Altilium, Marubeni plan EV battery recycling partnership

Altilium Metals said on July 6 it had signed a nonbinding memorandum of understanding with Marubeni Corporation for a lithium ion battery recycling partnership.

The companies plan to develop an EV battery recycling businesses in the UK and Europe — including creating a UK supply chain of end-of-life lithium batteries.

Altilium Metals claims to be the only company in the UK recovering lithium, nickel and cobalt in a battery-ready cathode active material from waste EV batteries at its scale facility in Devon.

The firm said it recently completed a feasibility study for the potential development of an EV battery recycling facility in northeast England with the capacity to process scrap from more than 150,000

EVs per year and producing more than 20% of the UK’s expected CAM (cathode active material) demand by 2030.

Altilium CEO Kamran Mahdavi said the Marubeni partnership will also cover work to secure the supply of feedstock including black mass and gigafactory scrap as well as further developing Altilium’s proprietary CAM technology.

ACE Green in licensing deal with Hakurnas Lead Works

ACE Green Recycling announced on June 21 it had signed an equipment supply and licensing deal with Hakurnas Lead Works to set up battery recycling facilities in Israel and Romania.

ACE said it will deploy its proprietary lead battery recycling technology, which it claims operates without fossil fuel-based heating, at the Israeli secondary lead producer.

As part of the deal, ACE will sell its proprietary equipment and chemicals to Hakurnas and provide technical and engineering support for installation and commissioning.

Initial operations using ACE’s equipment should start at the Hakurnas plant in Ashdod by the fourth quarter of this year, which is then planned to be scaled up subject to various approvals.

Once fully deployed, ACE said these facilities are projected to recycle 50,000 tonnes of scrap batteries every year — a capacity that is worth some $60 million in lead metal sales annually, ACE said.

The move will also prevent the emission of 30,000 tonnes of CO2 and stop 2,400 tonnes of solid waste from going into landfill while also recycling more than 3,500 tonnes of plastics, ACE said.

ACE claims its technology replaces the smelting furnace, operates at room temperature, runs on electricity and has zero scope 1 greenhouse gas emissions (direct GHG emissions such as those made while running boilers and vehicles) and reduces solid waste by more than 80%.

Under the terms of the deal, the companies could also collaborate on deploying ACE’s technology to set up greenfield lithium ion battery recycling sites in Israel and Romania.

Hakurnas has been operating in Israel for more than 60 years and is also a lead supplier to Europe and North America.

Hakurnas owner and CEO Miron Badin said, “It is important to us to link with ACE to become early adopters of such radical technology, as Hakurnas always aims to be at the vanguard of development in our industry.”

June 23, 2023: The US is launching an advanced battery R&D consortium focused on securing supplies of critical battery materials needed for nextgeneration EVs.

The Department of Energy announced the move on June 12 as part of a $192 million funding program including a new battery recycling initiative that will feature a national disposal and collection education program.

Up to $60 million of the overall funding will support creation of the R&D consortium aimed at encouraging EV manufacturers, universities, mineral and material suppliers and others to work together in planning the next phase of an anticipated expansion of EV sales.

The DOE is also continuing its lithium ion battery recycling prize scheme, which was launched in 2019 and has awarded $5.5 million to date for innovative solutions to collecting, sorting, storing and transporting spent and discarded lithium ion batteries.

A total of more than $7 million has now been allocated as part of the overall funding program to support the latest iteration of the prize as well as a new ‘breakthrough contest’.

US energy secretary Jennifer Granholm said the investments will ensure the US “has a secure and sustainable domestic supply chain and strengthens our economy”.