Industry Sprints

Battery Parametrisation Best Practice (BP)^2

The Universities of Oxford and Warwick are addressing the significant industry need for clear, standardised best practices for electrochemical battery model parameterisation workflows that can be used to fit and validate BPX parameter sets from data.

Battery Model Validation Standards (BMVS)

The University of Bristol and About:Energy, will develop a robust validation framework that complements the BPX Standard by validating models against real-world operation.

High Frequency Ripple Charging / Discharging

Providing insights into the effects of high frequency ripple charge/discharge on the performance and lifetime of commercial prismatic lithium iron phosphate cells.

Ultra-fast "self-parameterisation" for lithium-ion battery models

University of Portsmouth in collaboration with Elysia – Battery Intelligence from Fortescue Zero will address the challenge of fast, accurate parameterisation of lithium-ion battery models.

Critical materials recovery protocols – Graphite (CMRP-gr)

The University of Birmingham and EMR are partnering to develop eco-friendly methods for recovering and regenerating graphite from EV battery recycling

Prototype sodium-ion batteries employing an anthracite derived carbon anode

Swansea University and Batri will assess the suitability of Welsh anthracite coal as a precursor material for high performance carbonaceous anodes for use in sodium-ion batteries.  

AI-driven Advanced Diagnostics and Control for Optimal High-performance Operation of Batteries

Leveraging AI to decouple and quantify degradation mechanisms of energy-dense batteries, enabling smart control strategies for high-performance system operation that minimise degradation.

Understanding safety for next generation battery technologies

The University of Oxford, UCL and Ilika will establish thought leadership in safety protocols for next-generation batteries and undertake physical safety testing on prototype solid-state cells, to inform industrial design and deployment.

Niobium oxide recycling and development of industrial capabilities (NORDIC)

The University of Birmingham is evaluating hydrometallurgical and direct recycling routes for Echion’s mixed niobium-oxide anode active materials (XNO®) to determine the most feasible option to deliver a high-quality recycled product.

Microstructural design of LMFP cathodes through machine learning assisted manufacturing optimisation

WMG, University of Warwick, will utilise Polaron’s AI optimisation algorithm to design enhanced LMFP electrodes to improve cell performance.

NextCell – Next Generation Cell Design

Adopting a systems-engineering methodology to the challenges of cell design, manufacturability, and through-life sustainability.

High Voltage Oxide Cathodes for Sodium-ion Batteries

Exploiting recent advances in the understanding of oxygen redox chemistry to develop new positive electrode materials for sodium-ion batteries.

High Voltage Redox Flow Batteries for Demanding Applications

Advancing flow battery technology to permit stable battery operation in air, increasing system robustness and capacity and potentially reducing energy costs.

Supported Thin Films for Oxide Electrolytes

Researchers at the University of St Andrews are working with Morgan Advanced Materials, in collaboration with Ilika, to develop and optimise the process of making supported thin, dense films for use as electrolytes for solid state batteries. Photo courtesy of Ilika.

Materials For Thermal Transfer

This sprint is looking at the development of nanomaterials composites, phase change materials and functional scaffold materials to optimise thermal control of a battery pack with the aim of informing module manufacturing and optimising performance and longevity.

ELMASS - Screening of Electrode Manufacturing for All-Solid-State Batteries

WMG, University of Warwick, Johnson Matthey, and Jaguar Land Rover are working together on an Industry Sprint to unlock a path to scale up the type of solid-state batteries being investigated by SOLBAT.

ZeST – Li-ion Conducting Fibre for Composite Solid-state Electrolytes

Thermal Ceramics UK Ltd, a subsidiary of Morgan Advanced Materials, will work with the novel glass group at Southampton University to develop a process to manufacture specialist lithium-ion conducting fibres of a new composition to a tight tolerance with high yield.

Xerode – Dry Printing Technology Accelerator

Xerode aims to overcome current limitations of state-of-the-art slurry-based electrode manufacturing processes by investigating the technical feasibility of a completely dry coating technique.

Accelerating Commercialisation of New Scalable and Sustainable Manufacturing Methods for Silicon Anodes

Accelerating the Commercialisation of a Scalable, Sustainable Method for Manufacturing Porous Silicon for use in Graphite Anodes

TOPBAT – Optimising Pack Design for Thermal Management

Imperial College London researchers, in collaboration with AMTE Power, looked to optimise pack design for thermal management and demonstrate the current practice of optimising cell design largely around energy density is suboptimal for pack energy density, cost and lifetime.

Off Gases And Detonation Behaviour

By combining multiple techniques to describe the mechanism of failure, gases produced during an event, energy/mass released, and any geometric changes, models were built that will enable faster, more efficient pack development processes.

VIPER - Validated and Integrated Platform for Battery Remaining Useful Life

This sprint follows on from COBRA - a Faraday Battery Challenge collaborative R&D project. It accelerated the development of a working prototype of a prediction system for remaining useful life of lithium-ion batteries.

Cell Degradation

In Phase 2 of this Sprint, forensic characterisation was performed to determine the root causes of the specific degradation mechanisms that drive the unexpected capacity loss in select battery chemistries

Developing Commercially Viable Quasi Solid-state Lithium-sulfur Cells

This Sprint project focused on the development of quasi-solid-state Li-S batteries that have the potential to significantly enhance the number of times Li-S batteries can be charged before they reach end of life, the energy they can store per unit volume and the temperature range over which they can operate.