- Mint Innovation, in collaboration with JLR, LiBatt Recycling, and WMG, University of Warwick, has secured £8.1 million in funding to demonstrate its low-carbon recycling technology for lithium-ion batteries.
- £4.05 million of the funding comes from the UK Department for Business and Trade, facilitated by the Advanced Propulsion Centre.
- The project is part of the recently-revealed, £2.5 billion DRIVE35 governmental programme, which looks to support UK manufacturing and R&D for the country’s EV sector.
UK-based EV battery recycling project takes a step forward
The project hopes to show, on a demonstration-scale, how the UK can recover critical battery materials such as lithium, nickel and cobalt, in order to create a local and circular supply chain for EV batteries.
Data from the Advanced Propulsion Centre shows that the UK is expected to generate around 235 kilotons of EV battery waste by 2040. Mint Innovation is hoping to address this through a hydrometallurgical process that turns the shredded remains of end-of-life EV batteries into a number of critical battery materials. That’s the same process used at a number of EV recycling plants across the world, such as a Mercedes-Benz plant in Germany.
The new project is set to take place in the UK, and run over the next three years. The results from the project could play a key part in ensuring the UK can work towards a circular economy for its EV industry – more important than ever, with schemes such as the Electric Car Grant requiring high environmental standards for EVs to comply.
Ian Constance, CEO of APC UK, commented:
“This new investment underlines the commitment from Government to secure advanced manufacturing in the UK. I am pleased that the APC, Zenzic, and its delivery partners are here to facilitate a new wave of funding in the automotive industry, supporting innovation, driving scale-up, and enabling transformation.”
Dr Beth Johnston, Assistant Professor at WMG, added:
“We’re incredibly excited to be working in this consortium to manufacture lithium-ion battery materials from recycled sources. Our advanced processes aim to not only deliver high-quality materials that meet the rigorous performance demands of the modern battery applications but also help to reduce our reliance on virgin materials, addressing critical supply chain challenges and advancing circularity to pave the way for more widespread and sustainable electrification.”
