NdFeB magnets play a critical role in the fight against climate change as they are used in clean technologies such as wind turbines generators and motors in electric vehicles. As we transition to an electrically driven society then the demand for these materials will increase almost exponentially. The supply of these materials is geographically concentrated in certain parts of the globe and these materials have been identified as being of greatest supply risk compared to all other energy related materials by the EU. The aim of SCREAM is to provide a UK based supply of these materials by recycling magnets from end of life scrap (EoL). HyProMag, Mkango Rare Earths UK, GKN Hybrid Power, European Metal Recycling (EMR), Jaguar Land Rover (JLR), Bowers and Wilkins and the University of Birmingham (UoB) will work together in the SCREAM project to secure critical permanent magnets for the UK. The SCREAM consortium will demonstrate two innovative paths to introduce scrap material back into the rare earth supply chain. The first is to scale up a process developed at the University of Birmingham, "Hydrogen Processing of Magnetic Scrap" from automotive, robotic, separator, loudspeaker scrap streams. The second is to produce a mixed rare earth carbonate for the rare earth supply chain. HyProMag will scale this process to develop magnets that are different grades for a range of applications. Bowers and Wilkins, GKN and JLR will assess the suitability of the magnets for a range of products, and calculate the environmental footprint for production of these materials. The output of the project will be motors, loudspeakers and holding magnet applications containing recycled magnets.
Future Pathway UK, is a collaborative, industry-led feasibility study between GKN Automotive Innovation Centre, Belcan and the University of Nottingham.
The purpose of this feasibility study is to assess the viability of UK manufacture of electric drive and power electronics for global mass-market applications and recommend the pathway to achieve a globally competitive investment case for prospective Industrials. The study will be based upon a blueprint for the technology, design and manufacturing process that will enable cost-effective, efficient, durable and safe machines to be developed and manufactured from Niche to Global scale in the UK.
Global mass adoption of electric drive, with the human benefits of vastly reduced street-level toxic emission, is being hampered by the high cost of the systems. The reduction in CO2 produced by utilising xEV cars is offset by the high level of CO2 embedded in their manufacture. For an SUV BEV, where the energy consumed for manufacturing is coal-powered, it could take the life of the car to recover the offset, even on a current European electricity mix this can be over 50,000km.
GKN Automotive is the world leader in developing and supplying (P4) Axle-mounted eDrive. They have supplied over 1 million units to the world's global carmakers; BMW, Volvo, Peugeot, Porsche, FCA, JLR and London Taxi. They will lead and provide the critical design parameters.
UoN will apply Life-Cycle-Analysis (LCA) methodology from the outset, studying the impact of design, process and manufacture in the UK, EU and China on total embedded CO2\.
Belcan, a specialist in supply chain development for the automotive industry, will apply techno-economic analysis against potential technologies and provide an understanding of the commercial trade-off between flexibility, cost, embedded CO2 and performance. Belcan will also examine the UK supply chain availability to support volume EDU manufacture.
Combining LCA and TEA will help to configure an optimal system enabling flexible and scaleable manufacture of eDrives from 50 -- 250kW covering current level hybrid vehicles through to performance BEV. With EDU designed to minimise embedded GHG and ease of recycling, whilst being globally cost-competitive.
The goal is to understand the opportunities and risk mitigations fully, that would make the UK a cost-competitive country option for the expansion of flexible and scalable EDU manufacture. This will ultimately safeguard jobs, lock UK innovation, increase GDP, support the UK's net-zero CO2 ambitions and ensure the UK is ahead of the competition.
"MiWheel is collaborative, industry led feasibility study, between the GKN Innovation Centre, AVID technology and Warwick Manufacturing Group.
The purpose is to assess if 48V battery in wheel electric drive can be made viable for mass market adoption in L/M and CAV class vehicles; define the technology, design and manufacturing processes that will enable it to be cost effective, efficient, durable and safe.
True global mass adoption of electric drive, with the human benefits of vastly reduced street level toxic emission and potential reduction in overall CO2 produced by cars, is being and will continue to be slowed by the cost, complexity of the vehicles and the charging infrastructure required by modern high voltage passenger cars, particularly in developing countries and mega cities where the capacity of the local electric grid will be a significant and expensive issue to rectify.
48V battery would be much more affordable and easily charged from a low voltage grid. However conventional single inboard motor configuration would be very power limited, reducing the vehicle size to the smallest and hence reducing the market.
By distributing the power at each corner MiWheel overcomes this limitation, providing suitable performance across a wide range of vehicle types and market segments, enabling these vehicles to exploit the packaging benefits that in wheel drive provides, both for passenger and cargo space, crash safety and design freedom. This feasibility study will assess overall capability of such a system and research potential motor topologies and manufacturing methods to achieve a low cost, safe and durable MiWheel for global mass manufacture"
The ACeDrive project aims to develop a 2030 generation eDrive power train but for production by 2023, in so
doing it will hasten the displacement of the internal combustion engine, enable manufactures both to gain
greater range and performance from their vehicles and lower the cost to the consumer.
Project ACeDrive consortium is comprised of GKN Innovation Centre, part of GKN Driveline, the foremost
global eDrive gearbox supplier, Drive System Design (DSD) renowned SME automotive engineering
consultancy and University of Nottingham (UoN), the UK hub and centre of excellence for electric drive
development. ACeDrive builds on the consortium knowhow from previously funded projects in high-speed
electric machines and will develop genuinely globally important IP for the UK and grow our capability in the
design and manufacture of high volume power electronics and electric motors.
It is forecast that by 2025 40% of passenger vehicle sales will feature some form of electrification. Risk averse global manufacturers need their supply chain to deliver proven, market ready low carbon technologies to meet rapidly changing consumer demands and legislative requirements. HIPERCAR 2 takes the results of successful R&D projects, progressing five of them from TRL5 to 8, and MRL4 to 6: 1) 35kW microturbine range extender. 2) High power, lightweight, low cost electric motor. 3) Cooled battery system & BMS. 4) High performance inverter & inverter/charger. 5) Lightweight multi-material chassis. The successful integration of the technologies on a single platform will validate performance, durability and manufacturability proving readiness to progress to production. This will create a route to low, medium & high volume markets between 2019-27, delivering significant environmental and economic benefit, using technologies which are IP anchored and manufactured in the UK. The IDP10 HIPERCAR consortium of Ariel, Delta Motorsport and Equipmake is joined by new partners GKN, Johnson Matthey and Semikron
Williams Hybrid Power (WHP), supported by GKN Land Systems, have developed a hybrid system to regenerate braking energy on city buses utilising their Gyrodrive system with a high speed flywheel originally developed for Le Mans Prototypes KERS technology.
To date this development work has shown the fuel savings in excess of 25% for the bus operators.
In this new project WHP and GKN have joined with Alexander Dennis Limited (ADL), the UK biggest bus manufacturer, to develop a solution that will be optimised for fitment to buses as original equipment at build. This will widen the potential market for the technology, generating genuine cost savings throughout the industry and giving opportunity for increased production and export success. In this project WHP will develop the Gyrodrive technology, GKN will use its manufacturing skills to develop the production systems and ADL will supply its expertise in the manufacture of buses and their knowledge of the customer base. GKN will also look to exploit the technology into its key customer markets such as off highway machines
This project will develop fundamental science, applied engineering knowledge and safety-critical engineering processes, and contribute strongly to creation of a technical standard for, the design, analysis, manufacture and test of composite flywheel energy storage systems for transport applications. By doing so, in an unprecedented collaboration of the UK's three major industrial flywheel-hybrid players, the project accelerates the technology readiness of these systems and removes a potential hurdle to market acceptance.
GyroDrive is a game changing hybrid concept for City bus and HGV applications. Despite significant pressure to reduce emissions and improve fuel consumption, the commercial uptake of hybrid buses has been low due the high system cost. Additionally, with a life of up to 20 years, there will be a significant number of diesel buses in service for the forseeable future. The GyrdoDrive consortium will build and prove a novel hybrid system, incorporating an electrically driven flywheel. The system will be less than half the weight of a current hybrid system, and will be small enough to retro fit to an existing bus with no loss of interior space. The system will be developed by Williams Hybrid Power, GKN, and GKN-Evo, with Go Ahead group performing a fleet trial on a number of different bus types to validate the system performance. The consortium expect fuel savings of up to 25%, and expect the system price in production to have a payback period of less than 5 years
Kinergy delivers a hybridisation system with potential for 30% fuel/C02 saving at an on-cost of below £1000, which will strongly accelerate the mass-market uptake of hybrid vehicles. The program deploys technologies in which the UK has leadership, based on a first generation derived from motorsport.
First generation flywheel-hybrids suffer from risks and issues associated wilh the vacuum seal on the high Speed flywheel shaft, and need expensive and energy-consuming vacuum equipment as a result.
The Kinergy concept eliminates this problem by replacing the driveshaft and seal wilh a hermetically sealed vacuum chamber and magnetic coupling to transmit drive. This solution reduces engineering costs and operating costs, and has generated great interest globally in road transport and other sectors.
Enabled by the hermetic concept, the project develops innovation in key subsystem technologies in the areas of flywheel design, bearings, magnetic couplings / gearing and power transmission, wilh the objectives of cost reduction, manufacturing compatibility and ultra-high efficiency.
These innovations will be realised in integrated units with magnetic/mechanical and electromagnelic outputs through a comprehensive program of rig research. Further validation is delivered in one vehicle plus case studies for four further key applications. The program will be delivered by a consortium of the UK's strongest players at component and system level, who have proven track records in their areas of expertise