Circular Economy of Transport

Design or manufacture of solutions to reuse or recycle batteries and other vehicle components.

The circular economy offers a plethora of potential innovations to improve the sustainability of manufacturing and transport. Clean Futures aim to contribute to the circular economy in transport by reusing and recycling some of the biggest contributors to emissions today, which are rarely reused or recycled, especially batteries which represent 50% of the value of EVs today. This means focusing on products known to be needed for clean transportation technologies and elevating them to a higher tier of energy conservation within the circular economy; reduce > rethink > reduce > reuse > repair > refurbish > remanufacture > repurpose > recycle > recover. All solutions must consider their full lifecycle impact on emissions, financial viability, availability of components being reused or recycled, and demand for the new-life application. They should also have transferable learnings to identified additional opportunities beyond the circular material or product being tested or developed. The programme invites SMEs to contribute to this challenge through the following:

• New battery or other component designs which are more recyclable, or more easily disassembled: first life design with end-of-life kept in mind.
• Solutions to accelerate or reduce costs of testing used batteries and other components to grade them and enable them to be reused, and to know for which applications they are likely to be viable.
• Solutions to help recycle existing battery and other component designs, including the structure around battery cells including electronics beyond the life of the battery cells themselves.
• New natural, fibre-based composite systems designed with end-of-life in mind.
• Reduction in the need for primary sourcing of materials.
• Solutions to recover and reuse fibre reinforcements, taking fiberglass or plastic systems used for reinforcement to reuse as part of a first-life application.
• Solutions to directly redeploy vehicle systems or sub-systems, with as little additional transformation as possible.
• Recycling or redeploying other components of vehicles which have a significant impact on emissions, and are not currently widely recycled or reused.

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Road Freight Alternatives

Design or production of systems or sub-systems enabling alternatives to traditional road freight, including using existing infrastructure, facilitating multi-modal freight transportation, and exploring shared transport solutions

Clean Futures aims to reduce road-based freight movements which are some of the largest sources of emissions today. To do this, we wish to develop alternative, cleaner modes of freight. This can be achieved through leveraging existing infrastructure such as rail, as well as leveraging multi-modal transportation. Finally, we aim to optimise capacity utilisation of infrastructure and assets through shared transport solutions combining freight and passenger transport. 

Within this challenge, solutions could include:

• Innovations contributing to rail-based freight planning to improve the planning infrastructure of heavy rail to encourage the use of freight, without negatively impacting passengers.
• Solutions to use people transportation for freight, especially when capacity is available.
• End-to-end tracking of freight across multi-modal transportation.
• Enablers of multi-modal transportation by connecting the modes for freight, such as parcel transfers from a train to a tram or a bus.
• Micro-mobility for last-mile freight deliveries.

Greener Transport Infrastructure

Design or production of cost-effective solutions for clean transportation infrastructure.

We aim to contribute to an urban mass rail-based transit system that enables small to medium sized cities and towns to afford a clean, reliable and accessible connected public transport system.. This will decrease air pollution and emissions and improve connectivity; putting the West Midlands at the forefront of a mass transit system, enabling worldwide sales opportunities. The critical success factor to achieve this is in improve affordability, with a target construction of under £10 million per kilometre of track form. 
We are looking for SMEs with solutions which reduce embodied emissions across the lifecycle across the following themes:  

• Reduce destruction and disruption of utilities.
• Decarbonise the materials being used. 
• Build the track itself. 
• Reduce the infrastructure requirements of building and operating the system, such as onboard signalling, control systems, turnouts, infrastructure required to produce cycling safety schemes, communication systems, drainage systems and more. 
• Any other innovation which could support the target construction of under £10m per kilometre of track form.

Future Fuels

The production of, transport, or store alternative fuels such as hydrogen, biofuels, or synthetic fuels.

While electrification is ongoing, alternative fuels can bridge the gap and reduce emissions versus traditional fuels. There are also applications where electricity is difficult to apply, such as for combine harvesters and rural transport with long travel distances and limited charging and supply infrastructure. Biofuels also have the additional benefit in reducing waste from crops which would otherwise rot into methane. We are looking at SMEs contributing to producing, transporting or storing biofuels, synthetic fuels and hydrogen in the West Midlands, and making them accessible to their consumers. 

Future Fuels

The production of, transport, or store alternative fuels such as hydrogen, biofuels, or synthetic fuels.

• Local production and transportation to increase the affordability of hydrogen fuels in the West Midlands, as well as reduce waste.
• Focus on areas where electrification is a challenge, such as larger machines (e.g. Combine harvesters, HGVs, tractors, refuse trucks and other maintenance vehicles).
• Solutions to retrofit vehicles today to be compatible with alternative fuels (only where vehicles have long life, such as HGVs and heavy rail).
• Applying alternative fuels for EV charging infrastructure, especially in places where charging infrastructure may be less accessible.
• Efficient storage and transportation of alternative fuels, with reduced waste, space utilization and lower emissions.
• Applying cleaner fuels from aircraft and maritime to automotive and rail.