New projects strengthen sustainable and safe battery systems

As part of the battery call for proposals launched by SFG and Zukunftsfonds Steiermark, 21 project applications with a total requested funding volume of €10.41 million were submitted. Following formal review and evaluation by an external expert jury, five projects were awarded funding. A total of €2.89 million in funding will be awarded. The aim of the call was to strengthen Europe’s technological independence, further develop Styria as a center of research and business, and make a concrete contribution to the energy transition.

Battery research as a key industry for Styria

With its strong research landscape, leading industrial companies, and excellent universities, Styria is one of Europe’s central innovation regions in the field of mobility and energy storage. Battery research is playing an increasingly important role in this context: it creates technological know-how, strengthens regional value chains, and supports the transition to sustainable energy systems. The projects funded in the current call make a direct contribution to the competitiveness of the location and to the development of safe, efficient, and resource-saving battery systems.

• The KARLi project by Virtual Vehicle, ProtectLiB, and Graz University of Technology is developing an energy-efficient, water-based process for the selective recovery of lithium from untreated black mass—without strong acids and in accordance with the principles of green chemistry.
• SENSiCharge, a consortium consisting of JOANNEUM RESEARCH, ATT advanced thermal technologies, AVL List, and Green Testing Lab, is working on printed pressure and temperature sensors that are placed directly between battery cells and enable new, adaptive fast-charging processes.
• The EMIL project by Virtual Vehicle, the University of Graz, and Resch Holding is optimizing a pluggable battery module through recyclable design, sustainable materials, and digital models for greater safety and efficiency.
• In the AN4PLIZ project, ZFE Graz and VARTA Innovation are investigating the microstructures of composite anodes to increase their service life and energy density and improve manufacturing processes.
• With BaKIRoS, the Montanuniversität Leoben and SAMsoric are working on AI and sensor-based systems that detect and sort batteries in the waste stream to reduce fire risks and better recover raw materials.

[Source: SFG – News]