Towards innovative and affordable sodium- and zinc-based energy storage systems based on more sustainable and locally-sourced materials (eNargiZinc)

Started

Other Power and Storage Technologies(Energy storage)
Hydrogen and Fuel Cells(Fuel Cells)

Basic and strategic applied research
Training

PHYSICAL SCIENCES AND MATHEMATICS (Chemistry)
PHYSICAL SCIENCES AND MATHEMATICS (Metallurgy and Materials)
ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY (Electrical and Electronic Engineering)
ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY (Mechanical, Aeronautical and Manufacturing Engineering)

Not Cross-cutting

Professor M Titirici
Engineering and Materials Science
Queen Mary University of London

Standard

EPSRC

01 January 2024

31 December 2027

48 months

£521,352

Materials sciences

London

UKRI MSCA

Professor M Titirici, Engineering and Materials Science, Queen Mary University of London

Electrochemical energy storage (EES) is crucial in the carbon-neutral future. Nevertheless, the current battery value chain hassignificant risks, especially concerning the supply of critical raw materials. eNargiZinc aims at developing new knowledge, technologyand commercially exploitable products related to innovative and affordable next-generation EES devices, targeting long-termsustainability through the use of abundant and renewable materials and low environmental-impact production processes. A rigoroustraining-through-research programme for ten Doctoral Candidates (DCs) has been designed through an interdisciplinary andintersectoral approach, involving studies on all the essential parts needed to develop sodium-ion batteries, zinc-air batteries, andzinc-ion batteries/supercapacitors. The research within eNargiZinc will focus on developing sustainable electrode materials (biomassderived carbons and their composites, redox-active polymers, hybrid transition metal oxides, and interphases for anode-lessconcepts), electrolytes (solid-state and gel-polymer types), and, especially, on integrating all the developed components into full cellsat an industrially-relevant scale. A Personalised Training Package for each DC will be tailored to allow them to acquire the requiredskills over the three years of employment within the network. To this aim, secondments to other partners (especially in the nonacademic sector), training in complementary skills, and network-wide training events will be implemented. The consortium, which iscomposed of nine beneficiaries and nine associated partners, is addressed to achieve the objectives of eNargiZinc and is based onexcellence, synergy and complementarity. Industrial partners will play a key role in the network, by providing the DCs with exposure to the private sector and access to industrially-relevant facilities, which are essential to validate the findings obtained at lab-scale

17/04/24