21st Dec 2022
As well as carrying out independent research at its own facilities, DGI plc is participating in AccelerateSIB, a collaborative project that aims to accelerate the development of sodium-ion batteries for electric vehicle applications. Alongside DGI, the research partners are University of Birmingham, software developers Ansys UK, Machine Learning experts Intellegens, and battery manufacturer AMTE Power. The project is supported by a substantial grant from the Faraday Battery Challenge (Round 4).
At the heart of the AccelerateSIB project is a digital toolkit which uses software from Ansys and Intellegens as the basis of an intelligent data management platform, which invokes Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence to analyse big data sets, catch the trends a human eye would miss, and suggest next experiments. Reducing development time by affording scientists the luxury of changing multiple parameters per experiment, to converge on optimum solutions in record time.
DGI optimise their hard carbon anode material process, AMTE Power take DGI’s anode material and optimise the cell construction protocols, and the University of Birmingham team, led by Professor Emma Kendrick, optimise the latest advanced sodium-ion battery simulation and modelling capabilities. The objective is to devise and validate a software model that accelerates sodium-ion battery development by guiding research and reducing the need for costly and time-consuming real-world experimentation.
Ultimately, anode material supplier DGI will work directly with cell manufacturer AMTE Power to take the project forward and develop optimised manufacturing processes for the volume manufacturing of sodium-ion batteries.
