On March 28th, the UK clean technology group Altilium partnered with battery materials and technology company Talga Group to recycle graphite from old electric vehicle batteries for reuse in producing new battery anodes. This collaboration marks a significant step for the UK electric vehicle battery industry towards ensuring sustainable domestic graphite sources and emphasizes the commitment of both companies to providing low-carbon battery materials for automotive original equipment manufacturers and battery manufacturers.
Graphite is currently the largest single material in lithium-ion batteries, accounting for 50% of the battery volume. Altilium's proprietary recycling process can recover over 99% of the graphite from scrapped electric vehicle batteries, returning these valuable resources to the supply chain, while Talga's green anode production technology can reduce carbon dioxide emissions during electric vehicle manufacturing.
Under the agreement, both companies will focus on optimizing the recovery of graphite from battery waste to produce battery-grade products for new anodes. Graphite recycling has been largely overlooked, with recyclers mainly focusing on recovering cathode metals from battery waste. Therefore, the transition to self-sufficiency is crucial for the UK to meet the growing demand of the emerging green industry.
According to the Advanced Propulsion Centre's forecast, the UK's demand for graphite for anodes is expected to reach 46,000 tonnes by 2027, growing to 95,000 tonnes by 2030. Altilium's planned Teesside recycling plant will be able to recover 20,000 tonnes of graphite per year, enough to meet over 20% of the UK's demand by 2030.
Altilium has already started recycling key battery metals, including lithium, to produce cathode active materials (CAM) for direct reuse in the battery supply chain. By recycling graphite, the company will be able to recover all battery components, achieving full battery circularity.
Altilium will supply Talga with recycled graphite from electric vehicle battery waste at its Battery Recycling Technology Centre (ACT 1) in Tavistock, Devon, and a new pilot plant (ACT 2) in Plymouth. The 18,000-square-foot plant is scheduled to start operations by the end of 2024, processing significant amounts of CAM and battery precursors to obtain OEM and battery manufacturer certifications.
Talga will use its patent-pending chemical purification methods to produce high-purity raw materials for producing new types of anode active materials and conduct tests on button cells and single-layer pouch cells.
Testing of recycled graphite so far has shown good compatibility in purity and physical-chemical characteristics with native graphite. Altilium is also part of a recently announced £30 million collaboration project supported by the Advanced Propulsion Centre (APC) and led by Nissan. Altilium is collaborating with Nissan Technical Centre Europe (NTCE) to handle waste Nissan Leaf batteries and production waste, recycle graphite for new anodes, and upgrade cathode metals to high-nickel CAM.
