Sodium-ion batteries offer enhanced cost-effectiveness and sustainability, challenging the dominance of lithium batteries in the stationary energy storage sector. The SPRINT project will gather 8 industries, 2 SMEs and 8 academic partners (incl. one associated partner) for 46 months to optimise and demonstrate two sustainable, techno-economically viable and safe quasi-solid-state sodium-ion batteries better meeting the requirements of stationary energy storage applications. This will be achieved relying on abundant, non-toxic, safe, and competitive materials available in EU supply chains brought to scale within SPRINT, i.e. optimised NFP cathode materials relying on novel synthesis; hard-carbon materials derived from a validated forest residues supply chain in Northern Europe; and quasi-solid-state polymer and polymer composite electrolytes with a solvent-free synthesis, and which are major advancements vs. flammable liquid electrolytes. Strategic interface optimisations will be leveraged to meet end-users’ requirements in terms of cells’ cycle life. SPRINT also aims to bring to scale dry electrode processing (incl. using PFAS-free binders) to enhance the sustainability of battery manufacturing. Batteries encompassing such solutions will be demonstrated on two demonstration sites in Austria (portfolio hybridisation, balancing services) and Lithuania (residential PV, increased grid capacity for EV chargers), and SPRINT will also engage with international use-case providers (e.g. Morrocco, Tunisia, Kenya, Sierra Leone, etc.). All in all, it is foreseen that SPRINT will reduce costs (0.04€/kWh/cycle), enhance energy density (>200Wh/kg & >420Wh/L) and power metrics (>500 W/kg), improve cells' cycle life (projected >5,000 cycles), while ensuring safe operation (leak-free technology) for a high market penetration. The Consortium will accompany all solutions to commercialisation, supported by the created Exploitation Board to facilitate their uptake.

Europe is facing a major challenge to develop and produce a competitive Li-battery product in order to avoid dependency on third countries in its energy transition models. The Li-ion cell innovations should meet specific technical and economical requirements to sustain the market growth. The all-solid Li-ion technology appears to be one of the relevant options but it still has to be brought to higher TRL to be economically and environmentally friendly for a mass production compatible process. The ASTRABAT project gathers 14 partners, leaders in the different fields of research, development and production, from 8 countries. It aims to find optimal solid-state cell materials, components and architecture that are well suited to the demands of the electric vehicle market and compatible with mass production. The project will comply with improved safety demands and industrial standards. Five ambitious objectives were defined: 1. Development of materials for a solid hybrid electrolyte and electrodes enabling high energy, high voltage and reliable all-solid-state Li-ion cells 2. Gen#2D cell design: processing techniques compatible with existing routes of large scale cell manufacturing (10Ah, Energy type) and validation of a pilot prototype in a relevant industrial environment 3. Development of a 2030s eco-designed generation for Power-type and Energy type all-solid-state cells in pre-prototype (Gen#3DS and #3DC) 4. Define an efficient cell architecture to comply with improved safety demands 5. Structuration of the whole value chain of the all-solid-state battery, including eco-design, end of life and recycling The project will reinforce the European battery value chain, strengthen collaborations between RTOs, SMEs and Industrial partners from material development to integration in vehicles. The implementation of related work packages, tasks, milestones and risk assessment is considered to achieve these objectives comprehensively.

Battery technology emerges as a key solution for cutting carbon dioxide emissions across transportation, energy, and industrial sectors. Nonetheless, traditional research methods for developing new battery materials have typically depended on an Edisonian approach, characterised by trial and error, where each phase in the discovery value chain is sequentially reliant on the successful execution of preceding steps. Development and optimization of novel batteries is a process that spanned around a decade. To face this challenge, it is necessary to accelerate the discovery and optimization of next-generation batteries through the development of materials and interface acceleration platforms. The FULL-MAP project aims to revolutionize battery innovation by developing a materials acceleration platform that amplifies human capabilities and expedites the discovery of new materials and interfaces. This pivotal initiative focuses on automating laboratory operations and conducting fast, high-throughput experiments. It integrates AI and machine learning-accelerated multi-scale and multi-physics modeling, supporting intelligent decision-making. FULL-MAP's comprehensive, modular approach encompasses the inverse design of materials, autonomous orchestrated production via both traditional and novel synthesis routes, and extensive high-throughput characterization methods. These methods span ex-situ, in-situ, operando, on-line, and post-mortem analyses at various levels, from material to cell assembly and testing. It simulates the entire battery development process, from material design to battery testing, considering environmental and economic factors. By integrating computational and experimental methods with AI, Big Data, Autonomous Synthesis, and High-Throughput Testing, FULL-MAP aims to fast-track the development and deployment of next-generation materials and batteries, significantly advancing sustainable battery technology.

TriFluorium largely expands current circular economy capabilities for highly stable organofluoride waste (PFAS, including fluoropolymers) and provides safe, sustainable and efficient regeneration of fluorine into safe, stable inorganic fluorides as industrial resource, such as fluorspar. Fluoropolymers are indispensable for many critical (e.g., semiconductors) and green (e.g, hydrogen production, fuel cells, EVs) applications and their disposal options are very limited. Needed fluorspar resource is listed as EU’s critical raw material and is acquired outside of the EU with recycling rate at 1% due to the lack of proper technologies. TriFluorium wants to achieve proof of the tribolysis recycling principle for organofluorides (TRL 3) irrespective of particular chemical structure, molecular weight, or liquid/solid form under properly designed controllable tribocontact site, which promotes chemical reactions initiated by mechanical stimuli. Tribolysis shall within one processing step generate local dense-energy spots to initiate decomposition of very stable organofluorides, including the perfluorinated ones, and to activate safe reactants, such as alkaline earth metal (Group II) salts or oxides to efficiently convert organofluorides into safe, stable inorganic products (mineralization). TriFluorium will also develop a dedicated Tribo-Reactor for laboratory scale validation of tribolysis F-recycling (TRL 4) for process scaling and enhancement of tribolysis technology development towards industrial application. The locally initiated reactions with benign reactants have inherently safe operational and energy-efficiency features. Supporting toxicological and LCA assessments will be carried out to comprehensively evaluate tribolysis recycling process and Tribo-Reactor performance from all relevant perspectives. The foundation of tribolysis recycling for organofluorides answers urgent technological needs and contributes to current environmental, economic, and social goals.