VFlowTech, IIT Delhi: Vanadium Extraction from Refinery Waste

New Delhi, Jul 29 (PTI) Storage solutions provider VFlowTech on Tuesday announced a strategic collaboration with Foundation for Innovation and Technology Transfer (FITT) for research into recovering high-purity vanadium from petcoke.

The FITT is an industry interface of the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi (IIT Delhi).

The initiative aims to establish India's first circular vanadium ecosystem, converting refinery waste into battery-grade vanadium pentoxide (V2O5) - a critical material used in next-generation long-duration batteries that support grid stability and renewable energy deployment, a statement said.

According to the statement, this partnership sets the course for a circular, self-reliant vanadium ecosystem - one that turns waste into value, strengthens the domestic supply chain, and accelerates India's energy transition.

Backed by its recent USD 20 million Series A+ funding, VFlowTech is investing in India's clean energy future by advancing local research and development capabilities, and supporting a 'Made-in-India' vanadium value chain for vanadium redox flow batteries (VRFBs).

"India's refinery scale presents a unique opportunity to build a homegrown vanadium ecosystem. By repurposing waste into battery materials, we're addressing energy security and industrial sustainability in one step," Avishek Kumar, Co-Founder and CEO of VFlowTech, said.

The waste from the refineries produces large amounts of petcoke cinder, which contains significant vanadium content. This collaboration will fill that gap by extracting vanadium domestically from petcoke waste, advancing both economic and environmental sustainability.

"By establishing India's first circular vanadium ecosystem, we aim to support the vision of creating renewable energy capacity of 500 GW by 2030," said Anil Verma from the Department of Chemical Engineering at IIT Delhi.

As per the industry estimates, the statement said, the global VRFB manufacturing market is on the verge of robust growth between 2025 and 2030 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of approximately 20-25 per cent.

Industry projections highlight that the revenue from VRFB manufacturing will surpass USD 2 billion by 2030.

Established in 2018, VFlowTech is a deep tech company pioneering vanadium redox flow battery (VRFB) systems and hybrid batteries for long-duration energy storage.