Altilium secures government backing
UK-based clean technology group Altilium has secured backing from the UK government to begin rapid prototyping of lithium-ion EV battery cells using recycled cathode active materials (CAM).
The project has received grant funding of £639,797 from Innovate UK’s Faraday Battery Challenge, with production of the cells taking place at the UK Battery Industrialisation Centre (UKBIC) using CAM produced at Altilium’s UK pilot facility.
As well as addressing concerns over battery waste disposal, it will enable automotive OEMs to meet sustainability goals and minimum recycled content regulations, it said.
The project will involve a full pouch cell run at the UKBIC facility, as well as analysis of the quality and performance of the cells, and benchmarking against UKBIC’s baselines cell.
By demonstrating at-scale manufacturing of battery cells using recycled CAM, the project will advance commercialisation of Altilium’s technology, it said.
EV batteries typically account for up to 60% of the embedded greenhouse gases in EV production. On average, mining and refining battery raw materials accounts for about a quarter of these emissions. Recovering these materials from end-of-life batteries and gigafactory scrap can therefore play a critical role in the decarbonisation of EV production.
CAM, which is made up of lithium and other critical metals, is one of the most expensive components in an EV battery, as well as the most carbon-intensive. In a modern EV, the material contents of the cathode make up about 50% of the battery cell cost and 8-10% of the total cost of an EV. Processing battery waste to CAM therefore captures more of the value of the critical materials.
Altilium COO Dr Christian Marston said:
“This new project will advance commercialisation of Altilium’s technology, demonstrating our EcoCathodeTM recycling process at our new ACT 2 facility at a suitable scale to OEMs, battery manufacturers and investors, and de- risking investment in further scale-up.”
Image from Altilium
