Institute of Materials, Minerals & Mining (IOM3) – Written evidence (BAT0031)

The Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining (IOM3) is a major UK science and engineering institution whose activities promote and develop all aspects of the materials cycle. From exploration and extraction, through characterisation, processing and application, to reuse and recycling, IOM3 represents and supports around 15,000 individual members. This response draws on the expertise and experience of members and IOM3 Technical Communities including input from its Energy Transition Group, Energy Materials Group and Nano Committee.

1. To what extent are battery and fuel cell technologies currently contributing to decarbonisation efforts in the UK?

• What are the primary applications of battery and fuel cell technologies for decarbonisation, and at what scale have they been deployed?

Applications of battery and fuel cell technologies for decarbonisation include the transport sector – road, marine and air – and stationary power applications.

For transportation, the key market segments emerging as the primary applications of battery and fuel cell technologies are passenger vehicles including personal transport (initially in hybrid and now all electric cars) and mass transit (buses); heavy goods vehicles; and delivery vehicles.

For passenger vehicle transportation, despite publicity around ending new diesel or petrol car sales in 2030 (with some hybrids allowed until 2035) the sales of electric cars are currently only 6.6% of total car sales as of 2020, in a year where total cars sales declined. Although low, this does represent a 5% increase in just one year and, though the impacts of the Covid19 pandemic need to be factored in, this would suggest electric vehicle uptake and the contribution batteries are now making to UK decarbonisation is growing.

Out of the total number of passenger vehicles on the road in the UK only 0.7% were battery electric. There are now approximately 20,000 charging points in the UK but this will need to grow substantially to give good coverage. In terms of recharging/refuelling, these can be generally sub-divided into 'fleet' vehicles and 'personal’, since fleet vehicles return to base which simplifies the infrastructure required and it is likely therefore that these markets will grow faster. A recent growth trend has been on-line shopping, which usually requires home delivery, hence environmentally-friendly 'last mile' delivery vans, and smaller niche vehicles such as electric bicycles and tricycles are emerging. There are currently over 3 million delivery vans in the UK, so upgrading and expansion of this fleet represents a significant opportunity for decarbonisation. Major on-line retailers such as Amazon have announced purchase of fleets of electric vehicles – for example, Amazon have committed to augmenting their fleet with 30,000 electric vans. The development of artificial intelligence autonomous vehicles offers an opportunity for battery electric vehicles and fuel cell electric vehicles electrification, both for road and air – for example, delivery vans, drones, and road or air taxis. Developments in next-generation battery cathodes (such as the move to higher nickel-content) will bring about improvements in vehicle range as well as lifetime.

Road transport is also segmented by vehicle size. It is widely accepted that batteries will be used to power smaller vehicles, but for larger vehicles such as HGVS, off-road construction, and buses, hydrogen fuel cells could present an attractive alternative power source due to the weight penalty of current commercial battery packs. Hydrogen fuel cells start to have an advantage in larger goods vehicles, and especially heavy goods vehicles, which becomes significant – especially for long distance transportation where range is a concern.

Hydrogen fuel cells may also be very competitive for buses within cities and for cross country applications, plus potentially for rail transportation. There are around 74,000 buses operating in the UK, and in 2014/15 5.2 billion bus journeys, 2.4 billion in London, representing a significant opportunity for decarbonisation. The EU-funded CUTE bus project (2001-2006) operated six fuel cell electric vehicle buses in European cities including London and a life cycle analysis was developed from the project[1]. Wrightbus are currently developing a fuel cell electric vehicle bus under a UK government funded grant.

The use of hydrogen fuel cells for vehicles is very low to date as the infrastructure for widely distributed hydrogen (especially blue[2] or green[3] hydrogen) is in its infancy, thus the number of fuelling points is low to date. In the coming 10 years there will be a very significant increase in the amount of clean (blue or green) hydrogen available and while fuel cell passenger vehicles may be cost competitive with battery vehicles it is very likely they will only make up a small part of the number of cars on the road in the UK because of the lead enjoyed currently by batteries and the significant efforts by the automobile manufacturers to develop new battery electric cars.

There is also interest in exploiting lithium-sulfur (Li-S) batteries for aviation applications (for example, LG Chem Li-S batteries have powered unmanned aircraft and Sion Power Li-S cells have powered high-altitude pseudo-satellite Airbus aircraft). There is also adoption of lighter-weight Li-S batteries in large electric vehicles such as buses and trucks. For example, Oxis are currently working to eliminate all internal combustion engine buses in Brazil. Therefore, there is significant potential for decarbonising larger vehicle transport through wider exploitation of Li-S batteries.

In stationary power applications, batteries are suitable for shorter term storage, while fuel cells are suited to longer term storage when linked to hydrogen storage.

2. What advances have been made in battery and fuel cell technologies in recent years and what changes can we expect in the next ten years (for example, in terms of energy density, capacity, charging times, lifetimes and cost reduction)?

For batteries, very significant advances have been made in the last decade, especially in cost reduction and the introduction of fast charging. The major developments in battery electric vehicles have been focussed on personal automotive transport, and all major automotive companies have electric vehicles either on, or close to market. The invention of the lithium ion battery in the UK by co-inventor Prof. Goodenough was well before any market demand, so the technology was sold and not developed in the UK. More recently, however, the emergence of Tesla, and the drive for decarbonisation have been global factors in stimulating the automotive electric vehicle market.

The key issues being tackled include: a) raw material resources; b) increasing energy density; c) reducing charging time; d) longevity (charging cycle lifetime); e) charging infrastructure and green energy; f) recycling or re-use.

The key advances in battery technology include: a) solid state batteries; b) improved ultracapacitors and supercapacitors; c) hybridisation of the two systems to reduce charge time and allow regenerative braking; d) reduction or avoidance of cobalt and e) sustainable alternatives such as sodium ion batteries.

In the UK, the Faraday Institution designs and manages innovative and impactful battery research which brings together consortia of universities and industry. Collaborative research at the interface of specialities, such as chemistry, materials, engineering and social sciences is critical to drive technological advances in battery innovation. The importance of such collaborative initiatives is well demonstrated through the Faraday Battery Challenge. This long-term commitment to fundamental and translational research, bringing together a community of researchers to tackle a defined set of challenges, invigorates research across academia and industry collaborations.

Energy density in batteries is limited by the number of available redox sites in the material and may be hampered by degradation mechanisms that might preclude stable long-duration capacities. Added to that are concerns around cost, safety, and sustainability. When looking at new materials, it is key to think about materials compatibility – delivering any candidate battery material demands strict crystal chemistry and engineering of composites which is informed by simulation and fundamental understanding. It is also necessary to think about the techno-economics of sustainable and environmentally benign elements – managing raw material supply chains in a manner sensitive to environmental and social concerns is vital.

For improvements in lithium ion batteries, the largest cost reductions will come from improvements in the cathode, with great potential for energy density increases. The main areas that are crucial for improving the performance of lithium ion batteries include controlling the morphology of cathode materials and generating compliant electrodes that are resistant, for example to fracture, to improve the lifetime of the battery. Protective coatings also have a role to play as reactions during charge and discharge or at high voltages can lead to side reactions that can reduce capacity over time. New additives and coatings therefore present a potentially transformative opportunity to improve the battery cell’s lifetime, safety and stability. There is new research ongoing into cathode chemistries that rely more on earth abundant elements and to take advantage of high-capacity materials, for example the Faraday Institution’s next-generation cathode project FutureCat.

For anodes, there is research ongoing to develop and improve graphite anodes. Currently, lithium metal cannot be applied as an anode in a liquid electrolyte battery, so graphite is used instead. At high charge rates, graphite anodes present a challenge because lithium can build up on the surface. This does not plate uniformly and can result in lithium dendrites[4], which give rise to safety concerns and the risk of fires. Using silicon-containing anodes could give up to ten times the energy density of commercial graphite. The challenge, however, is that silicon can change its volume by about 300% which can lead to capacity loss over time.

Key commercial developments in the UK include advanced cathodes, sodium-ion batteries and additive manufacturing techniques for battery manufacture. Sulphur batteries also present an opportunity for possible next-generation battery chemistry due to their high energy density, lower weight and lower costs.

Fuel cell technologies have also experienced very significant improvements in capacity, energy density and fuelling capabilities, although as the infrastructure for the production and distribution of clean hydrogen is only now developing, it is projected by many that advances to date still have a long way to go.

A key development in fuel cell electric vehicles is the use of green hydrogen . UK company ITM Power is achieving global success selling an electrolyser system for splitting water using renewable energy. Converting renewable energy into hydrogen is a significant infrastructure strategy, since it can capture, convert and store intermittent wind and solar energy by converting to hydrogen. Apart from clean energy storage, the hydrogen can be transferred from a remote wind farm for example, to a city for later use. UK projects are also looking at adding hydrogen into the domestic gas supply. The petroleum companies are working on extracting blue hydrogen from natural gas.

• What advances are expected beyond this timeframe, but in time to have an impact upon the 2050 net-zero target? Are there any fundamental limits to these technologies that would affect their contribution to the target?

Lithium-ion batteries and polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) are likely to remain the technology of choice for at least the next 10-20 years for electric vehicles and fuel cell electric vehicles respectively. Cost reduction of both technologies will continue, perhaps more marked for PEMFCs as manufacturing volumes increase from relatively low levels, although the movement to more sustainably high-lithium content cathodes could present a considerable opportunity for cost-reduction in lithium-ion batteries. The challenges faced here are in deepening fundamental understanding of these materials in order to extract their optimised energy densities.

There are of course limits due to fundamental chemistry and physics but the very large potential for the revenue and profitability related to these technologies would be expected to generate significant additional technical breakthroughs. Cost reductions could also be significant which would accelerate adoption of these technologies ahead of the 2050 net-zero target. Banning alternatives or a carbon tax will also accelerate adoption, but these costs would be borne by consumers.

There are opportunities for multivalent batteries – for example, magnesium, zinc or calcium which could give significant breakthroughs in energy density. However, there are considerable fundamental questions that still need to be addressed through fundamental research into these technologies.

• Are there any implications of next generation battery technologies that could make the charging infrastructure we will be installing between now and 2030 obsolete?

It is likely that most of the battery breakthrough technologies being studied at present could be widely implemented using the current charging infrastructure but with more emphasis on fast charging point. A key infrastructure issue is the operating voltage for electric vehicles, with significant work focusing on the use of higher voltage, 48V systems.

Beyond 2040 wireless charging may well become economically feasible, initially pads under parking spaces and then dynamic wireless charging.

• What are the implications on battery life of multiple charge/discharge cycles, for example when used to support storage and frequency management on the grid?

Deepening our understanding of the degradation processes which lithium-ion batteries undergo is critical to developing storage and frequency management on the grid. For example, examining differences in degradation mechanisms depending on state of charge or cycling rate as well as understanding the state of health of batteries throughout their lifetime will enable better informed predictions of battery longevity.

3. What are the opportunities and challenges associated with scaling up the manufacture of batteries and fuel cells, and for manufacturing batteries and fuel cells for a greater number and variety of applications? Is the UK well placed to become a leader in battery and fuel cell manufacture?

Global greentech investors are playing a significant role in promoting the global battery and hydrogen economies. The UK is behind (especially versus the USA) in battery manufacturing experience and production sites.

The UK was unfortunately not recently chosen by Tesla as the location for their latest European Giga factory for battery manufacture. The significance of the 'Giga factory' model is the economies of scale which can be achieved, thus reducing the battery pack cost, which is a significant proportion of the cost of an electric vehicle. The battery pack cost, combined with the reduction in performance with time, has a major impact on the resale value of an electric vehicle, which discourages uptake.

A significant investment in a UK 'Giga factory' to mass produce an alternative to lithium ion, such as a solid state battery, would place the UK in a significant global position. Solid state battery developer QuantumScape in the US is backed by Tesla and is seeking $859m to expand its production facility. The UK has research into solid state batteries, and commercially, Southampton University spin-out Ilika plc is progressing steadily, initially developing small scale batteries. A key challenge with these process-intensive technologies is scaling up to large batteries, and at large scale (throughput).

In the UK, the closest to scale-up are next-generation lithium cathodes, sodium ion and solid state batteries. Sustained commitment to funding basic science and research is critical to enable successful scale-up as a greater understanding of the fundamentals of battery chemistry is required to inform and drive innovation.

An important challenge associated with scaling up the manufacture of batteries is ensuring sustainability throughout the supply chain, from sourcing materials to end of life management. A typical battery electric vehicle might contain around 24kg of lithium, 80kg of copper and a tonne of steel – sourcing of these materials and end of life management have sustainability implications including environmentally and for a secure supply.

Efficient mining and resource processing that minimises environmental impacts during production and includes environmental enhancement after use is important. Done badly, it can have significant negative impacts on local populations and environments.

The importance of robust supply of critical raw materials is evident - a large proportion (50-75%) of the value is in the raw materials, whereas cell assembly itself is relatively low added-value. The supply of critical raw materials is not assured – this could be because the major source of a material is in a politically unstable country, the country that controls the material may manipulate prices or limit supply, or a single company may have a supply monopoly. There is therefore a drive to increase the proportion of the supply chain that is based in the UK. In addition to exploitation of deposits in the UK and/or more domestic processing capacity, robust purchasing agreements elsewhere may be an option. In addition, without a localised supply chain, cells are unlikely to meet Rules of Origin thresholds to support exports – for example, 80% of UK-manufactured cars are currently exported.

Lithium carbonate has been successfully produced from two UK sources – one from Cornish Lithium’s Trelavour project site in Cornwall and the other from Scotland following a project by Li4UK consortium funded through the Faraday Battery Challenge.

Sustainable manufacturing processes need to be addressed. Material efficiency has an important role to play – using less and wasting less will be essential to enable sustainable scaling up of the manufacture of batteries and fuel cells.

The UK is arguably one of the leaders in advanced fuel cell technologies, manufacture capabilities and production volumes via companies that are working on both fuel cells and electrolysers (necessary for green hydrogen production). The USA, Japan and South Korea are also leadership countries.

• What supply chain considerations need to be taken into account when scaling up battery and fuel cell manufacture in the UK?

Supply chain issues for battery scale up are mainly similar to others assuming trade barriers are not deployed. A key area of concern is raw materials (please see response above for further detail), such as cobalt, which are mined predominantly in countries that do not adhere to many of the sustainable development goals of the UN. A lot of technical advances are underway to greatly reduce the need for such materials.

With respect to hydrogen fuel cells, the major supply chain issue is the production of cheap and clean hydrogen. The current focus of clusters such as Humberside, Teesside, Acorn (in Scotland), and the Northwest Corridor by the government and private industry is to enable blue hydrogen to be manufactured (which in turn requires carbon capture and storage to be deployed), followed then by cost-effective green hydrogen production. The UK has multiple advantages (not unique) of, for instance offshore declining oil fields (that can be used for carbon capture and storage) or large salt caverns that can be used for hydrogen storage, along with significant renewable energy (wind, marine and tidal and, potentially, geothermal) resources.

4. Is the right strategy, funding and support in place to enable the research, innovation and commercialisation of battery and fuel cell technologies in the UK?

• Is the UK doing enough to accelerate new developments from low technology readiness levels right through to commercial application in the UK?

The latest white paper is a step in the right direction, as are the focus on the low green-house gas clusters. In terms of battery vehicle commercialisation, the likely most important step in commercialisation will be the expansion of charging points with improvement needed in rural areas and within urban areas in underground garages. Solutions for charging where vehicle owners do not have access to off-street parking will also be important in dense urban areas.

Collaborative research activity that promotes opportunities for cross fertilisation is required. Traversing the 'valley of death' to scale up research is notoriously difficult. Current government funding schemes do tend to promote connecting the supply chain. The greatest challenge is the scale - connecting up the sub-projects into one system level approach which meets market needs.

• Does the UK have the workforce and skillsets required for battery and fuel cell research and manufacture? If not, what are the challenges associated with developing this expertise?

The Faraday Battery Challenge has strengthened the UK landscape across all technology readiness levels (TRLs), although more needs to be done to pull research outputs from the laboratory to real world application. A similar initiative is urgently required for fuel cells and hydrogen; here it is important that lessons learned from the Faraday Battery Challenge are implemented, such as the need for earlier intervention of metrology and standards.

A skills shortage already exists in the UK and education and training have been disrupted by the Covid19 pandemic. An increase in the number and diversity of young people being trained (either at apprenticeship level or university level) in the sciences and engineering is required. Job creation, reskilling and up skilling will be necessary to ensure the workforce and skillsets required are available in the UK. Redeployment of highly skilled workforces in sectors such as the oil & gas industry (as they decline) should be a focus which will help in the nearer term. A strong focus on diversity and inclusion should be a priority in skills planning.

As well as research and manufacture, skillsets and workforces should also be assessed and mapped for servicing batteries and end of life management. There is a shortage of skills required for servicing electric vehicles and to facilitate appropriate end of life management, in line with the waste hierarchy, for the scale of batteries projected.

5. Which countries are currently the leaders in battery and/or fuel cell science and technology and where, if anywhere, does the UK have a lead or other advantages?

The USA and potentially China are clear leaders in battery technology with Japan and South Korea. The quality of UK universities is an advantage over Japan and South Korea but the access to risk capital such as angel investors, venture capital and private equity funding is a large advantage held by the USA. Focus on London applying its financial centre leadership in many areas to also include the encouragement of entrepreneurship could be very beneficial.

The UK is a leader in fuel cells with major players in fuel cell technologies, including Johnson Matthey (fuel cell materials and membranes); Ceres Power (fuel cell membranes); AFC Energy (alkaline fuel cells) and ITM Power (electrolysers).

6. In what sectors could battery and fuel cell technologies play a significant role?

• What are the engineering and commercial challenges associated with using these technologies, or deploying them to a greater extent, in these sectors?

Deployment of batteries does not appear to have unique challenges that would slow up utilisation. Fuel cells would clearly benefit from a focus on clean hydrogen development within the UK.

• What will be the likely balance between battery and hydrogen fuel cell technologies (and other options) in a fully decarbonised land transport sector (e.g. heavy and light vehicle transport)?

It is likely that, in the lighter vehicle sector, batteries will lead decarbonisation whereas the heavier duty sector will increasingly rely on hydrogen fuel cells.

7. How should battery and fuel cell technologies be integrated into the wider UK energy system, and what are the challenges associated with integration (e.g. infrastructure, deployment, system operation, regulatory frameworks)?

• To what extent can batteries (including vehicle batteries) be used for energy storage and frequency management on the grid, and what needs to happen to enable this?

If hydrogen is used in home heating, then potentially it could be linked to home fuel cell charging.

• Into which other parts of the UK’s energy system could batteries or fuel cells be integrated, and what would be the challenges and opportunities associated with these uses?

Fuel cells deployment for transportation uses will be greatly enhanced by clean hydrogen production. Clean hydrogen is also a key component to transition difficult to decarbonise industries such as steel manufacture, aluminium smelting and cement manufacture and potentially to decarbonise industrial and home heating by replacement of natural gas via upgrading of some of the national gas grid pipelines. Thus there is a link between heavy transportation, industry and home heating. In addition, stored hydrogen could be especially important in the electric grid when it is essentially dependant on renewable inputs (unless nuclear is much more widely deployed) in terms of handling intermittencies especially those which are not of very short duration.

8. What are the life cycle environmental impacts associated with batteries and fuel cells (e.g. in resource extraction, product manufacture, operation, reuse and recycling), and how can these be managed as production and usage increase?

Raw material supply and recycling are key issues for lithium-ion batteries, which contain reactive and toxic materials; this is less of a concern for PEMFCs.

Given the growth trajectory for battery electric vehicles, end of life management presents a substantial challenge including storage, processing and dismantling.

End of life management should be in line with the waste hierarchy. Material efficiency has a key part to play, reducing material required and keeping material at its highest value for as long as possible.

It is not currently economic to recycle lithium from batteries and currently only about 1% of rare earth metals are recycled. Integrated recycling of batteries is important for those that do not pass quality control tests and sufficient and safe end of life management, including recycling capacity, is required in the UK. Recycling could provide an important supply of critical materials for which there are significant supply risks, and there is a substantial and growing demand.

Design for reuse and recyclability (and ensuring quality when recycling) will play an important role in facilitating effective end of life management, however there are challenges due to competing objectives with safety, serviceability and space optimisation. Current recycling process rely on ‘shredding’ batteries, where as separating components could ensure greater value is retained. Standardisation of batteries could support automation of disassembly and recycling with a role for artificial intelligence and robotics to improve speed and economics.

Stockpiling of waste batteries can pose a safety hazard, including risk of fire. Proper planning for end of life management for the quantity of batteries anticipated is essential to ensure the UK has the capacity and infrastructure required for safe, economic and environmentally sound management of materials

Sustainability in manufacturing processes is also an issue which needs to be tackled now to ensure the path to net zero is undertaken through suitable manufacturing methodologies which meet net-zero ambitions.

There is growing evidence that some of the raw materials required could be obtained from withing the UK, as demonstrated by the work of Cornish Lithium and British Lithium. Please see response to question 3 for further detail and ‘Critical thinking – take a strategic view on critical raw materials’ by Dr Colin Church for further discussion on why and how the UK should take a strategic view on critical raw materials. [5]

• Please give examples of successful battery reuse or recycling, including the intentional design of second life applications.

Second life application for electric vehicle batteries that have reduced capacity to <80% could be used in small scale photovoltaic (PV) applications for load shifting, for example in domestic scale PV. On site storage is currently available but is prohibitively expensive. Making solar electricity available at peak times of the day/ evening will reduce stress on the grid from large scale PV deployment.

• Given a potential global vehicle fleet approaching 2 billion vehicles by 2050, will all of the materials needed for battery and fuel cell production be available for manufacturing based in the UK?

Please see responses to questions 3 and 8 highlighting the risks and opportunities associated with souring critical raw materials.

Current work including on battery and fuel cell technologies that use more abundant materials, more efficient use of materials and recycling and reuse of battery materials will all support manufacturing based in the UK.

9. What are the costs and benefits of using battery and fuel cell technologies in their various applications, including when integrated into the wider energy system?

• To what extent are costs and benefits of the technologies affected by the levels of deployment or their regulatory treatment?
• Are there alternatives that should be considered for particular sectors?

Synthetic fuels (e-fuels) or bio-fuels for aviation uses; ammonia

30 March 2021