The Battery Technology Podcast

As the world moves toward electric vehicles, renewable energy systems, and portable electronics, the demand for faster, safer, and longer-lasting batteries continues to grow. While materials like lithium, cobalt, and graphite often dominate the conversation, researchers and engineers are turning their attention to niobium—a versatile metal with unique properties that may help overcome some of the...

A key part of the EU's strategy in the battery sector is the introduction of the EU Battery Passport. Successful implementation will rely on the development of a Digital Product Passport and the ability to access legacy data systems to populate the passport system with the information required. How this will work is a fascinating topic and in this episode I am joined by Ricky Thiermann of Spherity...

How AI is revolutionising the search and design of new battery material candidates is right at the cutting edge of material discovery for battery technology. The array of potential materials is huge, so how can AI help us navigate that and prioritise targets. In this episode I am joined by Qichao Hu and Daniel Hannah of SES AI to explore how SES AI are developing advanced AI systems to explore the...

The 17th February 2027 is a very important date for any organisation involved in the business of batteries. It marks the date set for the introduction of the EU Battery Passport. A mandatory digital record, accessed through a QR code, of the key technical data across every stage of an individual batteries’ life for any battery above 2kWh capacity. But the EU Battery Passport is more than just a co...

Flow batteries are a technology that is coming of age. With a distinctly different electrochemistry from Li-Ion, they offer some unique advantages especially in the Long Duration Energy Storage sector.  Innovation in stack technology is allowing further advances in flow battery technology. In this episode I'm delighted to be joined by Dr Laura Rizzi, CEO and Dr Fabio Di Fonzo, CSO of Flow-nano to...

Battery Recycling is a crucial part of the global critical minerals’ strategy. But the economics of recycling is complex and is inextricably linked to the dynamics of the battery technology sector as a whole. In this episode I'm delighted to be joined by Dr Beatrice Browning , Battery Recycling Technology Lead at Benchmark Mineral Intelligence to discuss how the battery recycling market is develop...

We continue our deep dive into the prospects for Europe in developing a globally competitive position with the global battery market. In this episode I'm delighted to be joined by Philipp Wunderlich, Battery Technology Lead at Accenture to discuss the competitive issues facing the European battery ecosystem.   Speaker Notes: Philipp Wunderlich, Battery Technology Lead, Accenture   https://www.link...

Is there a road map for developing a successful battery industry and what lessons can we learn from the last 20 years that policy makers can learn from? What are the lessons for other local economies looking to nurture their domestic battery supply chains? In this episode I'm delighted to be joined by Christopher Chico, Editor of The Battery Chronicle to discuss the key issues in developing a comp...

Materials discovery has been the propellant of many of the big leaps forward in the battery space. So the field of material engineering and how material design can be accelerated is right at the centre of solving many of the problems that battery material designers are wrestling with.   To explore the advances being made in this field, I'm delighted to be joined by Jason Sebastian, Executive VP of...

When things go wrong in battery manufacturing, it's often about production yield, quality performance and manufacturing control. The rapid detection of defects is pivotal to achieving high quality performance. And this matters not only in manufacturing bit also in future product safety and reliability in use. To explore the advances being made in this field,  I'm delighted to be joined by Dr Peter...

Lithium Metal Anodes are considered a key enabling technology to achieving batteries of far greater energy density than conventional Li-ion batteries. As always, with opportunity come challenges. In this episode I'm delighted to be joined by Dr Sandeep Unnikrishnan, Co-Founder & Chief Technology Officer at LionVolt to discuss the work they are doing to unlock the potential of Lithium Metal Ano...

Modular Batteries can provide a faster route to market for OEMs, and they are becoming increasingly important in the field of battery development. Not every application requires a custom solution and in a rapidly changing technology space, modular batteries can provide real benefits. In this episode I’m delighted to be joined by Seth Yates, Head of Product, Battery Systems at Turntide Technologies...

A few weeks ago, I read an interesting article about a company using cross-linked polymer membranes, similar to contact lens materials, to develop batteries. with remarkable results. It's quite a story, with huge potential.   Speaker Notes:   Bill Heathcote | Commercial Director | Superdielectrics https://www.linkedin.com/in/william-heathcote/   Superdielectrics https://www.linkedin.com/company/su...

The Battery Technology Podcast | Episode 43 | Achieving Sustainability in the Battery Industry | TDI Sustainability One of the subjects I’ve been wanting to explore in more depth is the concept of sustainability. Just how does an industry that requires the extraction of metals and minerals, come to terms with achieving this in a sustainable way. In this episode I’m delighted to be joined by Asshet...

The concept of circularity is central to the global Net Zero objective. Ensuring batteries are directed to their best use after serving their original purpose, when up to 80% of their energy capacity is still available, is critical to achieving to that goal. But circularity won’t happen by itself – potential buyers and sellers need confidence in the market, with data, traceability and transparency...

Thermal Safety has always been a critical technical issue facing Battery developers and OEMs and the increase in larger more energy dense battery packs places even more emphasis on ensuring safety is managed effectively. I'm joined by Ryan Spray, Principal Scientist ant Exponent to help me understand the root causes of thermal events and how they can be mitigated.   Speaker Notes: Ryan Spray | Pri...

2024 has been a challenging year in the EV market. The mood seems more subdued as many car makers scale back their ambitious EV targets. But of course the real story is much more nuanced. I'm joined by David Leah of CRU Group to help me understand the global picture of EV demand.   Speaker Notes: David Leah | Senior Automotive Analyst | CRU Group https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-leah-b0307a305/  ...

As the New Year begins, its a good time to review Battery Material prices and understand a little more about the underlying dynamics that influence the market. To do this I'm joined by William Adams, Head of Battery Markets research at Fastmarkets to explore the history, present and future of  battery materials market sentiment.   Speaker Notes: William Adams | Head of Battery Markets Research | F...

The descent of Northvolt into Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection came as a major shock to the battery technology industry. Seemingly overnight Northvolt went from Europe's best hope of a globally competitive homegrown EV battery manufacturing play, to life support. What are the lessons to be learnt from the Northvolt experience and do they sound the death knell for hopes of a European battery manufa...

Quality and Process control will be critical to delivering the yields and productivity that will be required to establish a globally competitive battery manufacturing industry. A key enabling technology that allows battery manufacturers to generate the data and analysis to do that is Advanced Inspection Systems. In this episode we take a close look at the latest advances in this field and their cr...

The Battery Technology Podcast | Episode 36 | How AI is shaping Battery 3.0 | Dr Austin Sendek | Aionics   One of the groundbreaking technologies over the last decade has been the emergence of AI. It’s all around us making a difference to our lives. I wanted to learn more about exactly how AI is being harnessed in the Battery development field to accelerate the design and development process of ne...

There’s a lot going on in the battery technology and manufacturing space at the moment. A lot of moving parts. And as 2024 moves into our rear-view mirrors, its a good time to take stock of the year, fix our position and look for pointers as to what we can look forward to in 2025.   Speaker Notes: https://www.linkedin.com/in/charlieparker-ratel-consulting/   The Battery Technology Podcast is spons...

One of the challenges facing battery manufacturers is how to design and operate manufacturing facilities to minimise operational cost. One major consideration will always be how to achieve the desired level of climate control, I spoke with Andre Meyer of Munters to discuss best practice and how battery manufacturers can help themselves by taking the necessary steps to minimise adding to the heat l...

Lithium-Ion batteries have become the portable power technology of choice, the problem is, energy density improvements are not keeping pace with the ever-increasing demand for performance, and that’s a problem. One technology that has the potential to deliver a step change in performance is the development of silicon-based anodes, due to the far greater energy capacity of silicon compered to graph...

In this series of podcasts, I often thought of the Battery industry as a whole, but in fact it is populated by individual businesses making individual product development decisions based on the needs of their market. And just how these businesses innovate is interesting. It’s also easy to concentrate on the EV market, but of course, the range of applications for batteries is enormous. In this epis...