“This is about decarbonising transport, creating a circular supply chain and helping to deliver energy security for the UK.”
Building a circular economy
“Realising the UK’s potential in battery recycling is more important than ever.”
– UK Government Battery Strategy
As older EVs reach end-of-life, millions of batteries will need to be recycled over the coming decade, over one million tonnes a year by 2030, growing to nearly 20 million by 2040.
The ability to recycle these batteries and “close the loop” on their life cycle reduces the need for virgin mined materials and leads to significant reductions in the carbon footprint of new lithium-ion EV batteries.
By building a circular domestic supply chain, we will reduce our reliance on global supply chains for critical materials, while ensuring that significantly more of a battery’s economic value is kept within the UK economy.
Powering the energy transition
The scale and pace of the transition to electrification has seen a surge in demand for critical battery metals, such as lithium, cobalt and nickel, placing growing pressure on global supply chains.
In the UK, battery demand is forecast to reach 91 GWh per year by 2030 (according to the Advanced Propulsion Centre), requiring 163KT of CAM per year. Ensuring that the UK has a secure domestic supply chain for these battery materials will be critical to meeting this demand and supporting the net zero transition.
With new EU regulations setting strict targets for recycling efficiencies and mandatory minimum levels for recycled critical metals in new EV batteries, recycling of spent lithium-ion batteries is a certainty. Altilium is working with automotive OEMs to ensure they have the materials needed to comply with these regulations.
Decarbonising EV battery production
While EVs are pivotal in reducing greenhouse gas emissions, automotive manufacturers must also meet the challenge of reducing the environmental impact of battery production for a truly sustainable future. Altilium’s innovative recycling processes provide an answer to this challenge, by delivering the UK’s most sustainable battery materials and dramatically cutting GHG emissions associated with battery manufacturing.
A lifecycle assessment (LCA) carried out by sustainability consulting group Minviro found that NMC532 cathode produced with Altilium’s recycled feedstock could be up to 74% lower in climate change impact compared to primary raw materials from a Chinese supply chain (based on the nickel production route with the highest global warming potential).
The LCA also found that Altilium’s EcoAnode™ process delivers a 77% reduction in GHG emissions for production of anode materials compared to primary production from China.
