Milestone for a Sustainable Battery Ecosystem

 

The first construction phase of the battery cell research production facility in Münster has been initiated. RWTH is a partner of this globally unique innovation tool.

Federal Research Minister Bettina Stark-Watzinger, together with NRW Minister President Hendrik Wüst, and President of the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft Professor Holger Hanselka, opened the FFB PreFab and thus the first construction phase of the Battery Cell Production FFB in Münster. The German Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) is providing the project with up to 500 million euros in funding. The Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft and local partners RWTH Aachen University, Forschungszentrum Jülich, and the University of Münster are implementing the project, while the state of North Rhine-Westphalia is providing the land, constructing the buildings, and investing over one hundred million euros.

"Battery technology is a key emerging technology. This is why we are building the large-scale battery cell production of tomorrow in Münster. This is a crucial milestone on the journey to a technologically sovereign, competitive, and sustainable battery ecosystem. FFB will be a globally unique innovation tool which industry and science can use to test innovative battery technologies and develop new battery cell concepts and efficiently lead them to become market-ready products," explained Stark-Watzinger.

FFB aims to transfer results from the scientific labs into commercial applications. FFB provides a research infrastructure with which small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), large companies, and academic institutions can test, implement, and optimize the production of new battery technologies in a digitalized, flexible, and modular manufacturing environment. "Both FFB PreFab and FFB Fab focus on progressing technologies, i.e. scaling them. We regularly receive prototypes. In PreFab we can make an initial statement on suitability, particularly in terms of pilot-scale production. These processes can then be scaled up at FFB Fab - for example, by increasing the speed or throughput," explains Professor Achim Kampker, Head of the Chair of Production Engineering of E-Mobility Components (PEM) at RWTH and institute management member of the Fraunhofer Research Institution for Battery Cell FFB.

Both steps are fundamental when it comes to developing technologies that are almost market-ready. FFB Fab is scheduled to come into operation in 2028.