I've found the inventive station, but i cant figure it out, are there some hints as to what it needs to be fed? I saw a reply to a similar question on the forums, but it wasnt clear as to what the hint actually was

Ok, ok....
Look at decider combinator. It shows some item, for example express-transport-belt. That means if you want to unlock this recipe, you need bring proper ingredients for this recipe (5x"iron-gear-well", 1x"fast-transport-belt" and "lubricant", for unmodified original recipe).

Okay, but how does one put in a liquid for the recipe?

Barrels?

I have tried with Sulfuric Acid when the recipe was batteries, it didn't work.

For original recipe of sulfuric acid, you must have: x5 sulfur, x1 iron-plate and x2 barrels of water. Or equivalent amount of coins.
Station choose recipe randomly from those which is not yet researched. And it depends on mods installed. Some mods may change existed recipes, some add new for existed products. Also recipes may produce several results and hint icon may vary depend of it. So is hard to predict what may goes wrong with non-original recipes.
When i tested it, i didn't activate any other mods. And all recipes is worked.
Also, bottled resources accepted in exchange if recipe require fluids.