Research Incubator: Batteries for Propulsion

In January, the AAPS CDT held the Batteries for Propulsion Research Incubator. Prior to this, Cohort 5 members had been working hard on researching the key challenges associated with using batteries for propulsion. Following our preliminary research and discussions with industry and academic experts, we identified the following 5 key challenges to kick-off the research incubator's discussions with:

1. Advancing the use of batteries for propulsion

2. Future of battery cell materials

3. Performance, health and architecture of batteries

4. Reuse, recycle and revive

5. Challenges in mass battery production

Firstly, the co-director of AAPS CDT, Professor Richard Burke, gave an overview of the purpose of the RI. Then, we had a series of presentations from experts in battery research, such as Dr. Chris Vagg, and in transport behaviour, from Professor Lorraine Whitmarsh MBE.

These core challenges were presented to the attendees of the RI, which included AAPS CDT students, University of Bath academics, external academics and experts from the industry such as AVL, APC and TVGAM. Following the presentations of these core challenges, the remainder of the research incubator was dedicated to generating potential future research questions to work on.

After the general introduction, the 5 pre-defined challenges has been presented by cohort 5 students, which was followed by a brainstorming session. The outcome of this session was to explore these challenges further and record possible questions and areas of research that the participants find interesting. On the second day, these notes were clustered into five main areas:

- Understanding and analysing use cases

- Governance of battery manufacturing

- Battery cells material and design

- Manufacturing value chain

- Battery pack concepts and design

Once split into groups based on our interests in these areas, the rest of the week was spent working in transdisciplinary groups to generate impactful research questions in these topics and to develop work plans and packages. This preparation formed the foundations of Cohort 5's work to generate grant proposals for these projects. 

Outside of group work sessions, the research incubator offered plenty of opportunities for networking, including a dinner at Opa in Bath.

On the last day of the incubator, all teams presented their project proposals. This was a day full of very interesting discussions. The project proposals included:

- Understanding Perceptions of Battery Health and the Role for Charging Behaviours to Enhance EV Battery Life

- New Generation Binders: Co-Polymers

- SLiB-Dem: Second Life Battery Degradation Models

- Effective Governance Towards Appropriate EV Battery Sizing

- Hybridisation in Energy Storage: Developing Reconfigurable and Chemically Diverse Systems

- BOLD: Bioleaching Optimisation for Lithium Dissolution

These diverse project proposals sparked engaging discussions and highlighted the innovative approaches being explored within the incubator.

Overall, the research incubator was a really fun event to engage in a collaborative research development process and to create proposals which would address some of the most pressing challenges currently being faced in the batteries for propulsion space.