SUstainable Reversal oF metallic Adhesive Connections Tailored for Augmenting Net zero Transportation (SURFACTANT)

Started

Energy Efficiency(Transport)
Other Power and Storage Technologies(Energy storage)

Applied Research and Development

ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY (Electrical and Electronic Engineering)
ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY (Mechanical, Aeronautical and Manufacturing Engineering)

Not Cross-cutting

Professor SA Jones
University of Sheffield

Standard

EPSRC

07 July 2025

06 January 2029

42 months

£1,819,117

Energy

Yorkshire & Humberside

NC : Engineering

Professor SA Jones, University of Sheffield

Dr Q Abbas, University of the West of Scotland
Professor D Gibson, University of the West of Scotland
Dr R Goodall, Engineering Materials, University of Sheffield
Professor D Hand, Heriot-Watt University
Dr J Hughes, Advanced Manufacturing Res Centre Boeing, University of Sheffield
Dr R Kshirsagar, University of Sheffield
Professor MRS McCoustra, Heriot-Watt University

Proposal context Ambitious net-zero targets and society's expectation for a continuous 'on-demand', clean, secure, and sustainable energy commodity necessitates a significant expansion in the UK's electrical infrastructure. The DfT's 2022 report "Taking Charge: the electric vehicle (EV) infrastructure strategy" and the APC's automotive battery end-of-life value chain roadmap, published in June 2023, highlight strategic economic benefits associated with this challenge. Regional and UK-wide prosperity, allied with extending battery life provides the support needed to grow a second hand EV market to allow vehicles to be more affordable, whilst simultaneously improving environmental stewardship through improved recycling and a reduction in demand for critical raw materials, further reducing energy usage. The challenge the project addresses and how it will be applied to this: Extending battery life through tactical replacement or repair of battery cells and / or modules provides a manifold of benefits and offers new market opportunities for the transportation sector. Presently, battery designs and those sub-assembly electrical connections between cells and busbars are created using fusion or solid-state bonded processes producing non-reversible joints; i.e., separation of joints is a destructive activity if they are to be replaced, repaired or recycled. Mechanical methods have been investigated and used for early designs, but these are vulnerable to 'efficiency drop-off' triggered by 'resistance ageing', resulting from thermal and corrosive activities between the connection interfaces and loosening of connections caused by random vibrations. The University of Sheffield, Heriot-Watt University and the University of the West of Scotland will develop a sustainable manufacturing process for battery applications, enabling assembly, non-destructive disassembly and reassembly between electrical connections to achieve full recovery of the cells and busbars. Our EPSRC funding request brings together expertise from across multifarious engineering disciplines: surface engineering and flow dynamics; materials science; joining; AI; and tooling design. We will utilise outputs from previous EPSRC funding projects; e.g., 'NASCENT' to accelerate capability to produce a reversible solution.

29/10/25