By funding the projects, which are being carried out by collaborative research teams from across UK industry and academia, UKRI hopes to help accelerate the growth of the UK battery industry, reduce costs and improve performance of the technology.
Tony Harper, challenge director for the Faraday Battery Challenge, said, “As we move towards a net zero future the UK’s electric vehicle industry must continue to evolve. These winning projects have all shown how their ideas can potentially accelerate the development of technologies or business practices in the UK.”
Amongst the seventeen separate projects to receive funding, a number boast significant involvement from the UK’s Faraday Institution, which was established to lead R&D and commercialisation of promising new battery technologies.
Amongst these are REBLEND, an effort aimed at developing processes to directly recover valuable cathode active materials (CAM) from production scrap; and OXLiD is leading a project to accelerate the development, scale-up and commercialisation of quasi-solid-state lithium-sulfur (Li-S) batteries.
Other notable projects to receive funding include EXtrAPower, a Cambridge University and Nyobolt led effort to improve ultra-fast charging technology; and The HISTORY project (HIgh Silicon content anOdes for a solid-state battery) which is exploring the development of a multi-layer, solid state pouch cell for electric vehicle pack developers.
Commenting on these projects Faraday Institution CEO Professor Pam Thomas, CEO, said: “The range of new projects funded by Innovate UK that are based on Faraday Institution research clearly demonstrates the success of our organisation in identifying and pursing battery science and engineering ripe for commercialisation.
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