WMG (Warwick Manufacturing Group), University of Warwick – Written evidence (BAT0014)

About WMG WMG is an academic department at the University of Warwick and an international role model for successful collaboration between academia and the public and private sectors, driving innovation in applied science, technology and engineering.

As one of the largest academic departments at the University of Warwick and the lead centre for the High Value Manufacturing Catapult strategic objectives of Vehicle Electrification and Connected and Autonomous Vehicles (CAV); WMG is a leading multidisciplinary group, making a real impact through both collaborative R&D and world-class education.

1. To what extent are battery and fuel cell technologies currently contributing to decarbonisation efforts in the UK? • What are the primary applications of battery and fuel cell technologies for decarbonisation, and at what scale have they been deployed?

There are several primary uses for battery technologies for decarbonisation.

The first is the electrification of vehicles, ranging from personal vehicles to public transport and commercial transport.

In personal vehicles, battery technology has already reached mass adoption, with 13.4% of new vehicles registered so far in 2021 being either Plug-in Hybrid Vehicles (PHEV) or fully Electric vehicles. This increases to 37% of New Vehicles having some form of battery power, when Hybrid (HEV and Mild-Hybrid Vehicles (MHEV) are included1.

As you extend from personal to commercial, niche and specialist vehicles, we are seeing the development of EVs in the Construction, Freight, delivery and public transport systems, with product ranging from mini-diggers2, to vans, trucks, busses, and very light rail3.

As vehicle energy needs grow larger, the challenge of managing battery-weight, charge time, and vehicle configuration becomes greater, so to date, there has been very limited uptake of lithium-ion battery technology in the truck sector, with adoption limited to the van, delivery and smaller bus segments, while technologies such as Lithium-Titanate (which permits faster charging but lower density) have a niche in scenarios where battery size is less of an issue, such as Trains4 and Trucks5.

1 https://www.smmt.co.uk/vehicle-data/evs-and-afvs-registrations/ 2 https://www.jcb.com/en-gb/news/2018/03/zero-emissions-mini-so-quiet-it-gives-jcb-something-to-shout- about 3 https://revolutionvlr.com/vehicle/ 4 https://www.railjournal.com/fleet/obb-battery-electric-train-to-carry-passengers-next-month/ The second key area for battery application is in supporting energy storage on distribution networks. Here, batteries can offer storage to balance supply and demand from intermittent renewable supplies. They can sit either at industrial premises (downstream of the meter) or on the network itself (upstream of the meter) offering network storage capability to balance overall demand.

There is also an emerging market in home battery storage. Here, similar to the industrial level, batteries are able to store energy from domestic renewable supplies (typically photo-voltaics), reducing the overall stress on the network.

Looking at Fuel Cells, there is very little current adoption of Fuel Cell technology in the UK Transport market. In the personal vehicle space there are only three models of Hydrogen Fuel Cell vehicle available for sale, and these in very limited numbers. (for example, the UK is planned to receive just 15 of the Toyota Mirai vehicle next year6). As battery technology has reduced in price by a factor of ten, and doubled in energy storage capacity over the last decade, most passenger car companies, including early pioneers like Honda, have now abandoned fuel cell research and development in favour of battery electrification due to concerns over future technology cost and lack of infrastructure. Notable exceptions are Toyota and BMW (who have a joint programme).

In commercial vehicles and public transport, there remains significant fuel cell technical development, but little commercial deployment. Examples of developments include Hydrogen Fuel Cell Range extenders in ambulances7, trains8 and busses9.

It’s important to note that in the case of Hydrogen fuel cells trains, batteries are also a key component. As Alicia Gillman of VivaRail says

“All our technology revolves around batteries – a hydrogen train is simply a battery train with the fuel cell used to charge the batteries, not for traction. Fuel cells are not responsive enough to cope with the demands of a train whereas batteries are much more flexible”.10

2. What advances have been made in battery and fuel cell technologies in recent years and what changes can we expect in the next ten years (for example, in terms of energy density, capacity, charging times, lifetimes and cost reduction)?

5 https://www.barrons.com/articles/hyliion-doesnt-fear-disruption-it-has-plans-of-its-own-51613171398 6 https://www.autocar.co.uk/car-review/toyota/mirai 7 https://www.theengineer.co.uk/hydrogen-ambulance-set-for-london/ 8 https://www.theengineer.co.uk/on-track-advances-uk-hydrogen-rail/ 9 https://cordis.europa.eu/article/id/429071-the-wheels-on-the-hydrogen-bus-go-round-and-round-in- aberdeen 10 ibid There have been significant improvements in both cost and energy density for Li-Ion batteries. For an auto battery pack, costs in 2010 were c$1000/kwh, which has fallen to $137/kwh today, with predictions of future cost to fall below $100/kwh by 202311 for high volume purchases.

In energy density, we have seen a doubling of battery density since 2010, with top performance now sitting at around 300wh/kg compared to 150wh/kg a decade ago12. As the Faraday Institution notes “the highest specific energy reported for a near-commercial lithium-ion cell is 304 Wh/kg, claimed by Chinese company Contemporary Amperex Technology Ltd (CATL).”13

This has largely been achieved by improved materials, optimisation of battery performance, significant advances in manufacturing technology, and higher volumes of battery production providing economy of scale.

This has meant that the Automotive Council targets of 2017 are being achieved ahead of expected timeline.

Looking to the future, it seems likely that there will be a continued focus on lowering costs and improving energy density of batteries for use in automotive applications in the near term.

In the medium term, we can expect to see a divergence of battery products – with low cost chemistries (such as Lithium Iron Phosphate and Sodium Ion) being deployed in mass-market vehicles, high energy density chemistries (such as high nickel cathodes and silicon anodes) being developed for premium and long-range vehicles, and very low-cost chemistries (such as lithium sulfur) being particularly suited for domestic and grid storage applications.

We will also see efforts to reduce the reliance of battery production on cobalt and copper such as moving to Lithium Iron Phosphate cathodes, to improve cost, security of supply and sustainability of raw materials.

The rapid pace of battery development has not been matched by fuel cells, and recent advances in battery electric vehicles have significantly eaten into the potential market opportunity originally envisaged for fuel cells – that of the long range, fast-to-refuel passenger vehicle. With passenger cars now commercially available with 300+ mile range, and recharging times of as little as 30 minutes, the remaining market opportunity for fuel cells in passenger cars is vanishingly low.

There has been a significant fall in hydrogen costs over the last decade, but much of this relies on processing of fossil fuels, and is therefore not sustainable

11 https://about.bnef.com/blog/battery-pack-prices-cited-below-100-kwh-for-the-first-time-in-2020-while- market-average-sits-at-137-kwh/ 12 https://cleantechnica.com/2020/02/19/bloombergnef-lithium-ion-battery-cell-densities-have-almost- tripled-since-2010/ 13 https://faraday.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/High-Energy-battery-technologies-FINAL.pdf p12 in a zero-carbon future. As the production of fuel cells is limited, and relies on precious metals such as platinum, we’ve also not seen similar economies of scale to those seen in Battery production. These factors, plus the lack of public hydrogen fuelling infrastructure (or any visible or viable plans for one) has made fuel cells a difficult investment case for car manufacturers. The biggest fuel cell car manufacturer in the world (Toyota) plans to ship just 15 vehicles to the UK in 202114.

A further disadvantage of hydrogen fuel cells in passenger car applications is their very low well-to wheels energy efficiency – with typically 80% of the renewable source energy being wasted before it gets to the wheels of the car (the equivalent figure for a battery electric vehicle being just 20%)15

For heavy duty vehicles, such as 40T trucks, however, there is no clear and easy zero carbon solution yet. Battery electric is not a straightforward option as the battery size would need to be up to 9T, and chargers would have to be several MW per vehicle. For these vehicles, fuel cells would be relatively cheaper and lighter, but with the attendant problem of very low energy efficiency.

The technically optimal solution would be for an electric truck with a small battery to allow travel between depot and trunk route, and catenary electrification of trunk routes. This would be far more energy efficient, but would require technical agreement and simultaneous deployment between vehicle manufacturers and infrastructure providers. The infrastructure cost for this would be moderately higher than for fuel cells (around £3-5bn) but the energy requirements would be around three times smaller. Further research and trials are needed to set a technical direction which the market can follow.

• What advances are expected beyond this timeframe, but in time to have an impact upon the 2050 net-zero target? Are there any fundamental limits to these technologies that would affect their contribution to the target?

There are several new routes for battery technology and chemistry on the horizon. The Faraday Institution has produced a useful overview of many of these technologies and their likely applications in their recent report “High- energy battery technologies”, including improvements in both cathode and anode performance. Many of these won’t appear in the mass-market before 2030, but can be expected to provide improvements beyond that.

- Solid State batteries offer a higher volumetric density than current Li- ion batteries. These are currently manufactured for small devices which require long term charge (such as medical implants). Effort here will be focussed on the challenge of scaling up to pack size required for vehicle and domestic use and

14 https://www.autocar.co.uk/car-review/toyota/mirai 15 Bossel, Ulf. “Does a Hydrogen Economy Make Sense?” Proceedings of the IEEE. Vol. 94, No. 10, October 2006 research is now being focussed on this scale up challenge, strongly supported by motor manufacturers. With continued R&D, this technology may be expected in market around the end of the 2020s and will further improve from there to incorporate only lithium metal as the anode material.

- Lithium-Sulfur Batteries could offer lower cost/kwh and potentially higher energy density. Lithium-Sulfur has a theoretical specific energy of 2500 Wh/kg and theoretical energy density of 2800 Wh/l, around five times that of Lithium-Ion. Current Li-S cells reach around 300 Wh/l, however and progress towards higher density have been limited by the material’s low conductivity and the fact it expands by up to 80 per cent on cycling, limiting utility to large vehicles and static applications in which ample room is available.

As the Faraday Institution has noted, the challenge for future research is improving Li-S ability to accept repeated cycling.

“Early Li-S batteries could withstand 50 to 100 charge cycles, which is too low for most mass-market applications. Reportedly the latest can achieve more than 1000. This is due to the ‘polysulfide shuttle’ effect, in which the sulfur cathode reacts with the electrolyte to form lithium polysulfides that move between the electrodes during charge and discharge, degrading both the sulfur cathode and lithium anode…

“…Preventing polysulfide shuttling is the key to extending the cycle life of the Li- S battery and making it commercially viable on a mass-market basis” 16

Oxis Energy in the UK is currently deploying these batteries in sectors such as Maritime and Aviation, where there is a need for extended range between charges.

- Sodium-Based Batteries, have the potential to be lower cost and easily mass manufactured, but current Sodium Ion batteries (NIBs) are significantly larger and less energy dense than Li-Ion batteries (LIBs), limiting their useful application. As research develops, however, it should be possible for Sodium batteries to get close to Li-Ion performance at significantly lower cost.

If this is achieved, Sodium could prove particularly useful in scenarios where the volume of the battery is less significant, for example in large-scale energy storage, or as option to replace Lead-Acid batteries. It could also become a viable technology for micro-mobility and lower cost passenger cars.

The main focus for medium term development is in NIBs but there also potential for future developments in Sodium Batteries such as Sodium-Oxygen, (Na/O2), Sodium-Sulfur (Na/S) and solid-state batteries (Na-ASSBs). A recent paper17 from Dr Ivana Hasa et al of WMG concluded that these technologies could

16 https://faraday.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/High-Energy-battery-technologies-FINAL.pdf P13 17 Ivana Hasa, Sathiya Mariyappan, Damien Saurel, Philipp Adelhelm, Alexey Y. Koposov, Christian Masquelier, “represent a significant game change, leading to an enormous gain in terms of performance, safety or cost. However, despite important advancements, their technological readiness level is still far from application. At the present moment, only NIBs can be considered as serious contenders to LIBs”

- Multi-valent battery chemistry Using Multi-Valent metals as battery anodes could increase their energy as they can transfer more than one electron per atom. The metals that could be used include magnesium, calcium, zinc and aluminium. The challenge for researchers is finding a cathode material which is a suitable partner.

• Are there any implications of next generation battery technologies that could make the charging infrastructure we will be installing between now and 2030 obsolete?

Next generation battery technologies won’t make our charging infrastructure obsolete, but as new battery technology is introduced, these batteries will be able take advantage of faster charging rates available (for example XFC, which will typically offer a 100km vehicle charge in five-to-ten minutes with 350kW).

However, charge infrastructure should be dependent on purpose. There is a clear need for need for high rate of charge at service stations or forecourt locations, whereas home and work installations with long dwell times, can rely on current levels of charge rates.

Future charge rates of 200kW or higher are likely to be desired at motorway service station, while home and office charging should be sufficient at 7kW or 22kW that current technology offers.

• What are the implications on battery life of multiple charge/discharge cycles, for example when used to support storage and frequency management on the grid?

Battery life is dependent on both calendar and cyclic aging, that is, as a battery ages, both the age of the battery and the number of charge cycles it is put through will affect performance.

Both can be mitigated by controlling battery temperature and the state of charge window – e.g. by not draining the battery completely or filling it completely. In the auto sector the typical battery warranty is 8 years to 80% of range and power. Most will go longer than this, but vehicles with smaller batteries will be the first to be retired from automotive use, as the impact of only offering 80% of range is far greater if the original range is <100km.

Laurence Croguennec, Montse Casas-Cabanas, “Challenges of today for Na-based batteries of the future: From materials to cell metrics”, Journal of Power Sources, Vol 482, 2021, This suggests a potential role for former automotive batteries in fixed storage and grid balancing applications. Typically, temperature, storage and frequency management on grid is less demanding than in automotive, to the point that used auto batteries could be deployed in grid storage, domestic or work applications and still offer 6-10 years of useful life, compared to new batteries, which would offer 12-15 years.

The main challenge for these second life applications is the cost associated with the triage and repurposing of the battery pack. At present the business case for this is at best marginal, and this could get worse as the cost of new batteries falls. Future regulation around battery management systems could assist in ensuring that used vehicle batteries are more easily assessed and integrated to second life applications

3. What are the opportunities and challenges associated with scaling up the manufacture of batteries and fuel cells, and for manufacturing batteries and fuel cells for a greater number and variety of applications? Is the UK well placed to become a leader in battery and fuel cell manufacture?

There is a clear opportunity for batteries in the UK for both Automotive and Grid Storage, but also across aerospace and other transport applications, including maritime, niche vehicles and freight.

There is an opportunity for the UK to supply batteries and their materials to manufacturers in UK and possibly Europe. It is unlikely the we will export to either US/East Asia, although there may be an opportunity in developing and licensing the manufacture of technologies around battery development.

The opportunities around fuel cells are harder to quantify due to the uncertainties around their application. Were the technology to flourish, there are a small number of UK companies (such as Intelligent Energy and Ceres Power) who may be in a position to take advantage.

One significant potential opportunity for fuel cells, especially solid oxide fuel cells, would be for domestic combined heat and power applications. Since this type of fuel cell does not require ultra-pure hydrogen and air, it can run from reformed natural gas, syngas, biogas or hythane – any of which can be supplied from the current gas network. They can also run from pure hydrogen where it is available

There are several challenges which will need to be addressed if we are to become a leader in cell and battery manufacture:

- Demand – Potential Battery and Cell manufacturers need certainty of demand before making the significant capital investment required to manufacture are scale. A clarity of purchasing signal from Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) is needed here. Only two or three UK OEMs have the production volumes needed to justify a Gigafactory based on their own demand alone.

- Land availability and cost – Battery Manufacture at scale requires a large site, (Tesla’s Giga-Berlin is 300 Hectare/740 acre, or approximately a thousand football pitches). As UK land prices are often high in desirable locations, this can present a challenge as can identifying suitable sites and acquiring the land at pace.

- Energy costs, availability carbon intensity – While energy costs make up a relatively small share of the overall cost of Battery cell production (around 5USD/kWh of an overall cost of 130USD/kWh) it is one of the few elements which vary significantly by location, along with Labour, Land cost and depreciation. Battery manufacture requires 30-50MW supply, and there are few sites available in the UK with such a supply. The cost and time to provide such a supply is often prohibitive. Lastly, as the car industry is expected to move from regulation by tailpipe emissions to regulation for life cycle emissions, the carbon content of the electricity used to make batteries becomes critical. The UK has the fastest decarbonising grid in the UK, and is cleaner than say Germany, but is at a disadvantage relative to France, Norway and Sweden for instance.

- Road/shipping infrastructure Large scale battery manufacture needs excellent transport links and if not in place already, these will need to be supported.

- Planning/Permitting The development of such a large site at speed requires planning co-ordination at a regional and national level, as impacts of the programme will be felt. Timing of delivery is a major factor in site selection as plants turn over £bns per year, so months lost in planning and permitting are hugely expensive.

- Skills As we shift from ICE manufacture to BEV, skills at all levels will need to be supported, across Battery manufacturing, supply-chains, maintenance and re-use. A typical Gigafactory employs thousands of skilled workers.

- Capex A typical large-scale Battery manufacturing facility will require an overall capital investment in the other $3-5bn.

In considering how the UK offer to Battery manufacturers compares internationally, it should be noted that Germany and Eastern Europe are making very competitive offers, as their land price, infrastructure support and labour cost can be effectively managed.

Further, the EU has declared battery manufacturing a subject of social significance, so state aid rules don’t apply to offers of support, allowing packages like that offered to Tesla to build Giga-Berlin, reportedly standing at 1bn euros18.

18 https://www.reuters.com/article/us-germany-tesla-funding-idUSKBN2A12SF In Poland and Hungary, special economic zones have been set up that offer tax relief to EV battery producers. The European Commission has also recently approved €3.2 billion of public funding, from Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Poland and Sweden, for pan-European research across the battery value chain.

To be competitive with these offers a package of around £750mn per plant is likely needed covering all the above elements, with this on offer to the first two or three investors in order to deliver the manufacturing at scale and the supporting supply chain required.

The UK has the right mechanisms in place to support investment in battery manufacture, but the quantum of support overall is not currently at the level of other European nations, particularly when higher land costs and energy costs are considered. In addition, the forward visibility of funding availability in the UK is poor due to short spending review periods. This disadvantages us with respect to leveraging private investment as we are unable to co-invest over the typical 5- 10-year planning horizons used by industry and the typical 5-year horizons used by the investment community

It would be particularly useful to have early specifics on the commitment in the ‘Plan for growth’ to spend nearly £500 million to support the UK’s electric vehicle manufacturing industry in the next four years, as part of the £1 billion package of support for the development and mass-scale production of electric vehicle batteries and associated EV supply chain19.

• What supply chain considerations need to be taken into account when scaling up battery and fuel cell manufacture in the UK?

The challenges are largely similar to the above- but timing of investment in Battery production is also key.

A Supply Chain company wants to see a clear customer established in the market in the near future. For example, if you were to invest in Cathode manufacture in the UK, you would want to know what the likely demand for your product would be in you national and regional market, and where the best location for your production would be. Specifically, you would want to see UK gigafactories established in the UK before committing to significant investment yourself. The time lag associated with these “chicken and egg” decisions {which exist throughout the supply chain) is a major challenge which could be addressed by mechanisms to de-risk early investments and to give greater clarity of demand.

19 https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/build-back-better-our-plan-for-growth/build-back-better- our-plan-for-growth-html#net-zero Equally, the growth of the electric vehicle market highlights the need for effective recycling and reuse of Batteries and associated systems. A recent report by WMG20 modelled that by 2040, the UK will require 567,000 tonnes of cell production, requiring 131,000 tonnes of cathodic metals. Recycling can potentially supply 22% of this demand (assuming a 60% recycling rate and 40% reuse or remanufacture).

This could be supported by deploying sensors within battery cell which transmit information on battery status, both supporting a market for second-hand batteries by verifying the health of the battery and signposting potential for reuse, and by identifying the most appropriate recycling and re-use process.21

4. Is the right strategy, funding and support in place to enable the research, innovation and commercialisation of battery and fuel cell technologies in the UK?

We should recognise UK has a good strategy, funding and support mechanism in place.

Since the establishment of the Faraday Battery Challenge in 2017 We have moved fast to establish investments in research, innovation and industrialisation. Initiatives like the Faraday Institution, The Advanced Propulsion Centre, the Catapult networks and the Office for Zero Emission vehicles have worked effectively to create innovation and scale in the UK. The Faraday battery challenge in particular has achieved an academically and technically fast moving and successful record.

To take one example of this, Germany’s equivalent of the UK Battery Industrialisation Centre (UKBIC) is Forschungsfertigung Batteriezelle (FFB) in Munster. Their initiative, supported by the Fraunhofer Network and the University of Aachen is only at the planning stage, while UKBIC is close to operation. Equally, with AESC in Sunderland, we have one of the innovators in Battery manufacturing at scale in Europe.

However, we should not underestimate the scale of the efforts being made to support manufacturing across Europe. The FFB alone represents a 750mn Euro investment from the German Federal Government and the State Government of North Rhineland-Westphalia.

In comparison, while the government have made strong commitments for future investment as part of the ‘Plan for Growth’, the ‘R&D Roadmap’, ‘the 10-point plan for a Green Industrial Revolution’ and for overall R&D investment both in terms of targets and the ambitions for Tax policy for R&D, this has not yet

20 https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/sci/wmg/business/transportelec/22350m_wmg_battery_recycling_report_v7.pdf 21 https://ec.europa.eu/environment/integration/research/newsalert/pdf/towards_the_battery_of_the_future_ FB20_en.pdf P23 translated into clarity on the future support for innovation overall, or specifically in Batteries and Fuel Cells.

Currently both InnovateUK and the Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund (ISFC) have commitments for funding on limited timescales, while the R&D Tax system is under review. Certainty of future funding for R&D, Industrialisation and incentives would be a strong way to derisk commitments by industry. The recent dismantling of the Industry Strategy has also caused concern over whether and how the ISCF programmes will continue to be supported.

It is important to note how important timing is in these decisions. For example, the commitment to ban the sale of ICE vehicles from 2030 is effectively converted into a 2027 target by the introduction of Rules of Origin restrictions on the import and export of Vehicles as part of the UK-EU Continuing Relationship. This should have a helpful effect of attracting Battery manufacture to the UK and Europe, but if the UK does not secure battery manufacturing at scale by this date, manufacturers will rely on EU based manufacturing.

Strong FTAs with other important overseas automotive markets would incentivise UK manufacturers who export to those markets to locate their battery manufacturing in the UK rather than the EU where both are treated equally under the EU Trade and Co-operation Agreement

• Does the UK have the workforce and skillsets required for battery and fuel cell research and manufacture? If not, what are the challenges associated with developing this expertise?

As a result of effort springing from the Industrial Strategy of 2017, and predecessor initiatives such as the Automotive Council and the Catapults the UK research workforce has improved significantly, but does need to keep growing.

On manufacturing, will have skills shortage running from Level 3 to level 7. A 2019 Faraday Institute study22 suggests that by 2040 the UK will create

“83,000 new jobs by 2040, around 8,000 would be created in EV manufacturing, 26,000 jobs in battery manufacturing, 47,000 jobs in the battery supply chain and 2,000 jobs in battery R&D. The shift toward EVs will also necessitate the retraining of auxiliary personnel, including vehicle technicians, mechanics and electricians, as well as staff at service stations”

Clearly, delivering the skills needed at scale for this shift will be a major challenge, and require co-ordination between HE and FE skills providers, Local Authorities, Training commissioner and employers.

The employer-led model for technical education proposed in the recent skills white paper should help to support this shift, but it is key that standards are set

22 https://faraday.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Exec-Summary-Report_May2019_FINAL.pdf to industry needs and that employers and providers are given funding and system flexibility needed to support skills adaption among both existing and new employees, perhaps through offering greater flexibility in use of the apprenticeships levy.

5. Which countries are currently the leaders in battery and/or fuel cell science and technology and where, if anywhere, does the UK have a lead or other advantages?

China is a clear leader in volume battery production, while South Korea and Japan leaders are current leaders in technology innovation

As noted above, support from the Faraday Battery Challenge has put the UK in a competitive international position in areas such as Solid state and Sodium-ion and Lithium-Sulfur. We are also leading in supporting the industrialisation of new Battery technologies with UKBIC.

The UK has a potential strength that its car manufacturers tend to be in more premium markets, and are likely to be early adopters of advanced battery technologies – which may incentivise battery manufacturers to produce such products in the UK.

The UK has some promising companies in hydrogen and fuel cells, but the market for these has yet to develop.

6. In what sectors could battery and fuel cell technologies play a significant role?

It is increasingly clear that Batteries will dominate the market for smaller vehicles- from e-bikes to passenger cars, vans and small trucks.

Looking at Heavy Duty Vehicles (HDVs), there is a different problem to solve. Batteries may not be suitable as energy demands are high, and charging time for batteries could limit vehicle operation.

Here fuel cells offer a cheaper and more convenient alternative from user perspective but there are drawbacks – notably that Fuel Cells are relatively energy inefficient, requiring around 2.5x the energy of a BEV for the same range according to one recent study23.

Given these limitations, it may be that Fuel Cells will play a more significant role in rail, maritime, aviation and domestic combined heat and power applications than in land-based transport.

23 Salahuddin, Usman & Ejaz, Haider & Iqbal, Naseem. (2018). Grid to wheel energy efficiency analysis of Battery and Fuel Cell powered vehicles. International Journal of Energy Research. 42. 10.1002/er.3994. Equally, Redox Flow batteries could play a strong role in Grid balancing and storage from intermittent Renewables24

• What are the engineering and commercial challenges associated with using these technologies, or deploying them to a greater extent, in these sectors?

One significant challenge worth noting is that if the HDV sector does go to Fuel Cell technology, there will be a need to create a stronger network of Hydrogen Fuel Cell stations. Currently, there are only 12 locations across the UK, with very limited coverage for industrial applications.

7. How should battery and fuel cell technologies be integrated into the wider UK energy system, and what are the challenges associated with integration (e.g. infrastructure, deployment, system operation, regulatory frameworks)?

Electric vehicles could play a significant role in providing grid balancing services by pausing or shifting charge times in order to reduce demand on the grid for periods of seconds to hours. To do so would require commercial frameworks and technical signalling of need, but relatively little hardware cost would be required.

• To what extent can batteries (including vehicle batteries) be used for energy storage and frequency management on the grid, and what needs to happen to enable this?

As noted above in our response to Q2, Vehicle Battery second life has high potential to integrate existing vehicle batteries into home/office supply to reduce pressure on grid.

To achieve this, there is a need for investment in R&D in battery simulation, measurement, repurposing, commercialisation of these technologies and skills.

Looking to the future, there is potential for a specific market for new battery and fuel cell technologies to serve in grid balancing and storage. For example, Sodium-Ion and Redox Flow batteries have a strong profile of performance, cost and stability for grid uses if challenges in development can be overcome, such as finding appropriate redox couples and associated electrolytes for Redox flow batteries25. To support these technologies both research and commercialisation support is needed.26

8. What are the life cycle environmental impacts associated with batteries and fuel cells (e.g. in resource extraction, product

24 https://www.energy-storage.news/blogs/redox-flow-batteries-for-renewable-energy-storage 25 https://www.pnas.org/content/117/23/12550#sec-4 26 https://www.energy-storage.news/blogs/redox-flow-batteries-for-renewable-energy-storage manufacture, operation, reuse and recycling), and how can these be managed as production and usage increase?

There are significant issues with the sustainability of current battery technology, both in terms of environmental impact and availability.

It is likely that overall demand for raw materials will be met, but supply and demands may not match at all times, as expected market demand for existing battery ingredients will define investment in mining capacity, which may take some time to come online.

As C.W Babbitt has noted 27 “Raw material impacts typically stem from the resources that provide LIBs with their necessary electrochemical functionality, including the typically graphitic anode and the cathode, which is usually comprised of lithium, cobalt, nickel, and manganese in varied concentrations.

While early attention was focused on lithium availability, recent research has demonstrated that cobalt may actually present the greatest concerns with respect to sustainability and long-term availability.

Cobalt is primarily sourced in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, a region historically characterized by political instability, social impacts in the mining sector, and lack of supply chain transparency. The global reliance on such a concentrated supply chain introduces risks of resource shortages or price spikes due to disruptions”

Alongside dealing with the issues noted above, one challenge will be to reduce reliance on Congo based Cobalt, by opening up alternative sources, for example in Australia, Tonga and Zimbabwe28

Longer-term, it will be vital to pursue research that has the potential to reduce the reliance on mined cobalt and other resources. There is plenty of research going on to end the reliance on cobalt in BEVs, whether by using lithium-iron- phosphate batteries (already commercially available), or developing technologies such as Sodium-Ion.

Equally, recycling of existing batteries will be a key element of increasing Battery sustainability. Currently, there is an ongoing consultation on revision to EU Battery directive, which looks to increase the amount of battery mass to be recycled, the proportion of valuable metals to be recycled and create a standard requirement for the recycling of lithium in new batteries.

27 Babbitt, C.W. Sustainability perspectives on lithium-ion batteries. Clean Techn Environ Policy 22, 1213–1214 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10098-020-01890-3 28Fu X, Beatty DN, Gaustad GG, Ceder G, Roth R, Kirchain RE, Bustamante M, Babbitt CW, Olivetti EA (2020) Perspectives on cobalt supply through 2030 in the face of changing demand. Environ Sci Technol 54(5):2985– 2993 While the UK will not be governed by these standards, we should look to match or even exceed the requirements of the EU, as the increased global demand for batteries will inevitably lead to higher demands for future recycling of batteries.

• Please give examples of successful battery reuse or recycling, including the intentional design of second life applications.

As Anwar Sattar, WMG’s lead engineer for Battery recycling says “The lithium ion battery recycling processes can be split into two types; pyrometallurgical and those based on mechanical shredding. Both the processes are capable of recycling automotive traction batteries. New processes are almost exclusively based on shredding and material separation as they are much cheaper to set up, much less energy intensive and give higher recycling efficiencies.”29

A recent report from the High Value Manufacturing Catapult sets out the scale of the opportunity.

“By 2040, the UK will require 140GWh worth of cell production capability, representing 567,000 tonnes of cell production, requiring 131,000 tonnes of cathodic metals. Recycling can supply 22% of this demand (assuming a 60% recycling rate and 40% reuse or remanufacture”30.

The UK does not currently have a Battery recycling facility at scale. Across Europe, there are a number of industrial and pilot facilities being developed.

For example, REDUX, based in Bremerhaven, Germany31, has set up a commercial battery recycling facility, capable of recycling 10,000t of Li-Ion batteries per year. Cells are deactivated in a thermal treatment step prior to shredding and material separation. Anodes and cathodes are recovered as a black mass which is then treated to recycle the metals32

An alternative to Battery recycling is ensuring Battery second life applications. One example of supporting the development of second life applications is the work of the UK Energy Storage Lab to develop a new grading system for used automotive batteries from Nissan Leaf EVs.

This partnership between Nissan, WMG, Element Energy and Ametek, supported by BEIS developed a safe, robust and fast methodology for grading used automotive Lithium-ion batteries, at pack level. This methodology was

29 Sattar, A, “Battery recycling: An end-of-life ecosystem” https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/sci/wmg/people/wmginsight/battery-recycling/ 30 https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/sci/wmg/business/transportelec/22350m_wmg_battery_recycling_report_v7.pdf p3 31 https://www.electrive.com/2018/06/06/hi-tech-recycling-of-li-ion-batteries-at-redux. 32 https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/sci/wmg/business/transportelec/22350m_wmg_battery_recycling_report_v7.pdf p6 successfully transferred to a pilot second-life facility, where a target of 1MWh of second-life energy storage was achieved.

In addition, the team developed ways of grading modules – the sub-components of battery packs in as little as 3 minutes – a process which previously took over 3 hours33. This process is now being commercialised by Ametek.

29 March 2021

33 http://www.element-energy.co.uk/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/UKESL-Non-technical-Public- Report_2020.pdf