Altilium recycles cathode active material without compromising on quality
The results of electrochemical testing of cells made from recycled CAM at Altilium’s ACT1 facility in Devon have shown a comparable charge rate and cycle performance to commercially available CAM used in today’s high nickel NMC 811 batteries. In the tests, the recycled cathode active material from Altilium achieved the same cycle cell capacity typical for commercial CAM. Furthermore, an X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis confirmed that the structure of Altilium’s CAM is indistinguishable from commercial variants.
Christian Marston, Altilium co-founder and COO, commented: “With these results, Altilum has shown recycled battery metals can perform as well as virgin metals and that critical minerals are essentially the same whether they come from a mine or an old EV battery. Our recycled CAM not only matches but can even exceed the performance of traditional materials. We have shown there is no need to compromise on performance, with the additional sustainability benefits of using recycled materials.”
The results are an important milestone in the development of a sustainable domestic supply chain for electric car batteries in the UK and position recycled materials as a competitive alternative to mined materials, the company said. Altilium hopes that recycling old electric car batteries and production waste will help address the shortage of raw materials needed for the energy transition and reduce the environmental impact of battery production.
Altilium is the only company in the UK that manufactures CAM from recycled materials for production and qualification new electric vehicle batteries. The company’s EcoCathode process is said to be able to recover more than 95 per cent of critical metals, including lithium, from spent batteries before upcycling and re-engineering them into advanced battery chemistry materials.
Altilium is now working with the UK Battery Industrialisation Centre (UKBIC) to produce battery cells using its recycled CAM and validate them with a leading automotive manufacturer. Although the name of the centre is not mentioned, it is easy to guess given the previous partnerships: Back in September, Alitilium announced that JLR was interested in the company’s cathode active materials. The car manufacturer wants to validate pouch cells for electric cars made with Altilium’s recovered cathode active materials. The planned Altilium centre in Teesside is set to become the UK’s largest integrated battery recycling facility, processing 150,000 electric vehicle batteries per year and supplying 30,000 tonnes of CAM per year to the UK’s growing Gigafactory complex.
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