A consortium of UK organisations as secured government funding for a project to develop lithium-ion battery recycling technology.
Currently, the UK is heavily reliant on foreign imports for battery production and recycling, leaving the country’s supply of batteries extremely exposed to geopolitical shocks.
So far, early efforts have been made to establish a circular economy of batteries, wherein used batteries are broken down into their critical minerals which can then be turned back into usable components for new batteries.
Early work has been done by firms including Recyclus, which recently became the first UK firm to recycle lithium-ion batteries.
However, the UK remains at this early stage and has therefore made efforts to encourage innovation.
The government created the Battery Innovation Programme, delivered by Innovate UK and supported by the Department for Business and Trade, as a way to support the nascent field.
It is through this programme that ReCam, a consortium of four organisations including Recyclus, has been funded.
Recyclus, along with the UK Battery Industrialisation Centre (UKBIC), Watercycle Technologies and Polaron, will jointly tackle the pressing challenge of growing the volume of end-of-life lithium-ion batteries and leveraging the black mass produced in the disposal and recycling process.
“By establishing a viable UK-based route for refining battery waste into reusable materials we can unlock significant economic value, reduce emissions associated with exports and enhance the resilience of the UK battery ecosystem,” said Dr Ahmed Abdelkarim, co-founder at Watercycle Technologies.
Robin Brundle, executive chairman at Recyclus added: “We are delighted with this award and to be working with such gifted partners. This is a British-centric programme built around UK resilience and that is something we at Recyclus are extremely proud of.”
Read more: Fixing the UK’s dangerous reliance on foreign batteries
