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Battery Fast Charging Invention Wins Royal Society of Chemistry Emerging Technologies Competition

18 August 2021

Image of Electric car charging - Photo by Andrew Roberts on Unsplash

MagLiB technology, invented by UCL Chemical Engineers (Dr. Tom Heenan, Dr. Chun Tan, Professor Paul Shearing and Professor Dan Brett), has been awarded The Royal Society of Chemistry Emerging Technology competition in the division of Energy & Environment. Their patent-protected innovation has demonstrated charging time reductions of over 67% on commercial Li-ion batteries. The technology works by applying a specially tailored magnetic field to an electrochemical device, in doing so the voltage efficiency is improved allowing higher electrical currents to be employed without damaging the cell, reducing the overall charging time. With the support of a £100k Faraday Institution Entrepreneurial Fellowship, the inventors were able to scale the technology from benchtop concept testing, to cells for: smart watches, laptops, and finally battery electric vehicles (BEVs). The fellowship also allowed the pursuit of rapid-recharge solutions for high-drain devices such as power-tools, for which they have built several prototypes. They are now exploring methods of developing accelerated manufacturing lines that will reduce the cost of producing Li-ion cells; ultimately lowering the price of a BEV for the consumer, increasing affordability. The RSC prize comes with £40k of total prize funds, the support of a business mentor, and future grant sourcing. The team are now embarking on the process of spinning out the technology via their company: Gaussion ltd. This will involve growing their team and taking on further funding; both essential in order to take this technology into the mass market.

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