The electrification of society in Sweden and throughout Europe will significantly change the industrial landscape at an unprecedented speed in the coming decades. A major challenge to cope with this change is to accommodate the industry's development with research and competence. Therefore, Chalmers invests in establishing MAXBATT as a leading competence center in sustainable battery production.
Björn Johansson, professor in sustainable production, leads the initiative for the establishment of "MAXBATT - Center for Manufacturing Excellence - Battery Technology Products and Systems", which has the ambition to strengthen Sweden's position as one of the leading countries in the world in sustainable battery production.
Björn, what is MAXBATT?
- In MAXBATT, Sweden's competences are brought together to jointly make major efforts in moving the research front to create sustainable battery production for the automotive industry and several other industries. The investment is made together with key stakeholders in the industry, such as Northvolt, Volvo Cars and AB Volvo.
What will be the most important task for MAXBATT?
"The purpose of MAXBATT is to be a competence node that covers the entire battery value chain. For us to be able to have a battery production that is sustainable in the long term, we need to have a holistic perspective. This means that development, manufacturing, and recycling of batteries are connected, and there must be an understanding on how these different areas affect each other. As an example, knowledge and ideas on manufacturing and recycling must already be in consideration in the early development phases of batteries."
What phase is the development of MAXBATT in now?
"In our preliminary study, we have worked hard to collect the research excellence that exists in Sweden and the pieces are now starting to fall into place. We have an almost complete network with groups from both business and academia. There has also been a great deal of interest from other actors such as municipalities and educational bodies. Fine-tuning of research topics and matching of all parties' interests is now underway to build a strong research environment with both industry needs, and research excellence combined. We have also already started developing training modules to be able to quickly meet the change that is currently underway. More educational efforts are also needed at all levels, from primary school to doctoral positions."
How will you work with education in battery production?
"Via, for example, Ingenjör 4.0 and the Automotive Skills Alliance, there are already some training modules if you want to get started quickly. These are slightly more advanced courses that are mainly aimed at engineers within companies, but we will produce additional modules that cover more educational needs. MAXBATT will not start or run its own learning platforms, but we will make use of established educational structures where we can highlight research excellence and the latest development technology and working methods towards a sustainable battery value chain. Above all, by strengthening competence within universities of applied sciences and traditional courses at universities."
What challenges do you see when it comes to filling the skills needs?
"Competence development of the personnel who already exist within the companies takes time and will have a major impact on existing production. This will be a challenge for the industry that we want to help solve. Then the industry generally needs to bring in much more new staff. It will be a challenge for the whole society because it may affect other sectors where there is also a shortage of personnel. In the longer term, we also must make it attractive to work in this industry."
What risks do you see?
"It has happened in similar changes that where there is a shortage of competent personnel, there is a risk that researchers and teachers go directly into production to cover urgent needs, which depletes the competence of researchers and teachers. It is a short-term solution that we need to watch out for, because in the long run it means that we can no longer educate new personnel."
More information
It's intended that, by 2030 at the latest, MAXBATT will have significantly contributed to a competitive and sustainable production, use and recycling of batteries primarily in Sweden and on a European level, but also in other parts of the world.
- Full Professor, Production Systems, Industrial and Materials Science