Aluminium-Ion Batteries for a Resilient Energy Future

At present, lithium-ion batteries (LiBs) are most commonly used for electric vehicles and grid storage applications. However, LiBs have come under severe scrutiny for their environmental and social impacts caused by exploitative mining in the Global South. Moreover, they face severe challenges with regards to their supply chain including the ever-increasing demand of critical raw materials and the emergence of mining and manufacturing monopolies, which in turn has created significant price volatility. These supply chain weaknesses put the battery demand satisfaction, and with it the energy transition at risk. This fellowship proposal aims at advancing the development of aluminium-ion batteries (AiBs) as an innovative, sustainable, and resilient alternative to LiBs. To this end, I will employ a multidisciplinary research approach combining materials science with environmental, economic, policy, and supply chain considerations. Compared to LiBs, AiBs have the advantage of increased volumetric energy densities (increased amount of energy without increasing the size of the battery), lower supply chain risks (abundance of raw materials) and lower environmental footprint (the use of recycled aluminium can avoid the burden of ore processing). Despite these important advantages, AiBs are still under-researched and the battery performance falls short of its potential. Two primary challenges hinder their progress: 1) the cathode (electrical conductor) materials tested to date for AiBs demonstrate low performance and short lifetime, and 2) there is a significant knowledge gap regarding the underlying reactions that determine and hamper performance, impeding precise control of battery performance. With this fellowship, I lay out an ambitious programme to address these key technical challenges holding back AiB development. Here, I propose a novel materials design approach to explore a previously untapped pool of materials that could serve as potential AiB cathodes. The in-depth investigation of their fundamental electrochemical and molecular reaction mechanisms via sophisticated characterisation techniques during battery usage will create new knowledge that will be leveraged to identify performance bottlenecks, enabling the engineering of high-performance cathode materials for AiBs. This research proposal is strongly embedded in and guided by sustainability and resilience considerations of AiBs. My team and I will research synthesis methods informed by green chemistry principles to avoid lengthy and energy-intensive manufacturing processes. Moreover, we aim to use battery materials that are not only abundant and evenly distributed geographically, but also have minimal social and environmental impacts. We will apply life cycle assessment and techno-economic models evaluating the impacts across the AiB value chain to inform the battery materials design process. During the fellowship extension (+3 years), the development of AiBs will be continued towards up-scaling and prototyping, where the main challenges to be tackled will be the development of materials manufacturing processes suitable for up-scaling and the design of the battery cell. This research will benefit from a strong cross-disciplinary academic and industry network supporting the advancement of this exciting technology and the generation of global impact. This research not only pushes the limits of an emerging battery technology and sees through its advancement towards prototyping, but it will also support the alleviation of supply chain bottlenecks and geopolitical risks associated with current lithium-ion batteries. This will have significant academic impact via the creation of new knowledge while fostering societal and environmental benefits. Through the establishment of a robust green battery supply chain, this research will contribute to a resilient energy future.