The glaring detail missing is: Storage capacity per volume and weight.

@ Paul van Dinther Clearly they are not suitable for an EV or flashlight but maybe for for storing your expensive electricity.

The picture of AA (AAA?) batteries is seriously misleading, even the caption describes it as a flow battery ie pipes connecting separated liquids to a reaction chamber.
I agree with PvD. Any reporting on flow batteries should mention energy density and estimates of unit cost. It is a technology on the verge of commercialization and if we're to be impressed we need something to compare it by.

updating information on these discoveries is one of the tasks that seems to be missing in gizmag.com also. Not only improvements, but also in discarding failed "improvements" that don't measure up eventually and the reasons why they were discarded. future researchers would be able to look at why the method was discarded and perhaps come up with a variation that does work.

some of the data is presented in the journal link posted, but i didn't see any figures on: 1. how much energy it took to run the pumps. 2. how much energy it took to recharge the battery in comparison to how much it puts out. 3. what the static discharge rate of the battery is over time. i just scanned the journal article, so i may have missed that data.

With their lying about Lithium it's hard to take them seriously.
Nor are their scaling points valid as others do too and are already tested, viable.
Just 1 problem, there is NO market for grid size batteries as there are over 10 kinds yet no utility will buy them except grants and being forced.
If there was any before, that ended when the new NG GT CC 60% eff powerplants that can be eff throttled to 50% power to follow the load, killed any market left.
The RE variability is propaganda and what little problem there is, is easily, cheaply solved. Utilities have handled far more variability on the demand side for 100+ yrs.,
Sounds like grant hyping to me.

They've been experimenting with flow batteries in Alaska (almost certainly not the same formulation) for some time now. It's a promising technology for storing large amounts of energy, where space is not an issue, but cost and durability are. I haven't heard any success stories as of yet; they haven't performed as advertised; they're full of technical glitches.... but that's where the technology is at.... trying to make that giant leap from the laboratory to a commercially viable product. The creativity & motivation of folks like the scientists at USC will definitely help it along.

Performance details, please!

This is already being done with patents pending in a 13 countries!
The portable demo units are 12volts the home units are 110v with some units being in use for over 3 years
http://www.google.com/patents/WO2013116950A1#!

But I can see the ads now - "New Prius 2 with Earth-friendly Organic battery! Vehicle holds one occupant"...
And some folks will rush out to buy