Lab tour at Department of Chemistry and Bioscience
The laboratory of the Research Group “Membrane Distillation and Crystallization” focuses on the recycling and regeneration of battery materials, as well as the recovery of valuable metals and minerals from various waste streams. Below is a selection of active projects and relevant equipment which will be shown during the lab tour:
BeyondBattRec (Horizon Europe project)
This project focuses on recovering and regenerating critical materials such as lithium and cobalt. This employs methods like bioleaching, and hybrid chemical and thermal processes for the selective recovery of metals and acids. The key equipment includes:
- Bio-acid production unit for bioleaching
- Membrane distillation/crystallization setup for concentration of bioacid and metal’s recovery from leachate
EXBRINER (Doctoral Network, Horizon Europe)
The project aims at designing next-generation functional membrane materials for hypersaline brine treatment, and at implementing membrane-based crystallization techniques for recovery of minerals. The key equipment includes:
- Submerged membrane distillation crystallization to enrich Li from multicomponent solution
- Inline microscope for crystal quality monitoring
Aquaterra (Innoexplorer)
Percrystallization is utilized to completely separate salt from the reverse osmosis brines, making it a Zero liquid discharge system. This is done also by 3D printing for producing tailored membranes for both water and mineral recovery. The key equipment includes:
- Membrane synthesis unit
- Percrystallization setup for simultaneous recovery of dry crystals and water from brine
- Membrane characterization equipment including porometer, contact angle and permeability
Geothermal water for metal production (MUDP project)
This setup focuses on recovering critical minerals, such as lithium and magnesium, from different geothermal waters in Europe using membrane distillation and crystallization.
- Membrane crystallization unit
CORNERSTONE (Horizon Europe project)
This setup is for membrane distillation crystallization (MCr), we are testing different wastewater industries (steel, pulp&paper, and chemical industry) to produce high quality water while recovering valuable solute.
- Membrane distillation and crystallization setup integrated with smart monitoring and digitalization
- Mathematical models to predict the precipitation behavior of different salts from the multicomponent solutions
Coin cell batteries (Lab within section of Disordered materials)
This station is dedicated to the assembly and testing of coin cell batteries, enabling the evaluation of cycle stability, temperature effects, and other key battery performance parameters.
General equipment
- X-ray diffraction (XRD)
- Atomic force microscopy (AFM)
- Optical microscopes
- Zetasizer
- Contact angle Porometer
Lab tour at Department of Energy
The battery laboratories of the Department of Energy focus on the characterization and testing of batteries. The tour will include two lab visits.
Battery Systems Test Laboratory
The Battery Systems Test Lab is a state-of-the art laboratory for electrical, thermal, and lifetime testing and characterization of batteries. The laboratory allows investigating battery cells and battery packs under variable electrical and thermal stress conditions in a secure environment using world class devices.
Thanks to the available infrastructure, it is possible to test and evaluate the performance of batteries in the same conditions as they would encounter in electric vehicle, grid support (e.g., frequency control, peak shaving etc.), or uninterruptable power supply applications. Furthermore, commercial, prototype, or home-made battery management systems (BMSs) can be tested in a safe and reliable environment.
Facilities
Up to 58 battery cells (6V/ 50A) and two battery packs (100V / 100A) can be tested simultaneously using five state-of-the-art battery test stations. Furthermore, three electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) analyzers are available for dedicated tests. All the battery testing is carried out in twenty climatic and temperature chambers of various dimensions, which besides offering increased safety, allow reliable temperature control in the range -30°C to 80°C. Moreover, a word-class isothermal calorimeter is available for determining the thermal behavior of batteries.
Using a 16-cells battery emulator, commercially available or prototype BMSs can be tested and debugged in a safe environment.
Smart Battery laboratory
We are combining artificial intelligence methods, power electronics and wireless communication to build the next generation of battery energy storage devices, the smart battery.
The core of the Smart Battery laboratory is the Comemso battery cell simulator, which is able to emulate the real-time performance and degradation behavior of up to 96 battery cells controlled by our own developed models. This device will be used to validate lifetime extension with smart battery.
Another important setup is the wireless communication platform composed of a set of evaluation modules with wireless controllers based on BLE. The platform is used to get familiarised with the communication protocol and programming of the wireless controllers to perform within the smart battery.