About this role
Salary: Full time starting salary is normally in the range £36,636 to £46,049 with potential progression once in post to £48,822
Job Summary
This is a fixed-term Research Fellow position funded through HERMES (Hazardous Energy Recycling: Methods for Emerging Specialist Chemistries), a 30-month Innovate UK-funded project led by Recyclus Group Ltd in partnership with the University of Birmingham.
Lithium-metal batteries (LMBs) are widely used across offshore energy, defence, healthcare, and IoT applications but currently have no viable commercial recycling route in the UK — unlike lithium-ion batteries, LMBs remain chemically reactive at end-of-life and pose serious fire, explosion, and emission risks under conventional shredding. This has driven large UK stockpiles and continued reliance on overseas disposal. HERMES will develop and validate a safe shredding and materials-recovery process for LMBs, building on Recyclus' existing commercial lithium-ion recycling capability.
You will join the Energy Materials Group (EMG) in the School of Metallurgy and Materials to identify and validate optimum passivation, discharge, shredding, and materials-separation methods for reactive LMB chemistries, working within your area of specialism and contributing to bid-writing and funding generation as the project develops. This work will directly inform industrial shredder redesign and scale-up, contributing to a first-of-a-kind UK LMB processing capability.
Main Responsibilities
Design and carry out experimental work to identify and characterise safe discharge and passivation methods for reactive lithium-metal battery chemistries. Investigate shredding parameters and processing atmospheres suitable for safely handling LMB cells. Develop and evaluate materials separation and recovery methods for shredded battery output streams, assessing recovery efficiency and purity. Generate data to inform industrial partner shredder redesign and process scale-up, working closely with their engineering team. Conduct safety and hazard assessments of materials and processes. Contribute technical input to life-cycle assessment of shredding/passivation routes. Prepare technical reports, publications, and conference outputs arising from the research. Support supervision of postdoctoral and technician staff and contribute to day-to-day laboratory coordination.
Person Specification
Hold a Bachelor's degree in a Science or Engineering discipline relevant to the project, or equivalent qualifications. Hold, or be close to completion of, a PhD in an area relevant to materials recycling, battery manufacture, minerals or process engineering, chemistry, or mechanical, electronic or chemical engineering. Prior knowledge, experience and achievements in mechanical shredding or comminution processes, particle/material separation techniques, battery safety or reactive/hazardous chemistry handling, and analytical characterisation (e.g. ICP-OES, SEM, XRD, or XRF) is highly desirable; however, training will be given to the right candidate in these areas. Demonstrably high level of analytical capability; ability to communicate complex information clearly to a diverse audience; ability to work in an interdisciplinary team; ability to coordinate own work with others to avoid conflict or duplication of effort. Proven ability to assess resource requirements and use resources effectively.
Informal enquiries can be made to Rob Sommerville ([email protected]).
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