Public Funding for Amte Power PLC

AMTE Power will deliver a collaborative R&D project with HSSMI, validating readiness for scale-up through pilot production of our innovative next-generation Ultra High Power (UHP) Li-ion pouch cell at the UKBIC for our Megafactory. The MegaPower project will produce physical production samples, of a quantity and quality which supports the case for the commercial viability of scaling up the UHP cell in the UK. It will also include samples to validate technical qualification through battery safety and automotive readiness testing. A Megafactory plant is necessary for AMTE to enter battery supply contacts with automotive customers ASAP. It will bridge the gap between our low volume output at the UKBIC (2022) and very high-volume output from a Gigafactory (2.5 -10 GWh, 2026) site. Such a project will also support the UK automotive and wider EV sector, by providing domestic battery cell supply of Li-ion products in a common 300x100 pouch format, helping current automotive OEMs remain onshore and not need to leave the UK to secure battery cell supply. It will also likely attract further foreign investment in the UK automotive sector, as currently our very limited battery cell supply chain is seen as a blocker to new companies setting up in the UK versus mainland Europe.

Change to project sub contractors used.

The need for a resilient, agile and reliable energy storage is critical for the growth of the economy and its decarbonisation of infrastructure. Developed and developing countries both have their own challenges to address; while the cost of battery packs are significant for developed countries, reliable energy access is what developing countries require to flourish. Successful deployment of off-grid solutions that don't rely on the national grid(unreliable and limited) is one of the main identified solutions to overcome this problem. Having said that, off-grid solutions are highly dependent on batteries which currently come with severe limitations: they are non-affordable, environmentally unfriendly and unreliable under harsh climatic conditions & hot temperature. The outcome of this project will a 8KWh,48V battery pack and three 1.8KWh,12V modular, upgradable and portable battery modules/packs which will be tailored to Mozambican market needs and its high renewable energy source(specifically irradiance) opportunities. NexGen aims to improve accessibility in remote locations, reduce CO2 emission by 20%, reduce battery pack costs by 30% and reduce cost of ownership by 20% by taking advantage of its reusable and recyclable battery pack design.

Project CELERITAS will develop ultra-fast charging batteries for Electric and Fuel Cell Hybrid Vehicles to accelerate their market acceptance by addressing consumer concerns over range and charge time. CELERITAS will also develop the UK supply chain to allow UK battery electric-vehicle and mild-hybrid electric-vehicle manufacturers to achieve post-Brexit requirements of \>50% parts sourced from UK suppliers within 3 years. A Consortium of Sprint Power Technology Ltd, AMTE Power plc, Clas-SiC Wafer Fab Limited, Eltrium Limited, UK Lubricants (BP plc) and BMW Motorsport GmbH will deliver the £10.57 million project, £5.28 million of which will be funded through the APC.

The Power-Up project will establish the feasibility of manufacturing AMTE's Ultra Power (UP) cells in the UK, in volume. The UP cell has high energy density for a power cell, with excellent heat rejection capability using tab cooling, preventing cell overheating during continuous aggressive cycling or fast charging, and extending lifetime, in an automotive format that is ready for production by UKBIC by the end of the project. Imperial's Electrochemical Science & Engineering group has a long-term strategy to change the way that the lithium-ion battery industry designs their cells, in particular, to take a holistic approach to performance and particularly the interaction between the cells and the thermal management at the system level. Their research over the last few years has demonstrated significant opportunities for improvement in both useable energy, lifetime and cost, building a substantial evidence base to justify a new approach to cell design. They have already demonstrated the concept through a Faraday Institution funded sprint project, TOPBAT, with AMTE Power. By working with UK partners, they want to help create a new generation of best-in-class cells with unique selling points that will help create a thriving and profitable UK cell manufacturing industry. They will also engage with UK customers for these cells and provide them with a head start so they can design products taking advantage of their superior characteristics, these cells will therefore provide UK engineering companies with a significant competitive advantage. UKBIC has the ambition to provide power pouch cell technology for its customer base. UKBIC is currently commissioning its facility with an in-house cylindrical 21700 cell and a VDA-standard 300x100x10 (mm) pouch cell based on electrodes designed for high-energy-density. Typical charge/discharge rates for this technology peak around 1C rates, many customer applications require charge/discharge rates much higher than this for high-power applications (\>15C). Thinly coated electrodes and good cell design thermal optimisation are required for high power cells. High power cells require innovative use and adaption of electrode coating equipment to allow thin coating at rate to the required reproducibility and tolerances to ensure optimised performance and retain cycle life. Sealing thicker cell tabs into conventional cell sealing equipment will also require an innovative approach to pouch cell manufacture.

The ULTRA project targets next-generation battery improvement at the cell level with the development, scale-up and commercialisation of AMTE Power's innovative power-dense Ultra-High Power (UHP) and energy-dense Ultra Energy (UE) cells to pre-production variants, using precision metals expertise (Avocet) and efficiency focussed commercial BEV (Magtec) platforms, with the charger technology (Petalite) required to ensure they can all be fast-charged. * Avocet Precision Metals will supply the metallic raw materials for the UHP and UE cells, and their participation will allow them to progress from a distributor of precision metals to a UK based manufacturer * Magtec will design and integrate new battery packs and management systems, utilising the UE cells * Petalite's patented Ultra SDC charger for BEVs has the potential to address market trends and needs for shorter charge time (higher power charge), improved modularity and lower lifetime cost, and will allow for the fast charging of all four vehicles considered by Magtec. The SCOPE of the project remains as the above on a general project level. However, Avocet has requested the removal of a work package as it no longer aligns with their business plan, is not integral to the project as it was an early feasibility study and does not affect any of the partners deliverables.

The UK Automotive battery supply chain has maintained significant strengths in the chemicals industry and developments of the next-generation anode and cathode technology. The AMTE Power Thurso facility has played a significant role in the upscaling of these technologies, from the lab to low production volumes. However, as the technologies find success there are limited opportunities to continue development and production within the UK. HSSMI and AMTE Power conducted a Faraday-Battery-Challenge round 3 feasibility project to establish the validity of a UK based Gigafactory. This study provided the expected operational and capital costs for such a facility as well as an expected operational date of 2022\. However, while the development of this facility is on-going, AMTE have seen a recent surge of demand from customers that cannot be currently met with the existing processes, equipment and scale of the current facility. To address this challenge, the Thurso+ project aims to determine the feasibility of upscaling AMTE Power's electrochemical battery cell production facility in Thurso and how it can best be aligned with their future Gigafactory. The Thurso+ project will aim to develop a productivity and investment roadmap which will be used to: \*Identify and implement immediate opportunities for increasing productivity and efficiency through lean and flexible manufacturing principles. \*Understand of how the Thurso facility can best achieve technological parity in production methods to those of state-of-the-art Gigafactories. This will facilitate further development of innovative and high-performance UK based products supporting the Automotive Industry. The project will increase accessibility of cell supply for low volume specialist vehicle manufacturers who struggle with large OEMs buying up capacity. The Thurso+ project is being submitted to Innovate UK's competition: ATF: moving the UK automotive sector to zero emissions. The project will demonstrate innovation in the development of lean, flexible, and state of the art, high volume cell manufacturing capability in the UK of which there is currently a significant lack of. There is innovation in the adoption of high-volume manufacturing techniques and process within a small scale facility. This will reduce scale-up costs through minimising development and trials during each increase in production quantity. The project consortium is made up of AMTE Power, the cell manufacturer, and HSSMI, experts in high volume and scale-up manufacturing.

Project AcouBat (Acoustic test for Batteries) will address the next generation of battery production assurance, using novel inline testing processes, and ensuring the delivery of quality, competitive UK products in a high-volume manufacturing environment. The consortium's vision will be to; 1) reduce overall lithium-ion cell production time and cost, while maintaining and/or improving quality 2) validate the acoustic test concepts on functioning cell production lines and 3) validate the business opportunity of the acoustic test. This project will bring together fundamental research organisations, with test integrators and production end-users, to develop leading concept designs for the developing electric vehicle industry. The project will focus on; 1) impact of implementing the acoustic test solution into the overall production time 2) establishing requirements and expectations for the acoustic inline test equipment 3) determining the optimal use of the acoustic inline test method and 4) design and scale-up of the acoustic inline test for high volume manufacturing of cells. The acoustic test method identified in the Faraday Battery Challenge Round 1 project 'VALUABLE' and methods developed by UCL, will be practically assessed on AMTE Power's cell manufacturing line. This non-destructive testing enables quality assurance processes to be implemented throughout the production line, from initial electrode creation to internal analysis of the completed cell. Existing production line testing focuses on mechanical and electrical inline testing methods to qualify the battery joints and connections. Whilst this approach aids manufacturers in ensuring quality product delivery, they cannot establish the overall electrochemical state of the components, which presently can only be measured offline statistically, or in lengthy cycle testing. The use of inline acoustic testing will detect faulty cells or poor electrode coatings early in the process, stopping errors at the source, and preventing their progress through the entire production line, to the expensive bottleneck of final battery cycle testing.

The UK's stated objective to emit zero carbon emissions by 2050 means that future cars and commercial vehicles will need to be driven by electric motors powered by compact batteries. The battery technology of the future is expected to be a descendant of existing Lithium ion (Li-ion) batteries used in existing Electric Vehicles (EVs) - such as the Toyota Prius and the Tesla range of EVs. To optimise the cycle life (running cost) and performance (range and power) of Li-ion devices, the battery temperature must be maintained within a narrow window of operation - typically 15-50 degC (Wang, 2016). It is therefore not surprising that advancing battery thermal management technology is recognised as key to facilitating the widespread adoption of EVs. One of the main challenges for future Battery Thermal Management Systems (BTMS) will be the facilitation of Extremely Fast Charging (XFC). XFC would enable a battery pack with a 200-mile range to be re-charged on a time-scale like that for refueling a conventional petrol or diesel car. However, XFC is challenging from a BTMS perspective as it leads to the generation of considerable amounts of heat in the batteries. Being able to maintain the batteries within their operational temperature envelope during XFC, particularly in hotter climates, is currently an un-solved problem in the automotive sector. The aim of this project is to assess the feasibility of optimising current pouch-cell architectures for heat extraction; combining the result with Qdot's battery cooling technology to enable XFC.

Brill Power and AMTE Power have identified a market opportunity for a modular, long-life battery system to electrify commercial vehicles with internal combustion engines, particularly medium and heavy goods vehicles. Commercial vehicles typically have high utilisation rates, which can cause lithium-ion batteries to lose more than 20% of their driving range within a few years, at which point the battery needs to be replaced. Brill Power has developed a novel type of battery management system (BMS), which can extend the lifetime of batteries by up to 60%. This is particularly valuable for commercial vehicles and will avoid the need for battery replacements. AMTE Power are the UK's only powder-to-cell manufacturer of lithium-ion battery cells and are planning to ramp up their battery production in the UK's first domestically owned gigafactories. Combining AMTE Power's high-energy-density battery cells with Brill Power's novel BMS enables the companies to create a highly competitive product for the automotive market. Their decision to target the retrofitting market is based on market pull, as well as the faster access to this market compared to the manufacturing lines of new vehicles. This project will enable Brill Power and AMTE Power to create a demonstrator for a new and competitive product to showcase their technologies. It will also allow the partners to start a commercial collaboration and create the foundation for a UK-based powder-to-power supply chain for automotive battery systems.

_It is anticipated that 50% of vehicle production will be wholly or partially electric by 2030\. This project aims to commercialise known quantum technology to address identified challenges in the manufacture of batteries and lithium cells. Quantum technology enables highly sensitive measurements of magnetic fields. This project will use these magnetic measurements to diagnose current flows in lithium cells and the consortium will develop a complete environmentally controlled ageing test production system deployed at the largest commercial powder to power lithium-ion and sodium-ion manufacturing plant in the UK (project lead: AGM). The system will be integrated into AGM's pouch cell assembly and test processes trialled on the range of High, Ultra High power, High Energy and Sodium-ion cells currently being scaled-up and commercialised for UK niche automotive market in particular._ _Having gained global acclaim for best-in-class ICE's, Cosworth are perfect examples of what's best about the UK's high-performance automotive developers. Now they are seeking to build equally successful electric drive trains and only power cells of the very highest quality will suffice. The project is fortunate to have Cosworth as an active partner taking advantage of the Quantum Sensor technology ability to select A-Grade cells for the best hybrid battery performance and good lifetime state-of-health. The technology adds strength to 2nd life use of cells viability due to better SoH confidence through 1st life._ _In the next few years, the UK-BIC (Battery Industrialisation Centre) will be opened. This will be closely followed by AGM's parent company's AMTE GigaFactory which will be capable of manufacturing millions of cells in the UK every year. Like all cell manufacturers, AGM will be burdened with the bottleneck of cell formation and ageing processes. This project aims to significantly reduce this impact and also improve quality yields providing the ability to grade cells effectively. This could prove massively beneficial to the fledgling industry providing a competitive edge enabling AGM to take market share earlier._

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"The Synergy project is focused on developing a step change in performance and environmental friendliness of lithium ion batteries to meet the needs of electric vehicles. It brings together the raw material, formulation, electrochemical knowledge and cell manufacture capabilities of Synthomer Plc (including Synthomer's polymer development team in Harlow and inorganic material team at William Blythe in Accrington) the Centre for Process Innovation and AGM Batteries Ltd. The project will lead to manufacturing and performance improvements in the anode system. It will also focus on methods to improve the safety and environmental profile of cathode systems. The combined improvements are expected to reduce the costs of cell manufacture and help to realise the range and power output needed for the next generation of electric vehicles. The project is well suited to capture and exploit the value of electrode materials and lithium ion cell manufacture by establishing a robust UK supply chain."

"The Government's Faraday Battery Challenge program is supporting an exciting research project to bring solid-state batteries much closer to market in future electric vehicles. The main advantage of solid state batteries (SSBs) lies in their increased safety, power performance, enhanced cycle life and increased energy density as compared to current Lithium-ion cells. This should translate into electric vehicles which can travel much further between charges, simpler battery pack designs and faster re-charging when it is necessary. This would ease any remaining customer worries about long charging delays or running out of power on long trips and help more people make the switch to electric motoring. However, solid state battery technology is still in its infancy and no one has yet worked out how to deploy the science on an industrial scale and at reasonable cost. Project Granite will explore the cost-effective routes for scaling up the solid-state technology developed by Ilika, a pioneering leader in this technology, with the support of AGM Batteries, which has industrial experience in manufacturing Lithium-ion cells. The project is led by Jaguar Land Rover, which will develop the new battery pack designs to fit within their future electric vehicles. Warwick Manufacturing Group will supply academic excellence in abuse modelling and cell performance evaluation. The consortium's expertise, backed by Government financial support, will allow Britain's best talent to be brought to bear, so that the UK can take the lead in this transformative technology."

"To establish an effective, repeatable and scalable carbon-coating process for next-gen silicon anodes materials that will improve the current performance of lithium-Ion batteries, and hence accelerate the adoption of Nexeon anode materials by cell manufacturers and at major OEMs, via an 18 month 3.3m project utilizing PSI’s scaled process know-how, AGM’s cell fabrication expertise and Oxford University’s analytical capabilities" Battery cells typically represent \>60% of the cost of an EV battery pack and almost 100% are currently imported to the UK. Security of supply is a major concern for UK pack builders and vehicle OEMs. AGM is already working with partners to grow the UK supply chain for cell materials and components, alongside its own plans for significant upscaling of its UK cell manufacturing capability. The need for UK based core cell material manufacturers is partly addressed through this project -- secure supply of IP rich, cell performance enhancing materials means that the cells developed in the UK can offer leading edge performance and provide the consortium members the confidence to scale beyond niche and into mass market application. Oxford University's Department of Materials will provide state-of-the-art material characterisation to support the project."

This collaborative innovation project is focused on assessing the commercial feasibility of establishing a scalable Battery Cell Manufacturing Facility in the UK, with the capability to ramp up to a Gigawatt hour worth of cell production (35m units) of mixed pouch and cylindrical cells by the year 2024\. This is driven by the strategic need to establish the UK as a global leader in the development and manufacture of battery cells for electric vehicles. This project will result in the delivery of a business case and manufacturing blueprint for the proposed GigaFactory that will enable AMTE Power to advance their production and supply chain readiness of their battery cells towards the level of capability, scale and cost per Kwh required by the UK's burgeoning EV sector and it's global demand.