india-s-first-circular-vanadium-ecosystem-to-be-established

India will soon have its own indigenous circular vanadium ecosystem that extracts battery-grade vanadium from refinery waste.

A strategic partnership between VFlowTech, a storage solutions provider, and IIT, Delhi’s industry interface, Foundation for Innovation and Technology Transfer (FITT), will aim at researching into recovering high-purity vanadium pentoxide (V₂O₅) – a critical material used in next-generation long-duration batteries that support grid stability and renewable energy deployment, from petcoke.

A statement released by the partners said the partnership sets the course for a circular, self-reliant vanadium ecosystem that turns waste into value and strengthens the domestic supply chain, thereby accelerating India's energy transition.

 

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

Backed by its recent USD 20 million Series A+ funding, VFlowTech is investing in India’s clean energy future by furthering local research and development capabilities. 

It also hopes to support the ‘Made in India’ vanadium value chain for vanadium redox flow batteries (VRFBs).

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 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.