ExpectedOutcome:
Project results are expected to contribute to all of the following expected outcomes:
- Strengthening Europe’s battery cell industrial manufacturing value chain by building-up its Giga scale manufacturing capabilities distributed in the member states territories.
- Development of new battery cell manufacturing machinery, with priority on minimising energy needed for cells production, enhancement of plant efficiency rates and integration of intelligent control processes to minimise scrap.
- Enabling deeper collaboration between (i) battery process equipment companies (ii) industrial-scale cell manufacturing, (iii) material, energy and other supply chain sectors benefitting from sector coupling.
- To stimulate and intensify the collaboration between pilot line operators, industrial-scale academia, cell manufacturing companies and European equipment companies to push innovations with regard to an economically and ecologically sustainable cell production in Europe.
Scope:
In order to build globally competitive Li ion battery (LIB) cell production plants in Europe, all the production value chain from machinery to plant and site development and optimisation is expected to be considered holistically, from machinery development to plant and site integration and optimisation. This topic intents to cover both areas.
In recent years Europe has developed strong competences in Li ion battery technology with regard to academic research, material development and Battery system design. However, there is still a lack of knowledge and competence regarding the economically and ecologically production of LIB cells in both high volumes in Giga-factories or in much smaller batches for specialised applications as developed in Mega-factories. From this perspective, the scope of this topic is two-fold:
- From one side, to be able to supply machinery which is developed and built locally, Europe has to develop a leading position in the production of resource efficient, intelligent electrode and cell manufacturing machinery.
In the development of such battery manufacturing machinery, important aspects for success include: minimising energy consumption, eliminating air and water pollution and integration of intelligent control processes to minimise scrap thus reducing costs and environmental impact of the production process. In addition, such machinery is expected to operate at very high productivity levels with incorporate intelligent quality control systems. Moreover, strategies of industry 4.0 should be intensively integrated in new European cell production plants to yield economic success.
Activities under this topics would cover from TRL 3 (start) to TRL 6 (target).
- From the other side, battery cell production as a whole is currently confronted with enormous cost pressure. One major factor in the cost structure of European Giga-scale battery cell production is related to highly energy consuming manufacturing processes. A significant reduction and/or utilisation of low-carbon and low-emission energies would not only bring economic benefits, but would also provide clear advantages in terms of the ecological footprint. For sustainable success, the horizontal integration of the European supply chain for battery process equipment into the growing production of giga-scale battery cells is a major challenge.
Activities under this topic would cover from TRL 6 (today) to TRL 7 (target).
Hence, this topic aims at closing a gap and enabling deeper collaboration between industrial-scale cell manufacturing, battery process equipment companies, and material and other industrial sectors potentially benefitting from sector coupling with cell manufacturing (e.g. grid power or material suppliers).
Therefore, existing cell production lines and their material and energy flow internally and externally interaction with other companies at the site should be investigated and evaluated. Based on this, the network should investigate the ecological impact of different machinery, production line configurations and factory designs to come to best practice proposals. Another challenge is to implement ecological standards along the production chain together with material suppliers and factory operators.
One additional target to achieve these goals is to stimulate and intensify the collaboration between pilot line operators (e.g. which should be organised within the LiPLANET network), industrial-scale academia, cell manufacturing companies and European equipment companies to push innovations with regard to an economically and ecologically sustainable cell production in Europe. This includes the support from running activities including for example IPCEI's on batteries.
This topic implements the co-programmed European Partnership on ‘Towards a competitive European industrial battery value chain for stationary applications and e-mobility’.
Specific Topic Conditions:
Activities are expected to achieve TRL 6 (for machinery development) and TRL 7 (integration of manufacturing plant supply chain) by the end of the project – see General Annex B.
Cross-cutting Priorities:
Artificial IntelligenceDigital AgendaCo-programmed European Partnerships
