The UK’s Faraday Institution is awarding up to £55 million (US$67.5m) to five consortia to support research for “step-changes” in battery chemistries, systems and manufacturing methods.
The institution said the goal was to help improve existing lithium and sodium-ion battery technologies used in electric vehicles and other applications such as grid-scale energy storage systems.
In addition, the funding will support R&D into developing materials and ‘optimisation projects’ to support the commercialisation of next-generation batteries.
Faraday Institution CEO Neil Morris said: “Improvements in EV cost, range and longevity are desired by existing EV owners and those consumers looking to purchase an EV as their next or subsequent car. Our research to improve this web of battery performance indicators (which are different for different sectors) are being researched, with a sense of urgency, by the Faraday Institution and its academic and industrial partners.”
The UK is developing the battery technologies needed to achieve its goal of having all cars and vans effectively zero emission by 2040.
The five UK-based projects, which are expected to run over four years, are:
- Next generation electrode manufacturing – Nextrode. The University of Oxford will lead a consortium of five other university and six industry partners in a bid to ‘revolutionise’ the way electrodes for lithium-ion batteries are manufactured. The consortium said it aims to “usher in a new generation of smart, high-performance electrodes, which could enable EVs with a longer range and batteries that are more durable”.
- FutureCat – a project led by the University of Sheffield with five other university and nine industry partners. The partners said they have a “coordinated approach to cathode chemistry design, development and discovery (including tailored protective coatings and designer interfaces).” The aim is to deliver cathodes that hold more charge, “that are better suited to withstand prolonged cycling and promote ion mobility (increasing battery durability, and range and acceleration of the EV) while reducing the dependency of cell manufacturers on cobalt”.
- Catmat – a project led by the University of Bath with six other university and 12 industry partners. This project “will place considerable emphasis on understanding the fundamental mechanisms at work within novel cathodes that currently prevent the use of nickel-rich cathode materials (with low or no cobalt) and lithium-rich cathodes”.
- Next generation sodium-ion batteries – Nexgenna. This project, led by the University of St Andrews, will include five other UK partner laboratories, three industrial partners and collaborations with Diamond Light Source and five leading overseas research institutes. It will accelerate the development of sodium-ion battery technology “by taking a multi-disciplinary approach incorporating fundamental chemistry right through to considerations for scale-up and cell manufacturing”.
- Alternative cell chemistry beyond lithium-ion – LiStar, Lithium-Sulfur Technology Accelerator. UCL will lead an effort with six other university partners and seven industrial partners “to enable rapid improvements in Li-S technologies by generating new knowledge, materials and engineering solutions, thanks to its dual focus on fundamental research at material and cell level, and an improved approach to system engineering”. Other consortia partners are Imperial College London, University of Cambridge, University of Nottingham, University of Oxford, University of Southampton and University of Surrey.
The UK government launched the Faraday Challenge programme in 2017.
Earlier this year, the government said it was investing in the construction of a battery centre in the city of Coventry as a “stepping stone” towards launching a national gigafactory.
