Battery could change the game

DEAKIN researchers are working to create a new type of battery material that will reduce the cost and environmental impact of highperformance batteries.

The team from Deakin University’s Institute for Frontier Materials (IFM) is working in partnership with Calix Pty Ltd at their Bacchus Marsh manufacturing facility and Boron Molecular to explore the applications of a readily available compound in comparison to current standard ingredients which are more costly and harder to source.

The three-year project has received $3 million from the Federal Government’s Co-operative Research Centre Projects program, which supports industry-led collaborations in new technologies, products and services.

IFM Deputy Director Professor Maria Forsyth, who leads the IFM team that includes Professor Patrick Howlett and Dr Robert Kerr, said energy storage was a growing area of research but the challenge was to develop manufacturing capability in Australia.

“There is a global search for safe, low-cost, high-capacity, high-performing batteries given the demand for high-performance energy storage and electric vehicles,” Prof Forsyth said.

“The challenge for Australia is to develop a sustainable battery manufacturing industry that has global reach through process innovation.”

Prof Forsyth said Deakin was ideally placed to lead the research, with IFM hosting the Battery Technology Research and Innovation Hub — a world-class research and innovation centre focused on advanced battery prototyping and the commercialisation of energy storage technologies.

The project will involve a field trial of the battery packs, including solar applications linked to small solar PV systems and the Deakin Microgrid, under development at the Waurn Ponds campus.