Public Funding for Zapgo Ltd

"This project meets the need set out in the Faraday Battery Challenge to undertake research that will underpin the formation of a new supply chain able to scale-up a novel energy storage technology and accelerate its adoption. The project will tackle the challenge of translating the component technology into a complete battery system, primarily focussed on the road transport sector but with spill-over benefits to the aerospace, rail and marine sectors. Oxford R&D companyZap&Go has developed a new generation of capacitive energy storage devices. The technology goes under the name of Carbon-Ion (C-Ion), in contrast to Lithium-ion (Li-ion). It exploits the properties of novel nano-carbons and electrolytes to give increased energy density in an ultra-fast charging package. Work to date has demonstrated the potential to double or even triple the energy density of today's supercapacitors. When presenting the benefits of this new UK-generated technology to technically literate customers there are significant challenges. While these customers are familiar with the testing and combining of different conventional battery types, the performance characteristics of C-Ion are significantly different. The adoption of C-Ion technology would be boosted if it could be characterised in a standardised way, enabling the design of novel packs, modules and BMS's using either C-Ion alone or as a hybrid with other energy storage. This adds an important, high power density capability for the automotive industry to incorporate into electrification systems. If Zap&Go is to engage with OEM or Tier 1 automotive customers, it is essential for it to produce independently verifiable, system-based evidence to demonstrate that their cells perform as claimed. The project will generate data that will allow them to satisfy these expectations. It will also encourage and support a new supply chain through defining proper test and validations methods. Zap&Go's bid partner WMG is an academic department of Warwick University, where it runs the Energy Innovation Centre with unique experimental facilities that enable development, characterisation and testing of individual battery cells through to complete energy storage systems."

"ZapGo has developed a new class of energy storage device as an innovative solution to the slow charging problems encountered by all current lead-acid or lithium powered appliances, devices and vehicles. ZapGo's new cell technology, dubbed Carbon-Ion (C-Ion), exploits the properties of novel carbon nano-materials and electrolytes to underpin industry-leading performance, including ultra-fast charging and a vastly increased life span when compared to lithium batteries. ZapGo, in partnership with world-leading Oxford University and Hypermotive, is seeking to launch a novel Hybrid Energy Storage System (HESS) based on their patented technology and expertise in the consortium."

"The WIZer Batteries project, led by Williams Advanced Engineering, will deliver a revolutionary approach to battery management, new hybrid supercapacitor and lithium ion battery systems and a communications platform that will deliver data and capability to customers, vehicle manufacturers and infrastructure providers. Using a very high-powered processor the battery management system (BMS) will use software and hardware acceleration to run multiple complex battery models in real time. These models will build on the work of the Faraday Institution Multi-Scale Modelling Fast Start led by Imperial College. The greater fidelity allowed by the solution will allow greater exploitation of the available energy and power within the battery, resulting in many benefits including faster charging, enhanced power delivery and higher regenerative energy collection across the full range of charge states. Codeplay Software also bring a revolutionary approach to the exploitation of processor hardware, thereby increasing the performance of the system and introducing potential for accelerated machine learning and AI techniques to be introduced. The performance benefits of this technology will be tested on a hybrid battery containing both lithium ion cells and carbon ion supercapacitors, which will be developed by Williams Advanced Engineering with Zap&Go, enabled by enhanced battery management capability and new models. Further exploiting the BMS and battery technology developed through the WIZer Batteries project will be a communications and infrastructure system to be used to capture a lifetime of data from the battery. Focussed around an optimised data set, minimising the required data transmission, the system will be designed to deliver all data required to analyse battery condition, enabling the potential operational value of the battery at the end of its first and subsequent lives to be accurately mapped. The developed solution will also deliver the required functionality for vehicle-to-grid applications, including an arbitration system that will allow the controlled charging of multiple independent vehicles with a local energy grid, supporting wider adoption of electric vehicles."

Zap&Go has developed a new class of energy storage device as an innovative solution to the slow charging problems encountered by all current lead-acid or lithium powered appliances, devices and vehicles. Zap&Go's new cell technology, dubbed Carbon-Ion (C-Ion(r)), exploits the properties of novel carbon nano-materials and electrolytes to underpin industry-leading performance, including ultra-fast charging and a vastly increased life span when compared to lithium batteries.

ESCIPODs is a collaborative project led by Westfield Sportscars, alongside Zap&Go, Potenza, Heathrow Enterprises and The University of Warwick to develop existing autonomous vehicles for higher efficiency and extended range. It builds on existing research and development that has been carried out in the UK to propose a novel and innovative solution for clean and efficient urban transportation. This will be achieved by developing a new hybrid supercapacitor and Lithium-Ion battery system for deployment in both new and retrofit PODs.

This project is to assess the commercial viability of a new method of manufacturing Graphene. Graphene is a single layer of carbon atoms and was discovered by Nobel Prize winning scientists at the University of Manchester in 2003. It has been called the ‘miracle material’ with incredible properties, orders of magnitude stronger than steel and more conductive than copper. Graphene has great potential for practical use in high value electronics for a wide range of applications. However, so far, it has proved difficult to manufacture Graphene on an industrial scale. London Graphene Ltd (LGL) has been set-up to develop and exploit a new scalable low-cost method of manufacturing high quality Graphene. This Proof of Market study is to assess its market potential in two promising application areas, namely ultra-capacitors and flexible touch screens. To help understand the potential of our method, the study will also compare our product against graphenes produced by other manufacturing methods.