Second life batteries for future applications (Batt2TheFuture)

The decarbonisation of the transport sector in the UK, will see the migration from solely internal combustion powered vehicles to electric or hybrid vehicles only, as early as 2030\. This will result in the exponential growth of spent Electric Vehicle (EV) batteries stockpiled, as they must be replaced every 7-10 years. After this period, the EV batteries may still hold as much as 80% of their capacity, which often can be used in other applications. Our consortium is developing a fast automated process, **Batt2TheFuture** to enable fast sorting of battery cells to rebuild high quality and consistent second-generation battery packs.

**Batt2TheFuture** is an automated process that uses disruptive ultrasound technology, machine vision and AI algorithms to inspect and grade spent battery cells. The process inspects each cell from a battery pack/module and then grades them according to their respective State of Health (SoH) and State of Charge (SoC). The technology combination enables in-depth inspection, increased speed of cell assessment and processing capacity scalability -- these have been missing in current spent battery inspection solutions on the market.

Based on the results of the assessment, the cells are sorted and refurbished in preparation for their second-life . The repurposed battery packs are then deployed to applications whose power requirements align with their SoH and SoC values. This will extend the life cycle of the spent EV batteries, thereby drastically reducing battery waste and the lifetime cost of the battery.

Therefore, **Batt2TheFuture** will facilitate the utilisation of the full value of spent EV batteries as well as contributing towards ensuring that the decarbonisation of the transport sector will not just be a transfer of carbon emissions from the vehicles themselves to battery raw material extraction.