A new contender in the race to be the first to offer industrial-scale lithium ion battery recycling in the UK has launched its maiden plant and promised five more will follow within the next five years.
Recyclus Group, the British company that has invested £6 million in the new facility in Wolverhampton, plans to recycle up to 8300 tonnes of batteries harvested from EVs to vapes at its site each year. Other recyclers including Veolia, Umicore and Cawleys are also planning large-scale operations in the UK and overseas.
The news comes amid growing concerns about the environmental costs associated with extracting and refining the raw materials required for lithium ion batteries and what to do with the millions of tonnes of waste expected to have accumulated worldwide by 2030. Recyclus aims to provide the solution by extracting the raw material from the growing mountain of waste batteries and passing it to battery manufacturers, among them car makers keen to secure materials supply while reducing their carbon footprint.
Much of the raw material Recyclus obtains includes steel and copper but the most valuable are nickel, manganese, lithium and cobalt, present in five chemistries. They are extracted in the form of a toxic powder called 'black mass'. The next stage is to separate and purify them for recycling, a process Recyclus plans to offer in the future.
Recyclus says that by 2040, the motor industry could source 20% of its lithium from recycling. The firm has a permit to process 22,000 tonnes of batteries each year and claims that the 8300 tonnes it plans to recycle annually at its Wolverhampton site alone would yield enough lithium to power 7500 new EV battery packs.
Used batteries arrive at Recyclus via logistics partner Slicker, which operates collection services across the UK, although garages and car makers are also expected to provide them in the future. Firms are legally obliged under new EU laws to dispose of batteries responsibly and to promote the circular economy, so at least while the recycling industry is developing, Recyclus is able to charge them a disposal fee, depending on the battery's health and chemistry, of up to £8.40 per kilogram.
Add your comment