once you have the first
gigafactory it’s relatively easy
to expand or build others
carried out at the Warwick Manufacturing Group (WMG),
is aimed at both proving the manufacturability of emerging
battery technologies and helping innovative battery companies
take their technologies into production.
As former general manager of Nissan’s battery plant the
new centre’s MD, Jeff Pratt, knows more than most about the
challenges of manufacturing batteries at scale. And whilst
UKBIC is on a much smaller scale than a gigafactory it does
contain most of the technologies you would expect to find in
one (see box out). What’s more, it is able to produce batteries at
“Once you set up the supply chain and
have the first gigafactory – it’s relatively
easy to expand that one or build others,”
he said.
However, with this snowball effect
already beginning to happen elsewhere
in Europe, it’s becoming doubly the
critical that the UK moves quickly.
“There is a sense of urgency here,” said
Morris, “We are falling further behind.
A lot of capacity has been announced
in Europe particularly in and around
Germany and our government was
probably a bit slower to announce
incentives. There is no doubt that the
uncertainty around Brexit last year and
the distraction that that caused for the
government means that we do need to
pick up the pace.”
Failure to do so, he said, could lead to
something of a doomsday scenario for
the UK car industry. “If you’re importing
all of the batteries to then export the
vehicle – which is about 80 per cent of
our car production – just from a supply
perspective why would you import half
the value of the vehicle? Why not just
make the vehicle closer to where the
market is? If the batteries are all being
made somewhere else then maybe over
time car production migrates to where
the battery production is and you lose a
lot of jobs.”
It’s an unsettling thought. But
Morris is optimistic that there’s an
appetite across government and
industry to rise to the occasion. “EV
manufacturers would very much like
the UK to have battery manufacturing
to support them making more EVs in
the facilities they have here in the UK.
And I think that government wants to
secure the jobs, and secure a position
in part of the energy mix of the future
and to be a major player in battery
production and battery technology
development.”
Pratt is similarly upbeat about the
UK’s prospects: “We definitely have
the demand here. We’ve got some large
OEMs such as Nissan in the north east
and JLR in the midlands, and that’s
just in automotive. Provided we make
it attractive for companies to invest
in the UK and bring the large-scale
manufacturing here there isn’t any
reason why we shouldn’t get our share
of that future investment.”
industrial rates. “The key for UKBIC is demonstrate that you can
manufacture at a rate that is capable of being marketed” said
Pratt. “You can develop a technology in the lab which looks very
promising but if you can’t manufacture at that rate you can’t get
it to market.”
Though NDAs prohibit him from naming them, Pratt
confirmed that the centre already has a number of firms signed
up who want to use the facility to produce cells to test and prove
there’s a demand in the market before they invest further. He’s
also hopeful that some of the larger battery manufacturers will
outsource development work to the site. “As facilities become
more utilised worldwide there’s less opportunity for them to
develop a new project, take the line down and try something
out.”
It’s clear that the joined-up nature of the UK battery
ecosystem has created a fertile climate for innovation, and one
which should be appealing to large battery firms.
But according to Pratt getting them to take the next step and
invest is likely to require incentives of the kind seen elsewhere
in Europe. Germany and France recently announced 1billion
and 700 million euros of financial support, whilst Poland
and Hungary have set up special economic zones offering tax
relief to EV battery producers. “In September last year the
government announced a £1bn fund to support getting the first
Gigafactory on the ground , it now needs to flesh out what this
means in practice and what form that support should take,” he
said.
Getting the first factory over the line is the tricky bit. But
once that’s in place Pratt believes there will be a snowball effect.
15 May 2020 / www.theengineer.co.uk
HOW TO BUILD A
LITHIUM-ION BATTERY
There are four distinct steps in
the lithium-ion battery production
process.
Electrode manufacturing
To form the electrodes precise doses
of anode and cathode materials are mixed
into a slurry with water and solvents which is
carefully coated onto metallic foils to form the
electrodes (copper for the anode, and aluminium
for the cathode). These foils are dried in an oven
and formed into a large roll in a “calendaring”
process. This roll is then fed into a slitting
machine where it is broken down into smaller rolls
to make the electrodes required for the cells.
Cell assembly
This is where the anode and cathode
materials are assembled into a single unit.
Although there is a common set of fundamental
steps, assembly processes vary depending
on the type of cell that’s being made. The most
widely used packaging style is the cylindrical
cell – the familiar tubular cylinder - but there is
a growing demand for pouch cells and prismatic
cells which potentially take up less space and
which require different assembly techniques.
Formation and ageing
One the cell has been assembled and
the electrolyte added it’s time to set the cell
chemistry. During this stage the cell is allowed
to stand for period of time to let the electrolyte
soak around it, before going through a number of
charging and heating processes.
Module and pack assembly
Finally, it’s time to bundle up the cells
for the end-customer. In this part of the process
multiple cells are connected together to form a
module, and modules are connected together
to form a pack. For context, the 40kWh battery
used in the latest version of Nissan Leaf uses 24
modules, each consisting of 8 cells.
A researcher
examines an assembled
cell. Image: WMG
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/www.theengineer.co.uk