bi-ION – Energy of the Future

The nanoFlowcell® is based on the principle of the redox flow battery (RFB) – often called a liquid battery. At its heart lies a simple idea: generating electricity directly from liquids. These liquids are electrolyte solutions, and in our case, the breakthrough lies in bi-ION®.

bi-ION® is not just salt water. It’s a conductive liquid of organic and inorganic salts dissolved in water, enriched with nano-engineered particles developed in our Digilab. These particles – designed at the molecular level – are suspended in the liquid and act as the true energy carriers.

This scale illustrates why bi-ION® performs so differently from conventional electrolytes. Where standard redox batteries rely on dissolved salts for energy transfer, bi-ION®’s nano-particles store and release far more energy. The result: energy densities above 600 Wh per litre, a record-breaking figure for liquid electrolytes.

The exact molecular structure of bi-ION® remains proprietary – and deliberately unpatented. As a privately financed project, nanoFlowcell Holdings has no need to disclose trade secrets before commercial rollout, unlike many research institutes that depend on public funding. This secrecy ensures a comfortable technological lead.

bi-ION^® electrolyte solutions. Coloured here to differentiate between positively and negatively charged solutions

Though often described as “the bi-ION liquid,” the truth is more nuanced. bi-ION® actually consists of two separate electrolyte solutions:

• one positively charged,
  
• one negatively charged.

Both circulate in separate loops within the system. At the heart of the nanoFlowcell®, a special membrane allows ions to cross, triggering redox reactions: oxidation and reduction. In this process, chemical energy becomes electrical energy.

Once the reaction is complete, the electrolytes are neutralised – unlike in conventional flow cells, where they can be recharged. This irreversible principle is the key to higher energy density. You don’t recharge a nanoFlowcell®. You refill it.

That means: nanoFlowcell® combines the familiarity of refueling with the clean performance of a solid-state battery.

To see nanoFlowcell® in practice, look at the QUANT 48VOLT – our mobile application.

• The system stores electrolytes in external tanks.
• During driving, spent electrolyte is filtered. Solid residues are captured; the remaining liquid is released as pure water.
• The filter itself is recyclable and replaced only after around 10,000 km of driving (or 1,500–2,000 litres of throughput).

When the tanks run low, you simply refill with fresh bi-ION®. No battery swaps, no lengthy charging cables, no exotic service procedures. Refueling is as quick as filling with petrol or diesel – but far cleaner.

The hardware is designed for longevity: 50,000 operating hours. At an average EV speed of 45 km/h, this equals about 2.25 million kilometers of driving.

And the system isn’t limited to cars. Its scalability means it can power everything from small grids to terrestrial applications requiring continuous, stable energy.

Producing bi-ION® is not a trivial task. It is the result of a highly sophisticated, multi-stage process that transforms raw materials into a clean, safe, and highly energetic electrolyte solution. At present, bi-ION® is produced primarily in laboratory-scale quantities, but there are no fundamental barriers to scaling production to industrial levels.

In fact, our first prototype production facility has already demonstrated what this means: its capacity is sufficient to fill more than 40 tanker trucks of bi-ION® every single day.

What’s most remarkable is the purity of the process. All chemical inputs are carefully neutralised during production to ensure they pose no health or environmental risks. There are no toxic by-products, no hazardous residues, and no waste streams that require costly disposal. Instead, any residual materials are recycled directly back into the production cycle, creating a clean, closed-loop system.

Why bi-ION® is more efficient

• Lithium-ion: Charging losses up to 20% – a 50 kWh battery may need 60 kWh input.
• Hydrogen: 1 kg (100 km range) requires up to 100 kWh to produce; more than 50% energy lost in compression, liquefaction, and transport.
• bi-ION®: Efficient production, minimal losses, fast refill, no hidden inefficiencies.

Bottom line: bi-ION® is clean to produce, cheap to scale, and vastly more efficient than lithium-ion or hydrogen – the clear path to sustainable mobility.

Like all energy carriers, producing bi-ION® requires energy. But here lies a decisive advantage: in an optimised production line, it takes considerably less than 1 kWh of electricity to produce 1 kWh-equivalent of usable bi-ION®. In other words, the conversion is extremely efficient compared to hydrogen or lithium-ion systems.

On an industrial scale, production costs – including raw materials – are expected to remain below €0.10 per litre of bi-ION®.

To give this some perspective:

• A facility with a daily output of 2 million litres (requiring roughly 1.2 MW of electricity input) would be sufficient to continuously supply around 300,000 nanoFlowcell-powered electric vehicles.
• This isn’t a distant vision – it is entirely realistic with today’s engineering.

Another crucial strength of bi-ION® lies in its raw material base. All ingredients required for its production are widely available across the globe. They are not rare, not geographically restricted, and not politically sensitive. They can be extracted and processed economically in almost any region.

This makes bi-ION® a non-political energy carrier – in sharp contrast to crude oil, coal, or the rare-earth elements needed for lithium-ion batteries.

The vision of nanoFlowcell Holdings is that every nation could one day produce its own bi-ION® locally, eliminating dependency on imported energy and covering both mobile and stationary energy needs with clean, home-grown resources.

And because bi-ION® is liquid, its distribution and retail infrastructure could follow the same model as today’s fuel stations. Refueling a nanoFlowcell-powered vehicle would take just a few minutes – familiar, quick, and convenient – but with one decisive difference: instead of fossil fuels, the pump dispenses clean bi-ION®.