Driving Sustainability: Empowering the Electric Vehicle Supply Chain with Green Technology and Metal Recycling
We love a green project and are very proud to be working on a very exciting project with Altilium Metals, a UK based forward-thinking green technology company decarbonising the electric vehicle supply chain with their processes to extract and recycle metals from EV batteries. By decarbonizing the electric vehicle supply chain and promoting the recycling of metals from EV batteries, we can contribute to a more sustainable future.
Through our partnership with Altilium Metals, we are proud to contribute to the creation of a circular economy. By extracting and recycling metals from EV batteries, we reduce the demand for new mining activities, particularly in countries facing conflict or human rights issues. This approach ensures ethical sourcing of materials and minimises environmental impact. Recycling could supply over 40 per cent of UK lithium and 20 per cent nickel and cobalt for the UK in 2040, reducing mining and giving the UK energy security.
The project not only addresses environmental concerns but also has economic advantages. While electric vehicles may have higher upfront costs due to expensive batteries like Lithium, Altilium aims to achieve 40% of industry lithium production from recycling by 2040. This reduction in the need for mining helps lower carbon emissions and overall costs associated with the production of electric vehicles.
Altilium’s advanced processes enable the recovery of valuable metals such as lithium, cobalt, and nickel from lithium-ion scrap, also known as “black mass.” By converting these scraps into product streams like copper/aluminium, they extract maximum value from the materials and contribute to a sustainable supply chain for anode and cathode materials.
Altilium’s ambitious plans include establishing the largest facility in the UK for processing battery scrap. With the capacity to handle samples from over 150,000 electric vehicles annually, their operations will provide a significant volume of low carbon anode and cathode materials. This will bolster the electrified supply chain, enhance energy security, and reduce the need for raw material mining.
Our analysis is supporting the business to confirm the levels of metals extracted through their process and supports them on their development journey.
This involves us receiving large volumes of samples each month of various compositions from their R&D processes to test for a wide range of minerals and elements using ICP. Our experienced analysts employ multi-element standards to ensure a rapid turnaround of analysis results. As the composition of the samples can vary (from as low as <0.001%) we adapt our analytical methods accordingly. From simple acid dilutions to black mass solids, organic and aqueous samples, we employ microwave digestion and other techniques to accurately assess the metal content.
By recovering 95% of the most useful and key elements from batteries, Altilium’s processes pave the way for the remanufacturing of new batteries using recycled materials. This reduces reliance on virgin resources and contributes to a more sustainable and resource-efficient electric vehicle industry.
Our collaboration with Altilium Metals is driven by our shared commitment to environmental responsibility, circular economy principles, and technological advancements that contribute to a greener future. We are excited to be part of their journey towards decarbonisation and the sustainable transformation of the electric vehicle supply chain.
Interested in how sustainability could affect the chemical industry? Download our whitepaper
You can follow Altilium Metals on LinkedIn here
Do you have a green product or solution? We would love to hear about it and be a part of the journey with you. Please get in touch if we can help!