The Energy Innovation Centre is a world-class facility for battery research across the R&D process from materials and electrochemistry through to application integration and recycling / re-use. ERA’s investment into the Battery Innovation Centre played an important role in the decision to locate the UK Battery Industrial Centre in Coventry.
The facilities support test, development and scale up of new battery chemistries from concept through to full proven traction batteries, produced in sufficient quantities for detailed industrial evaluation in target applications.
ERA’s investment supports the following:
Cell materials and characterisation: A programme of tests takes place on commercially available battery technologies from cell to pack level, from ageing tests to thermal testing, abuse and vibration testing.
Modelling and simulation: The Energy Innovation Centre allows prediction of battery performance across a wide range of conditions and applications.
Second life battery use: Even when a battery has deteriorated to a point where it is no longer useful in a vehicle, it can still be adapted for many other purposes including in houses and for other domestic uses.
Electro-mechanical testing: As batteries become more of a structural feature in vehicles, it is vitally important to understand how they behave when they are damaged in accidents.
Inductive charging: Inductive (or wireless) charging is a rapidly growing technology area. The Energy Innovation Centre is looking at ways in which the process can be made more efficient and cost-effective.
Hardware in the loop laboratory: This involves a series of computers simulating and modelling scenarios such as connecting vehicles to the grid to store and supply electricity and the impact that may have on battery life.
Facility upgrades: ERA is investing in improvements to facilities and is also enabling new facilities to be built at the Energy Innovation Centre. These include laboratories and a dry room for cell assembly lines.
Ionic liquids for electroplating of materials: This is an ERA investment based at the University of Leicester, linking in with the Battery Innovation Centre, which examines the potential use of ionic liquids in battery production to improve energy efficiency and reduce chemical emissions.
