Altilium & Enva announce battery recycling cooperation in the UK
The partners claim that as the number of electric vehicles and battery-powered devices increases, the partnership will combine Enva’s nationwide collection infrastructure and extensive relationships with car dealerships, along with Altilium’s expertise in recycling old EV batteries and the recovery of critical materials, including lithium. They expect that over 100 million EV batteries will be reaching the end of their usage over the next decade, providing a major need to reutilize the spent batteries.
Under their plan, Altilium’s Teesside refinery will be used for recycling the batteries, as well as being “the only planned facility in the UK refining lithium-ion waste to battery-ready Cathode Active Materials (CAM) for direct reuse in new battery production.” The planned capacity for the plant will be to recycle waste batteries from up to 150,000 vehicles per year, which would then be used for “producing 30,000 MT of CAM, enough to meet 20% of the expected UK demand by 2030.”
Altilium owns a proprietary recycling process that is more efficient than mining the raw materials straight from its sources, which the companies hope will lead the way to the production of more affordable and cleaner EVs. Specifically, the process titled ‘EcoCathode’ is capable of a “60% reduction in carbon emissions and 20% lower costs compared to virgin materials”.
“We are excited to partner with Altilium to develop a comprehensive and sustainable supply chain for EV battery recycling in the UK,” explained Michael Sneath, Managing Director of Enva’s Lubricants and Batteries Division, adding: “Expert handling and storage of this potentially hazardous material is paramount. This collaboration will solve an emerging problem for our customers, enhancing the UK’s recycling capabilities and contributing to the circular economy by transforming used batteries into valuable raw materials for new batteries.”
Rod Savage, Altilium’s Program Director for End-of-Life Batteries, further explained: “By leveraging Enva’s collection network and our processing expertise, we aim to set a new standard in battery recycling, ensuring maximum recovery of materials and supporting the growth of the EV market in an environmentally responsible way.”
While the recycling company Enva is relatively new to the field of e-mobility, Altilium has been very actively pursuing EV recycling partnerships of late, for example, announcing one with the UK-based vehicle salvage, dismantling and recycling specialist Synetiq in February alongside the announcement of a similar partnership regarding scooter batteries with Vmoto. There is also an ongoing partnership with ABB and a non-binding agreement was signed with Marubeni last year.
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