Senior Research Technician (Battery Recycling)

Location: University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham UK

Full time starting salary is normally in the range £30,062 to £31,900, with potential progression once in post to £35,883

Fixed Term Contract to 31/10/2028

Job Summary

The University of Birmingham is a partner in HERMES (Hazardous Energy Recycling: Methods for Emerging Specialist Chemistries), a project funded by Innovate UK and led by Recyclus Group Ltd, developing a safe shredding and materials-recovery process for lithium-metal batteries (LMBs).

LMBs are used widely across offshore energy, defence, healthcare and IoT applications, but have no viable commercial recycling route in the UK. Unlike lithium-ion batteries, they remain chemically reactive at end-of-life and present fire, explosion and emission risks under conventional processing, leaving large unprocessed UK stockpiles. HERMES will establish optimum passivation, discharge, shredding and materials-separation methods for reactive LMB chemistries.

You will support the day-to-day operation of the HERMES project within the Energy Materials Group in the School of Metallurgy and Materials. You will be carrying out technical laboratory work in the safe handling and recycling of batteries. The role involves close collaboration with academics, technical staff, students and the project's industrial partner.

Main Responsibilities

• Safe handling, discharge, disassembly and passivation of reactive lithium-metal cells and batteries prior to mechanical processing.
• Supporting the operation of laboratory-scale shredding and comminution equipment, including work under inert (nitrogen) atmospheres and within safety chambers.
• Mechanical separation and sorting of shredded battery output streams, including sieving, density and magnetic separation techniques.
• Preparation and characterisation of recovered materials and shredding aids, using techniques such as SEM, XRD, XRF and ICP-OES.
• Collection, entry and management of experimental data, and maintenance of laboratory records.
• Supporting gas and emissions sampling and monitoring during processing trials.
• Providing technical support to the battery recycling and energy materials laboratories, including maintenance of equipment, consumables and laboratory housekeeping.
• Ensuring compliance with health and safety requirements, including risk assessments and COSHH.

Person Specification

• Extensive relevant practical experience in a technical role, or a relevant degree/qualification with appropriate experience.
• GCSE Maths and English at grade C/4 or above, or equivalent.
• Demonstrable knowledge, experience, and understanding of laboratory health and safety is essential, including working with fume cupboards, inert gas supplies, and pressurised gas bottles and regulators.
• Working knowledge of batteries and battery safety is desirable, though relevant training will be given to the successful candidate.
• Practical experience of mechanical materials processing (e.g. shredding, milling, comminution) or materials separation techniques is desirable.
• Experience of analytical characterisation techniques (e.g. SEM, XRD, XRF, ICP-OES) is desirable.
• Strong communication and interpersonal skills and the ability to promote health and safety compliance in a laboratory environment.

Informal enquiries to Dr Rob Sommerville, R.Sommerville@bham.ac.uk

To download the full job description and details of this position and submit an electronic application online please click on the 'Apply' button above.

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