The Faraday Institution is pleased to announce it has awarded a further two Entrepreneurial Fellowships.
The Entrepreneurial Fellowship programme supports researchers across the UK looking to create new businesses and commercialise battery technologies. Fellowships receive mentoring, strategic business advice and introductions to key industry contacts.
Introducing the new Fellowships:
Recovolt – Smart Battery Discharge
Recovolt is developing a cutting-edge battery discharge system that is deployed on lithium-ion batteries at their end-of-life to ready them for battery recycling. By leveraging advanced power electronics and intelligent algorithms the technology can discharge multiple batteries simultaneously – addressing a productivity area that the recycling industry has identified as needing urgent action. The technology not only addresses fire risks but also captures residual energy, turning a hazard into an asset that can be used to power facilities, offsetting operational costs. The innovation also has potential use by scrap yards and insurance companies by ensuring safe storage, faster transport and value generation from assessing written-off vehicle batteries for reuse.
The team has developed a prototype and integrated and tested subsystems in a controlled laboratory environment. It has also developed a business model, informed by taking part in ICURe and Conception X incubator programmes, and an Impact Accelerator Award.
The aim of the 12-month Faraday Institution Entrepreneurial Fellowship is to facilitate the development of a scaled prototype, which will provide future validation and unlock future feasibility studies with potential customers. Besides providing business mentoring, the fellowship will pay for staff salaries, materials and manufacturing of the prototype, lab costs, test equipment and engagement with a consultancy to further refine the value proposition.
Founder, Mahfuz Kamal, is a recent graduate of Newcastle University and was a member of the first cohort of Faraday Institution PhD researchers. The technology originated from Mahfuz’s PhD thesis: “Energy management techniques to discharge lithium-ion batteries prior to recycling,” which he completed as part of the ReLiB project.
TaiSan Energy – Next-Generation Sodium-ion Batteries
TaiSan Energy is pursuing the development of a quasi-solid-state sodium-ion battery based on an innovative gel polymer electrolyte and a sodium metal anode to achieve best-in-class energy density and industry-standard room-temperature ionic conductivity.
The concept eliminates the use of a flammable liquid, potentially further enhancing the safety profile of sodium-ion batteries. The team uses a novel polymerisation method to enable an ideal interface between electrolyte-electrode and that removes the need for a high cell stacking pressure. Early indications show that this process approach will be scalable using over 70% of existing lithium-ion battery production lines. The concept retains the low-cost benefits of sodium-ion cells, making it suitable for price-sensitive applications.
The aim of the Faraday Institution Entrepreneurial Fellowship is to advance its product development, which would allow the company to pursue agreements with battery OEMs to license its technology. At the end of the fellowship prototype battery cells will be supplied to customers to conduct preliminary independent cell tests.
Besides providing business mentoring, the fellowship will pay for staff salaries, raw material purchases, and manufacturing of electrodes, custom electrolyte, and the assembly of coin and monolayer/multi-layer small pouch cells. These activities will be carried out by TaiSan’s in-house lab and the support from Coventry University. Cell performance will be characterised after cycling to validate modelling predictions of cell cycle life.
The company’s founder and CEO, Sanzhar Taizhan, completed a Faraday Institution FUSE internship in 2018.
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