Automotive Transformation Fund Feasibility Study 4 and SuRV2 Winners
In our recent round of Automotive Transformation Fund (ATF) funding, we were proud to announce our support of the following projects. For our ATF Feasibility Studies 4 competition we are progressing 7 key feasibility studies that will produce decision-ready business cases in preparation for projects which will develop large-scale manufacturing facilities in the UK. We also announced 6 successful projects for the second round of our Scale up Readiness Validation (SuRV) programme, all designed to assess if businesses in the UK automotive supply chain are ready for scale-up, growth, and expansion.
The 7 projects and companies funded through round four of the feasibility study competition are:
Gaussion
Magneto-enhancement technology for solid-state batteries.
Talga Anode UK
Assessing the feasibility of production of anode materials from recycled graphite and a graphite-silicon composite anode material using in-situ silicates from Talga’s Swedish graphite ore.
Altilium Metals
Establishing a feasibility study for safe, sustainable transportation of end-of-life EV batteries for recycling to cathode active material (CAM) and reuse in the battery supply chain.
Strip Tinning
Assessing the feasibility of investing in very high-volume manufacturing of the Cell Contacting and Management System, a safety-critical component of the power electronics system of Battery Electric Vehicles.
Greenroc Mining
Studying the feasibility of establishing a graphite processing plant in the UK to produce anode material for EV batteries, using concentrate from the Amitsoq Graphite Project mine in southern Greenland.
Cornish Lithium G5 Limited
Focusing on commercial extraction of lithium and other battery metals in Cornwall, notably the Trelavour hard-rock lithium mica deposit near St Austell. Funding to understand the available lithium in the ground and how much can be produced & a life cycle assessment will quantify environmental impacts.
Aberdeen Minerals Limited
Study of innovative mineral processing routes to accelerate the low-carbon production of cathode raw materials from North–East Scotland for the UK’s automotive industry.
The 6 projects and companies funded through the SuRV2 competition are:
Helix
Validating Helix’s scale-up readiness for the manufacture of high–power density and scalable electric motor platforms, focussing on premium automotive applications.
Green Lithium Refining
Battery Materials R&D Centre of Excellence, UK – working in partnership with the Material Processing Institute to define and validate the lithium refining process flowsheet, and design a facility ready for rapid scale-up.
Advanced Electric Machines
Project SIMPLE aims to establish an efficient, scalable manufacturing process for traction motor systems in electric vehicles with a lower environmental impact.
Geothermal Engineering
Geothermal Engineering Limited will use this award to install Direct Lithium Extraction (DLE) at the UK’s first deep geothermal power plant at the United Downs Industrial Park in Cornwall.
Ilika Technologies
Ilika Technologies, UK Battery Industrialisation Centre (UKBIC) and MPAC are partnering in project SiSTEM to accelerate the scale-up of Ilika’s solid state battery technology.
Integrals Power
The scale up of high-performance, low-cost Lithium Iron Phosphate (LFP) battery chemistry, that offers superior performance including high discharge rate, improved capacity retention and rate recovery, specifically in extreme temperatures.