Team Siliconindia

• VFlowTech partners with IIT Delhi’s FITT to recover battery-grade vanadium from petcoke waste, creating India’s first circular vanadium ecosystem for clean energy storage.
• The initiative supports India’s 500 GW renewable energy goal by 2030, strengthening domestic supply chains for vanadium redox flow batteries and reducing reliance on imports.
• VFlowTech’s PowerCubes offer high-efficiency, long-duration energy storage, performing in extreme conditions where lithium batteries fail ideal for tropical regions.

VFlowTech, a developer of long-duration energy storage solutions, has signed a strategic partnership with the Foundation for Innovation and Technology Transfer (FITT) the industry outreach of Indian Institute of Technology Delhi (IIT Delhi) to work on recovering high-purity vanadium from petroleum coke (petcoke) cinder, a waste product obtained from India's large refining sector.

The program seeks to create India's first vanadium circular ecosystem, taking refinery waste and turning it into battery-grade vanadium pentoxide (V₂O₅) an essential material utilized in next-generation long-duration batteries supporting grid resilience and renewable energy rollout.

Supported by its recent $20 million Series A+ funding, VFlowTech is strengthening local research and development capabilities, and enabling a 'Made-in-India' vanadium value chain for vanadium redox flow batteries.

"India's refinery scale offers a special opportunity to create an indigenous vanadium ecosystem. Repurposing waste into battery products addresses energy security and industrial sustainability at one go", said VFlowTech Co-Founder and CEO Dr. Avishek Kumar.

We are thrilled to be associated with this pioneering initiative. Through creating India's first circular vanadium ecosystem, we hope to complement the vision of developing renewable energy capacity of 500 GW by 2030. This collaboration will further drive India's clean energy transition to new heights by enhancing the indigenous supply chain ecosystem", stated Professor Anil Verma, Department of Chemical Engineering, IIT Delhi.

According to industry estimates, the worldwide vanadium redox flow battery production market is poised for high growth during 2025-2030 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of approximately 20-25%. The growth is necessitated by rising demand for mass energy storage solutions by various industries to aid renewable energy integration and grid stability. The Asia-Pacific market is likely to lead both production and installation underpinned by government support.

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India added a record 29.52 GW of renewable energy in FY 2024-25, with total capacity reaching 220.10 GW, according to the Ministry of New & Renewable Energy (MNRE) putting the country on track to meet 500 GW of non-fossil fuel capacity by 2030 under PM Modi’s ‘Panchamrit’ pledge. It is also one of the world's biggest oil refiners, but presently imports the majority of its vanadium, creating a gap in energy storage supply chains.

The refinery waste generates massive quantities of petcoke cinder that has valuable vanadium content. This partnership will create that gap by recovering vanadium domestically from petcoke waste, driving both economic and environmental sustainability.

VFlowTech's vanadium redox flow battery systems, the PowerCubes, are optimized for high-efficiency long-duration storage. Contrary to traditional batteries, PowerCubes have a compact Power Stack design, which optimises energy density without wasted space. They have higher round-trip efficiency than traditional industry standards, with the potential for little energy loss in storage cycles. Another notable capability is their ability to function in far-offshore extreme temperatures over 55°C, making them perfectly suited for use in tropical regions where lithium batteries do not survive.