It was only a matter of time—before Influit Energy would need to hire more scientists, before the 2,100-square-foot lab space that the company occupies in Chicago’s West Loop neighborhood would grow too small, and before the three co-founders of the startup whose history is inextricably linked to Illinois Institute of Technology would be ready to publicly disclose what they have created: the world’s first rechargeable, safe, electric fuel.

“We have created a new type of flow battery that is predicated upon a composite material that we invented, which is a nanofluid where the nanoparticles are battery-active materials, which we called nanoelectrofuel, or NEF,” says John Katsoudas (M.S. PHYS ’03), co-founder and CEO of Influit Energy. “All of the technology has come together—we have a crystal-clear path before us.”

Leading the company alongside Katsoudas are co-founders Elena Timofeeva—chief operating officer, director of research and development, and a research associate professor of chemistry at Illinois Tech—and Carlo Segre, who serves as chief technology officer, chief financial officer, and as a professor of physics at Illinois Tech.

The United States government has played a critical role in Influit Energy’s growth, awarding the company more than $10 million in contracts to fund the design and fabrication of NEF flow battery prototypes that will allow several agencies to utilize Influit Energy’s batteries in electric vehicles and aircraft.

“The unique high-energy density liquid format of the NEF flow batteries allows use of the same fluids in different devices, meaning fluid, charged at the recharging station from renewable energy sources or a grid, can be used to rapidly refuel vehicles, or for stationary storage and other large portable applications,” Timofeeva says. “Discharged fluid can be returned to a recharge/refuel station for recharging or be charged inside the device by plugging into the power source.”

The company’s current client roster includes NASA, the U.S. Department of Defense’s Defense Advanced Research Project Agency (DARPA), and two grant-awarding programs operated by the U.S. Air Force: AFWERX, a team of innovators fostering collaborations across the military, academia, and industry, and the Small Business Innovation Research program.