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NEXCELL (Budget: £500k)
Competition name: EEF 8
Funding body: The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS)
Project name: NEXCELL (Budget: £500k)
Project partner: Integrals Power
IPL will take advantage of the potential of high-power battery materials to increase adoption of battery powered vehicles through the development of next generation battery cells. The main focus to be addressed is to develop, scaleup and integrate IPL’s LFP in composition with manganese (LFMP), into high power battery cells (21700 format). Based on to date’s successful stage-gate results, the vision is to demonstrate an affordable battery cell with expected output of 25% improvement in energy density. This project will expand IPL’s battery cathode material portfolio.
NEXCELL will avoid the use of toxic materials and instead uses IPL’s cathode material which is cobalt free. Battery efficiency, performance, and safety are the main improvements to the current SoA. In the midterm, the success of this project will also mitigate the global dominance of Asian LIB cell manufacturers that negatively impact the trade of LIB materials/cells for other regions of the world, resulting in higher costs and negligible role of the UK and EU in the global battery value chain.
By adopting NEXCELL batteries, the adoption of very toxic batteries that use cathodes with nickel & cobalt and have adverse environmental impacts will be reduced. These include resource depletion, global warming, ecological toxicity, and human health impacts.
The largest impacts are those associated with the production, processing, and use of cobalt and nickel metal compounds, which may cause adverse respiratory, pulmonary, and neurological effects in those exposed. NEXCELL’s cathode material is LFP based which is nontoxic and cobalt free. This can have a positive impact in abandoning toxic materials however the recycling process of the toxic battery cells in the market will need to be carefully addressed to prevent any future obstacles.
