New Swedish research center to strengthen European battery manufacturing

The battery industry is growing rapidly globally, driven by electrification, but competition is fierce and Europe needs to build new expertise. A new research center at Luleå University of Technology will bring together research, expertise, and innovation that can provide decisive competitive advantages for the European battery industry.

European industry is currently 15 years behind it’s competitors in Asia in terms of battery technology. That is the view of Martin Karlsson, Director of the new Research Center for Advanced Battery Technology, RECAT, at Luleå University of Technology.

“We have seen several examples of factories in Europe that have had problems with scaling up. At the same time, there are both sustainability benefits and geopolitical gains to be had from producing batteries here,” he says.

Long-term knowledge is needed

Therefore, there is a great need to strengthen European production. Domestic battery manufacturing and development are crucial to achieving electrification, and Sweden is well placed to become a leading player thanks to the country's access to fossil-free energy.

"Sweden is one of the few countries that can produce batteries with a very low carbon footprint. To succeed, we need to work closely with industry while creating an environment where new companies can start up and their innovations can grow," Martin Karlsson says.

With his background in battery technology at Northvolt, he has seen how academia plays an important role in building the long-term knowledge that industry needs.

"At Northvolt, I clearly saw that there was a lack of academic research on battery production. We need to invest in industrializing batteries, not only to support industry in innovation projects but also to educate the engineers needed to build up expertise over time.

Pär-Erik Martinsson, Vice-Chancellor’s Advisor and Managing director at Process IT Innovations, emphasizes the importance of industry collaboration.

“In order to solve real challenges in industry and secure the supply of skills for the future, it is crucial to be able to link academia and industry. We see the clear benefits of this at Process IT, where we work with collaboration between research and business to meet the real needs of industry,” he says.

New initiative at Luleå University of Technology

Martin Karlsson has now been tasked with establishing and leading the new research center at Luleå University of Technology — the Research Center for Advanced Battery Technology. The initiative strengthens the already established research on battery materials, but also lays the foundation for a new focus on battery production.

”With RECAT, we are strengthening the existing expertise at Luleå University of Technology and creating a unique position where we now cover the entire battery value chain. We have received a very positive response from industry regarding the centre's design, and we see great opportunities for deeper collaboration. We are already building international consortia in areas such as multiphysical modelling”, Pär-Erik Martinsson says.

The new research center at Luleå University of Technology cover the entire battery value chain, from raw material supply via CAMM-CRM, Center for Advanced Mining and Metallurgy inom Critical Raw Materials, to battery production within RECAT and on to use in society through Arctic Centre of Energy, ACE.

Above all, the university is making a broad investment on the battery production side by allocating resources to cyber-physical systems, machine learning, control engineering, experimental mechanics, operations and maintenance engineering, and production engineering. Luleå University of Technology is also strengthening its existing research in battery materials science. With the new battery research center, the university can collaborate with industry and find solutions for scaling up production from the laboratory to pilot projects, to industry, and up to gigascale.

“We are facing a unique opportunity. With a new center for battery technology, we are bringing together cutting-edge expertise, research, and education to take an active role in shaping the energy of the future,” Martin Karlsson says.