There is significant global demand for improved battery performance across a wide range of applications, including transportation and grid storage. Solid State Electrolyte (SSE) technology will revolutionise battery performance, offering high energy density, faster charging, increased cell durability and enhanced safety. SSE battery systems are being developed globally, however they generally rely on lithium, an expensive and difficult to source material, which causes significant environmental damage during its production. Sodium Beta Alumina (SBA) electrolytes produced from widely available, low-cost materials, are environmentally sustainable and safe. These electrolytes are used in commercial high temperature battery systems like Na/S. Their use in room temperature applications is limited, as to counterbalance the lower ionic conductivity at room temperature, very thin electrolytes are needed, which are extremely brittle. Development of ultra-thin solid electrolytes with desired characteristics will be exploited in the AMSEL project to produce a reliable, scalable process which can be successfully commercialised. This project brings together a consortium of world leading organisations with key complementary expertise. From Germany: the Fraunhofer Institute for Ceramic Technologies and Systems (IKTS) has significant capability in high performance ceramic battery material development and Rösler-CeramInno a medium-sized company specialising in the manufacture of high performance ceramic powders. From the UK: the Additive Manufacturing Centre of Excellence (AM-COE) an innovative SME who has developed novel ceramics AM technology and the Manufacturing Technology Centre (MTC) home to the UK's National Centre for Additive Manufacturing. The partners will develop and prove a new manufacturing route for solid state electrolyte batteries using a combination of novel materials and advanced manufacturing processes. This is only possible through this groundbreaking international collaboration. The innovation, research activity and exploitation, including the potential for IP generation, are evenly shared between the UK and Germany. As well as the economic benefits, the development of more effective battery technology, particularly for grid storage applications, will support the widespread deployment of green energy solutions helping the UK and Germany meet critical net-zero targets.

Re-Rheon 3D aims to address the reuse and upcycling of polymer waste generated during injection moulding, while creating the world's first strain-rate sensitive material for 3d printing. This is a collaborative initiative between Rheon Labs Ltd and the Additive Manufacturing Centre of Excellence and will focus on the development of a circular process for 3d printable Rheon. At the core of RHEON(tm) technology is a reactive polymer that intelligently strengthens when subjected to force. The technology can control energy of any amplitude or frequency - from small vibrations to life-threatening single impacts. Thus, the main use of Rheon parts is in helmets and other life-saving applications. Our parts are manufactured using traditional injection moulding, and thus create polymer waste in the process. While injection moulding is the method of choice for mass manufacturing simple geometries, we currently cannot reuse injection moulding waste and sprues in our production facilities in the UK. Thus, we cannot manufacture some of the customers complex and lightweight geometries. Currently about 5% of our material ends up as waste in the injection moulding process, due to sprues used for production parts, or parts that don't comply with the specs. This accounts for 2500 Kg and about £30,000 per year, and is predicted to grow to 6250 Kg and £75,000 in 2022\. Thus, it is crucial to develop a process to re-incorporate this material waste into useful end-user parts, creating an environmental and economic benefit. In addition, we currently face customer requirements around lightweight parts with complex geometries, especially in the helmet industry, which we cannot meet using injection moulding. This project aims to address on the one hand the reuse of Rheon waste created in our manufacturing facilities, and on the other hand enable us to meet customer requirements for bespoke lightweight structures and advanced geometries.