This milestone is a significant achievement in our UK leadership in recycling EV batteries producing domestic and low carbon cathode active materials (CAM) for a UK electrified supply chain.
Our highlights, learnings and progress:
- Improved Recycling Techniques: We have made significant progress in optimising a proprietary process recovering +95 % of lithium, nickel, cobalt and manganese from old batteries. Through extensive R&D, we have been able to extract more valuable materials from batteries, reducing the environmental impact of lithium-scrap.
- Resource Recovery: Recycling to CAM, the highest value component in the cell, means direct reuse in battery production, creating a low-carbon closed-loop recycling system.
- Business Model: Our full “battery circularity model” will be part of a unique customer offering with EV battery collection, black mass recycling and chemical refining to battery-ready cathode active materials for reuse.
- CAM Qualification: Recycled materials have been tested in new batteries, with promising results and OEM programs in near future.
- Environmental Benefits: Our recycling results in over 38% reduction in carbon in CAM compared to current commercial material, reducing the overall energy footprint of battery recycling.
- Partnerships and Collaboration: We are developing green technologies and will build the infrastructure to get to net zero. We have a “positive” sense of urgency as this needs to be done now. We have been able to attract like-minded strategic partners and foundation investors to allow us to “speed up/scale up” supply of sustainable critical minerals for reuse new batteries.
- Anode Circularity: Testing of our recycled-upcycled graphite by a battery anode manufacturer has shown a good match to primary graphite in areas of purity and physio-chemical characteristics.
- UK Advantage: Over £5m in innovation awards secured from the UK Government. The Faraday Institution and Advance Propulsion Centre support has been transformational in supporting our R&D and technology scale-up.
- Compliance: Passed environment Audit with zero findings by international consultant Wardell Armstrong, showing our adherence to relevant environmental regulations and best practices in battery recycling.
- Scaling and Future Plans: The scale up-line will expand to pilot processing one EV battery waste per day, for increased production of CAM in qualification programs and scale-up of technology for our commercial plants in Europe at out existing SX-EW plant and Teesside facility.
- Social and Economic Impact: Creation of 10 high-skilled jobs in Devon and contribution to the UK battery ecosystem with the only true circular economy approach to battery recycling.
