Advanced Battery Cell (ABC)
Next-generation reusable & recyclable battery pack (NexGen Battery – NGB)
22nd December 2021
Advanced Battery Cell (ABC) (Budget: £287k)
Competition: NATEP: helping SMEs innovate in aerospace Autumn 2020
Funding body: Innovate UK
Project name: Advanced Battery Cell (ABC) (Budget: £287k)
Project partners: Integrals Power, Coventry University
The market of Urban Air Transport (UAT) and electrical energy storage have been growing strongly around the world for several years, with wide ranges of capabilities. The possibility of achieving higher discharge rate and higher power density is not only very interesting in different applications but has become a critical issue. This is particularly true for UAT and small commercial aircrafts that are introducing full or mostly electric models into their offerings, for which the weight & volume, reliability , higher discharge rate, recharge time and costs are still common concerns.
This project will leverage on the achievements and capacity of the consortium, comprising Integrals Power Limited (IPL) and Coventry University (CU) to build on the LFP cathode material and high-current compatible battery cells, developed by IPL and CU respectively. Advanced Battery Cell (ABC) offers high discharge, added capacity retention capability and will develop a solution significantly superior to the SoA. This affordable and safe ABC battery cell can deliver maximum discharge rate of 40C with 56% more capacity retention at 30C compared to the benchmark.
ABC will avoid the use of toxic materials and instead uses IPL’s cathode material which is non-toxic. The expected output will be an advanced aircraft battery cell (demonstrator), that will be a step-up and allows for commercialisation.
IPL and CU will utilise their current capabilities to develop and add a high-potential product to their products portfolio and penetrate into aerospace market with significant potential. ABC will also mitigate the global dominance of Asian (Chinese) LIB (Lithium-Ion-Battery) cell manufacturers that negatively impact the trade of LIBs.
This project will enable the development of local industries and jobs creation. ABC’s objective is to develop a next-generation aircraft battery cell for electrical energy storage and subsystems in UAT application and generate significant value. This can attract more investments to the UK battery powered aircrafts where the electrical energy storage acts as a main obstacle.
