Hugh discusses his role and involvement with regards to EV batteries, industry challenges, what he is looking forward to at the event and why it is important for engineers to attend.
Q: Could you briefly explain your role, involvement, and experience with regards to EV batteries?
Hugh Sutherland, Chief Technical Officer, Carbon-Ion Energy Inc. and Oxicon Ltd (HS): I’m CTO at UK based supercapacitor developer Oxcion Ltd and their parent company Carbon-Ion Energy Inc. We’re currently raising funds to complete the development of a new supercapacitor. Supercapacitors are high power but comparatively low energy density and so provide a supporting role in the world of electric vehicles. We’re developing supercapacitors with increased energy density, thus making them more useful in a wider range of situations. Initially, we aim to support the roll out of faster charging, allowing fast charging from slow grid connections through power buffering. As we increase the energy density of our cells, we see hybrid storage as being somewhere that we can improve battery life and efficiency of energy recapture from braking.
Q: Many OEMs are pledging to be fully electric by 2030/2035, in light of this what would you say we need next to ensure a mainly electric vehicle presence in the market in the UK?
HS: Upgrading infrastructure is key to this transition and although there are a great many areas where this has been done well, there are more areas where this has barely started. With domestic vehicles and the housing stock in the UK, there are big challenges for achieving overnight charging at home. Consumer behaviour in terms of on-demand charging is therefore a challenge and may not adhere to the expectations of those planning infrastructure upgrades. That is why we think that agility is needed and that a local add-on system which can allow fast charging will be needed.
Q: What do you think is the main area in the battery lifecycle that needs development to ensure a net-zero carbon lifecycle to match the 2050 target?
HS: EV batteries need to last longer both for net-zero and for customer acceptance. Hybridising storage in EVs uses the right cell for the right job and should also improve energy recapture leading to less carbon intensive, longer lived storage. Lets not forget mass transit here either, many of our net-zero challenges are helped if more people use public transport but that needs to be electrified too. Those need really reliable systems which can run for as much of the day as possible without needing a long charge.
In terms of the whole cycle, re-using cells and packs as much as we can before they are recycled reduces emissions too and maximising recycling is key to ensuring that we are not simply using elements like lithium and cobalt as replacements for fossil fuels.
Q: What key topics are you excited to discuss at this year's conference?
HS: Charging is obviously top of my agenda given what I’m speaking about but, as a developer of supportive technology, understanding how markets and technology development are progressing (and how those two interact) is so important in making sure that we develop technology that is relevant so I’ll be listening carefully to the keynotes and talking to a range of attendees to see where things are headed. Getting views on hybrid storage and what the challenges are there from vehicle or BMS developers is also something I’m very interested in for future applications of our technology.
Q: Regarding new technologies for battery use and operation, what would you say are the ones to watch for the future?
HS: There’s so much that’s interesting being published and announced all the time but what actually makes it to commercialisation is as much to do with the funding landscape as the technology. New battery cell types, if commercialised, are certainly important. High capacity anodes, improved cathodes, solid-state, sodium-ion all have the ability to change things if they live up to their potential in real world applications. I also think how BMS can cleverly use different cell types to provide an energy storage system that has a wider range of operation and lasts longer will provide a lot of innovation in the near term. We think that our improved supercapacitor cells will bridge a gap, giving these BMS’s more options to improve performance and lifetime.
Q: Who else are you most interested in hearing from on the programme?
HS: As mentioned above, keynotes and analysis are so important for finding out where research and commercial applications are heading in future so I’m looking forward to the talks from Pam Thomas (Faraday Institution) and Hadi Moztarzadeh (APC) to get their insight.
The Battery Chemistries and Materials session is an important one for me to understand how our technology can be hybridised with other cell types. There’s talks on novel anodes (Echion) and sodium-ion technologies (AMTE) and it is also great to see a talk on manufacturing included here (UKBIC). There’s also a talk from Ilika about their solid state battery factory in another session.
Elsewhere on the programme, Paul Shearing (UCL) always has something insightful to say so I’ll be going to his talk. Recycling is such an important topic and so it will also be interesting to hear from Circulor and RS Bruce.
Finally, talks where we can find out about the real world challenges of the end-users of energy storage technology (e.g. Vivarail, Alexander Dennis) are so important to let us know what problems we need to solve with our products.
Q: Why is it important for engineers to join this year’s International EV Batteries conference?
HS: As we’ve all realised over the past few years, there’s no substitute for being in the room with thought leaders and peers across your area and those informal conversations with people you wouldn’t have met otherwise. There’s something for everyone in the EV space on the programme here and, in my experience, there’s bound to be something you pick up that you didn’t even know you needed to know.
This year’s International EV Batteries conference will be taking place on 8-9 November 2022 in the heart of the world famous Grand Prix circuit at Silverstone. To book your place, please visit www.imeche.org/evbatteries.