

Background

Vanadium redox flow batteries (VRFB) are emerging as the backbone of long-duration, grid-scale storage offering long cycle life, deep discharge and intrinsic safety over lithium-ion. The global VRFB market was valued at ~USD 395 million in 2023 and is projected to reach ~USD 1.38 billion by 2030, growing at ~19.7% CAGR, driven by renewable integration and demand for reliable backup power. Early in this curve, an US based Global Energy OEM set out to commercialise space-grade flow-battery technology evolving from Iron-Chromium to a low-grade Vanadium single-acid chemistry into a field-deployable platform.

Engaged since the incorporation with the customer, Tata Elxsi supported technology development / R&D for the initial three years, then productisation, staffing the entire Mechanical Engineering and Firmware teams, enabling OEM to focus on its core electrochemistry. Tata Elxsi delivered end-to-end mechanical engineering of the flow-cell stack, fluidics, power-electronics packaging, thermal management and enclosure helped demonstrate the technology at a commercially viable application level and provided product-level development support for the first-generation test launch to larger, more powerful and efficient systems.

Challenges

The customer needed to take an innovative flow battery concept through the complete product development lifecycle, from fundamental research and stack engineering to production readiness, field installation and after-sales support.

• Technology Productization: Transforming a research-driven energy storage technology into a commercially viable product platform required coordinated product engineering across multiple disciplines.
• Integrated System Architecture: Mechanical systems, fluidics, power electronics, sensors, control firmware, monitoring applications and communications had to operate as one integrated energy storage system.
• Scalable Product Development: The architecture needed to support multiple energy storage system variants and power classes rather than a single product configuration
• Advanced Monitoring and Control: The platform required charging and discharging control, thermal management, pump and fluid-level control, state-of-charge computation, fault detection and external system communication.
• Production and Field Readiness: The solution had to progress through research, engineering, production readiness, certification, field installation, after-sales support and maintenance.

Solutions

Tata Elxsi delivered end-to-end mechanical design & engineering from flow-cell stack to field enclosure to taking the platform across six power classes through Research, Engineering, Production Readiness, Certification, Field Installation and After-Sales Support & Maintenance.

• Flow-Cell Stack Design & Prototyping: Mechanical design of the flow-cell stack at the heart of the energy storage platform, developed through fundamental materials research and stack engineering, along with custom sensing module development and full prototype builds to enable validation ahead of production.
• Power Electronics & Thermal Management: Compact, serviceable power electronics packaging with heat-dissipation and thermal design for stable operation in rugged ambient conditions.
• Fluidics & Balance of Plant: Electrolyte fluid-management system design covering pumps, plumbing and balance-of-plant across the integrated system.
• System Architecture & Field Deployment: Co-developed the system HW/SW architecture and state-machine design, progressing through pilot production, plant transfer to India and field installation across 5, 30 and 250, 1000 kW systems.
• Monitoring, ATE & Validation: Flow battery monitoring and control application with data visualisation, plus Automated Test Equipment for the L-Cell systems to control R&D charging/discharging procedures.
• Firmware Controller & BMS: Control firmware for the main and rebalance boards, delivering charge/discharge control, thermal, DG-set interface board and wireless communication device. Also delivered pump and level management, fault detection, SOC and kWh computation, and data communication over RS-232.
• Remote Monitoring & Control Architecture: Co-developed and implemented the remote monitoring and control architecture with data collection and transfer to a central repository, underpinning the digital platform across security, field support and diagnostics, predictive analytics, customer interface, field network architecture and site SCADA integration.
• NPI Transfer & Digital Architecture: Manufacturing transfer (including plant transfer to India), product variants and value engineering, alongside a digital platform covering remote monitoring, security, diagnostics, predictive analytics and site SCADA integration, and field diagnostics enabling after-sales support and maintenance.

Impact Delivered

From co-developing the core technology to enabling multi-continental field deployment, Tata Elxsi helped transform a startup vision into a commercially proven, sustainable flow battery platform.

• Co-Developed Battery Stack (PEM): Enabled co-development of the battery stack through extensive experimentation and research, forming the technological core of the platform.
• Six Power Classes Engineered: Delivered a full stack spanning 6 kW to 1000 kW, with an architecture scalable to lower-cost product variants.
• Commercialisation Enabled: Took the technology from first-generation launch to a commercial-grade 2.3 MW / 2.7 MWh container-class HVAC solution.
• 3 Continents Reached: Field deployment across Africa, India and the United States.
• Advancing the Clean-Energy Transition: By enabling 60% diesel gen-set replacement and reliable long-duration storage, the platform reduces fossil-fuel dependence and carbon emissions at field sites supporting higher renewable-energy utilisation, grid stability and uninterrupted power.

Services Rendered

• Mechanical Design & Engineering
• Hardware & Firmware Design
• Controller Board Design
• Fluidics & Thermal Management
• Prototyping & Validation
• Flow-Cell Stack Design
• Packaging & Enclosure Engineering
• NPI Transfer & Manufacturing Support
• Value Engineering
• Custom Sensor Development