SBRI: UKAEA Fusion industry challenges prototype development
A Contract Award Notice
by UNITED KINGDOM ATOMIC ENERGY AUTHORITY
- Source
- Find a Tender
- Type
- Contract (Services)
- Duration
- not specified
- Value
- £7M
- Sector
- PROFESSIONAL
- Published
- 16 Oct 2023
- Delivery
- not specified
- Deadline
- n/a
Concepts
Location
Abingdon
2 buyers
5 suppliers
- Bangor University Bangor
- Frazer Nash Consultancy Leatherhead
- Bristol University Bristol
- Edinburgh University Edinburgh
- Manchester University Manchester
Description
This is a Small Business Research Initiative (SBRI) competition funded by the UK Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA). This funding programme will support the UK’s leadership in economic, sustainable, and scalable fusion energy. The aim of this competition is to encourage innovation in the development of Lithium in an economic, sustainable, and scalable fusion energy fuel cycle.
Total Quantity or Scope
A pre-commercial activity under SBRI. … Your project can focus on one or more of the following: Isotopic Enrichment - Technologies that can enrich the proportion of the minor isotope Lithium-6. - Enrichment will be essential to the fuel sustainability of many fusion power designs and, where it is not essential, can add value by boosting Tritium production. This will enable the commissioning and re-start of other fusion power plants. - Lithium enrichment represents a front-end fuel cycle service that will be demanded by fusion reactor operators around the world. Examples of performance measures that would constitute an improvement over existing Lithium enrichment technologies include: - product quality, for example, maximum enrichment level (percentage), purity and product form (metal or compound) - economics, for example, production rate, capital cost, energy and resource consumption or value of co-products - environmental and worker protection, for example, hazards, waste production, obstacles to licensing such as the Minamata Convention Tritium Extraction Technologies that can extract Tritium from a Lithium breeding material and make it available, fast and efficient enough to fuel the ongoing Deuterium-Tritium (DT) reaction. Performance parameters relevant to a fusion energy plant’s fuel cycle system include: - rate of extraction - continuous operation - availability of recovered Tritium - energy cost - Conversion and Manufacturing Technologies or techniques that can convert Lithium from the form available in existing supply chains into either: - a form suitable for an isotopic enrichment process - a form required by the Tritium breeding system of a fusion energy plant Aspects relevant to a sustainable and competitive supply chain include: - raw material input forms for example, Lithium Chloride, Carbonate, Hydroxide - product output forms, for example, suitability for a variety of enrichment processes or breeding systems potential to recycle Lithium, for example, use of recycled Lithium from other sectors in fusion, or recycling of Lithium after its use in a fusion energy plant
Award Detail
1 | Bangor University (Bangor)
|
2 | Frazer Nash Consultancy (Leatherhead)
|
3 | Bristol University (Bristol)
|
4 | Bristol University (Bristol)
|
5 | Edinburgh University (Edinburgh)
|
6 | Manchester University (Manchester)
|
Award Criteria
Proposed idea or technology | 10.0 |
Technical project summary | 20.0 |
Current state of the art and intellectual property | 15.0 |
Project plan and methodology | 15.0 |
Technical team and expertise | 15.0 |
Commercial potential | 15.0 |
Costs and value for money | 10.0 |
CPV Codes
- 73110000 - Research services
- 14784000 - Lithium
Indicators
- Award on basis of price and quality.
Legal Justification
This was a pre-commercial procurement activity lead by Innovate UK. All information relating to the tender can be found here: https://apply-for-innovation-funding.service.gov.uk/competition/1572/overview/b4...
Other Information
https://apply-for-innovation-funding.service.gov.uk/competition/1572/overview/b4...
Reference
- FTS 030386-2023