Battery recycling project to drive forward circular economy

The project will demonstrate battery cells produced with recovered cathode active materials. Photo: Altilium

Battery recycling is fundamental to the UK’s goal of securing a sustainable supply chain for electric vehicle (EV) production. Dave Ketcher, project delivery lead at the Advanced Propulsion Centre (APC) explains how one of the organisations it is helping to fund, Altilium, aims to provide the UK with a domestic, low-carbon, sustainable source of critical minerals for EV batteries.

Battery recycling is fundamental to the UK’s goal of securing a sustainable domestic supply chain for future domestic electric vehicle (EV) production. This will require establishing a circular economy, that enables us to recycle and re-use the critical materials within batteries, such as lithium, nickel, cobalt, and manganese. It will not only reduce the UK’s reliance on global supply chains but will also lead to significant reductions in the carbon footprint of new lithium-ion EV batteries.

In 2022, the APC, through support from the Department for Business and Trade (DBT), provided funding through the Automotive Transformation Fund (ATF) to prove or enhance the business case for rapid scale-up of UK manufacturing in areas such as battery anode and cathode production, fuel cell stack assembly and the viability of UK-sourced critical materials needed for green technology such as lithium extraction and graphite refining.

One of the successful funding applicants was Altilium, a London-based clean technology group focused on supporting the UK’s transition to ‘net zero’. The company was awarded a share of £9.4 million to establish feasibility of a novel industrial plant to recover critical metals from end-of-life EV batteries for re-entry into a circular battery supply chain.

This feasibility study accelerated and supported the investment decision regarding Altilium’s development of a new UK greenfield site capable of processing 150,000 end-of-life lithium-ion EV batteries per year, enabling 30,000 tonnes of cathode active materials (CAM) to be recovered and supplied back into the EV battery industry — enough to meet 20% of expected UK demand by 2030.

Sustainable recycling pathway
The APC estimates that by 2030, the UK will need over 160,000 tonnes of cathode-active materials like these each year to keep up with demand for EV battery production in the UK. While the UK does not have these critical materials in large quantities, with China dominating the supply chain, we do have a steadily increasing resource in the batteries in consumers’ vehicles. Inevitably when the vehicle reaches its lifespan those batteries will be surplus to requirements. It is the obligation of the car manufacturer to find a sustainable recycling pathway for those end-of-life products.

Extracting the raw materials and making them ready for reintegration into new batteries for the automotive market brings us full circle. New legislation will require car and battery manufacturers to include an ever-growing percentage of material sourced from the UK and recycled in new EV batteries production. Altilium has built relationships with these future strategic partners, who are already providing the company with end-of-life batteries and production scrap.

Once an EV battery reaches the end of its useful life it can be discharged, dismantled, and shredded to produce a fine black powder known as ‘black mass’, which contains the valuable cathode metals (lithium, manganese, cobalt, and nickel) and graphite. Using its proprietary EcoCathode process, Altilium is able to recover over 95% of the critical metals found in black mass to produce cathode active materials (CAM) ready for re-use in the production of new batteries.

The process results in over 60% lower CO₂ and 20% lower cost compared to virgin raw material mining and shipping.

Continuous virtuous loop
Furthermore, the process allows recovery of the materials repeatedly. That means the process will facilitate a continuous virtuous loop that will allow EV batteries to be recycled almost indefinitely.

The project is seen as vital if the UK is to safeguard its automotive industry and the skilled jobs that it creates, while allowing the communities that depend on these large manufacturing sites to flourish. By profitably extracting and processing these critical battery materials, the UK can de-risk its battery supply chain and support the creation of a self-sustaining, globally competitive industry.

Altilium is currently the only company in the UK recovering these minerals, including lithium, from waste EV batteries and upcycling to high nickel CAM for production of the latest modern battery chemistries. Through ATF funding, Altilium has been able to prove its technology works at a laboratory level. In just 18 months, this funding enabled Altilium to transform an empty unit into an operational scale-up pilot-line and analytical laboratory for mineral processing and establish an EV Battery Technology Centre in Devon.

Altilium is now building a bigger commercial pilot plant in Plymouth to produce high volumes of CAM for qualification with automotive OEMs and prove the process can be rapidly scaled.

MWith millions of EV batteries expected to reach the end of their lifeycle over the coming decade, there is a huge volume of scrap which needs to be recycled efficiently and sustainably. This will be both a challenge and an opportunity. A future where we may only need minimal mining, or none at all.