Through close collaboration with Engineering Consultant Hatch we are preparing a Definitive Feasibility Study for a UK Recycling Plant. The input processing capacity will be increased from 10,000 tonnes to 50,000 tonnes of “black mass” annually.

The significant volume of end of life batteries and scrap from giga-sized battery manufacturing expected in the UK requires mega-scale recycling solutions, and it is important to develop the required infrastructure before the growing number of energy storage projects coming online today reach end of life later this decade. This would be the largest planned recycling facility in the UK for lithium-ion battery waste.

The black mass for the planned site will come from end-of-life lithium-ion batteries as well as off spec material from cell producers and battery material producers. In the short term, to alleviate possible shortage in battery waste, the plant designed by Hatch will incorporate an option to process raw materials sustainably mined from Altilium Metals assets in Indonesia.

This feasibility study will accelerate and support the investment decision regarding development of a new UK site capable of processing battery waste electric vehicles to reclaim scarce technology metals such as lithium, nickel, cobalt at a quality for direct re-use in cell manufacture. The extracted metals will be used to produce Cathode Active Material (CAM) and will enable a circular economy for the battery value chain, significantly improving the CAM product carbon footprint.

This work is performed in conjunction and under the support of the UK Government Innovate/APC’s Automotive Transformation Fund that supports the industrialisation at scale of a high-value electrified automotive supply chain