Professor Saiful Islam of Bath University’s chemistry department has been awarded a £3.9m grant from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC). The department will be working alongside engineering, chemistry and materials teams from Imperial College London and the Universities of Birmingham, Cambridge, Oxford, Southampton and Warwick.
Together, these teams form the SUPERGEN energy storage hub consortium, a multidisciplinary team who have acted as a “key initiative” in the storage and supply of renewable energy. Oxford University’s professor Peter Bruce leads the consortium.
Speaking about the funding, Professor Bruce said that, “Energy storage is more important today than at any time in human history. It has a vital role to play in storing electricity from renewable sources and is key to the electrification of road transport to help cut carbon emissions.”
“The new Hub will aim to improve the performance of greener electrochemical, mechanical and thermal storage devices, and to develop new sustainable materials”
Although the teams will collaborate, Bath University’s specific task is to work on sodium and lithium batteries to electrify road transportation. Professor Islam said, “The new Hub will aim to improve the performance of greener electrochemical, mechanical and thermal storage devices, and to develop new sustainable materials.”
“The Hub will also work with our industrial partners to accelerate the pull through of basic research to scale up and prototyping of future low carbon systems. An important aspect of the programme will be a new generation of trained researchers in the clean energy sector.”
Aforementioned industrial partners include Jaguar Land Rover, Sharp and EDF Energy.
The EPSRC’s latest grant will bolster Bath University’s active involvement with sustainable and chemical energy research, which is maintained by the Institute for Sustainable Energy and the Environment (I-SEE) and the Centre for Sustainable Chemical Technologies (CSCT).
