US-UK battery collaboration focuses on boosting capacity and recycling materials

A new international battery research collaboration aims to develop and improve high-capacity batteries, as well as new methods for recycling electric vehicle battery materials.

A memorandum of understanding (MOU) was signed at the Royal Institution in London during the first in a series of US-UK workshops on electrochemical energy storage. The signatories were Professor Pam Thomas, chief executive officer of the Faraday Institution in the UK, and Dr Peter F Green, chief research officer at the US Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL).

The workshop and the MOU identified key areas of mutual interest in battery research, such as reducing reliance on critical materials in cathodes and ensuring recyclability of batteries.

“The depth and breadth of scientific knowledge across the US National Labs and the UK’s world-leading universities is what allows for this kind of innovative partnership,” said Professor Thomas.

“By strengthening the connections amongst the best battery research groups in the US and the UK, we will accelerate discovery and much needed breakthroughs in high-capacity cathode materials and develop recycling routes for lithium-ion batteries.”

Green, who is also deputy laboratory director of science and technology at the NREL, said: “An important goal is to establish a sustainable supply chain for critical materials, such as cobalt, and to establish a lithium battery recycling ecosystem to recover and reintroduce these materials into the battery supply chain. Electrochemical energy storage is one of DOE’s priorities, and collaborative activities have been established between the national laboratories in this area.

“This MOU leverages the enormous and historic strengths of the research enterprise in energy storage in both the US and the UK to accomplish this.”

UK business minister Lord Callanan said: “The signing of this memorandum signals the UK’s continued commitment to international research collaboration in areas of strategic importance, such as energy storage. It is vital the UK continues to make efficient use of critical minerals through partnerships like this one and embed their re-use, recycling and recovery in the supply chain, as laid out in our new Critical Minerals Strategy.”

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