Organised by Supergen Energy Storage Network+ and the UK Industrial Decarbonisation Research and Innovation Centre (IDRIC) and hosted by Birmingham Centre for Energy Storage (BCES), University of Birmingham

Energy Storage is a key enabling technology for future decarbonization of the industrial sector. The event is to get industry experts and academies together to share the vision and experience, to learn the good practice examples and to discuss the pressing challenges to the development and deployment of energy storage, particularly thermo-mechanical energy storage. We will highlight and identify the need for energy storage in the industrial sector to accelerate the industrial decarbonization.

This Workshop will be a hybrid event with a mix of presentations from industry experts and academies.

Supergen Energy Storage Network+

The development of energy storage technologies is vital to the UK’s low energy networks, helping to bring carbon emissions to Net Zero by 2050. The Supergen Energy Storage Network+ is an integrated, forward-looking platform that supports, nurtures the expertise of the energy storage community, disseminating it through academia, industry, and policy, at a particularly important time when decisions on future funding and research strategy are still being resolved. As a community, the Supergen Network+ will identify key research barriers within the energy storage sector so that global agencies can best direct available funding and support. Our vision is an environment where stakeholders with an interest in energy storage are connected, where early career researchers (ECRs) feel nurtured and positioned to advance, and where equality, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) is an integral element of thought and discussion across the field.

The UK Industrial Decarbonisation Research and Innovation Centre (IDRIC)

IDRIC is the focal point of the green transformation in the UK’s industrial heartlands. Powered by research and innovation and funded by UKRI, IDRIC develops innovative decarbonisation solutions at speed and scale in the places where it matters most. Collaborating with research organisations, industry, government, policymakers, NGOs, trade organisations and the public, IDRIC is co-creating whole-system, multidisciplinary solutions that are accelerating the green futures of our industries. Decarbonising the UK’s largest industrial clusters is a key step towards reaching the UK’s Net Zero emissions target set out in the UK Industrial Decarbonisation Strategy (2021). IDRIC is a challenge-led centre, working towards the creation of:

• Two low carbon clusters by the mid-2020s and a further two by 2030

• The world’s first net-zero carbon industrial cluster by 2040

Tentative agenda

10:00 – 10:10 Welcome (Introduction to the Supergen Network+)

Prof. Yulong Ding, Director of the Supergen Energy Storage Network+, University of Birmingham

10:10 – 10:20 Introduction to the IDRIC programme

10:20 – 10:50 Keynote#1 (Exploration of alternative technologies based on thermo-mechanical principles)

Prof. Christos Markides, Professor of Clean Energy Technologies, Imperial College London

10:50 – 11:10 Presentation – industry #1 (The development, testing and demonstration of the Innovatium PRISMA liquid air energy storage system)

Dr. Adrian Alford, Chief Technical Officer/Founder, Innovatium

11:10 – 11:30 Coffee & Tea Break

11:30 – 12:00 Keynote#2 (Thermal energy storage for power-to-power and power-to-heat applications)

Dr. Kurt Engelbrecht, Associate Professor at the Department of Energy Conversion and Storage, Technical University of Denmark

12:00 – 12:20 Presentation – industry #2 (Centrifugal Compressor design and testing for sCO2 applications)

Dr. Ernani Bellobuono, Baker Hughes, Senior Engineer in the New Product Development team at Baker Hughes

12:20 – 13:30 Lunch

13:30 – 13:50 Presentation – academia #1 (Energy system requirements of hydrogen-based steelmaking in the UK)

Dr. Andrew Pimm, Research Fellow, University of Leeds

13:50 – 14:10 Presentation –academia #2 (tbc)

Dr. Jonathon Elvins, Senior Technology Transfer Fellow, Swansea University

14:10 – 14:30 Presentation –academia #3 (Industrial Thermal Energy Storage – An EU whitepaper)

Dr. Zhiwei Ma, Assistant Professor in Department of Engineering, Durham University

14:30 – 14:50 Coffee & Tea Break

14:50 – 15:20 Keynote #3 (Development and applications of cold storage technologies)

Prof. Yongliang Li, Professor in Thermal Energy Engineering, University of Birmingham

15:20 – 15:40 Presentation – industry #3 (tbc)

15:40 – 16:20 Panel discussion

16:20 Summary and Close

All registrants will receive the final agenda and workshop venue via Email by June 20th. Lunch and drinks will be provided. Registrants who request to participate online will receive the Zoom link via email by June 22nd.

We look forward to you joining us at our event.

IDRIC - Supergen joint Thermo-mechanical Energy Storage Workshop