With assistance from Jaguar Land Rover (JLR), the project aims to demonstrate that battery cells produced with recovered cathode active materials (CAM) can be used in EVs.
Testing will take place at the UK Battery Industrialisation Centre (UKBIC) – the UK’s national battery manufacturing scale-up facility – using battery materials recovered at Altilium’s facilities in Devon.
JLR will conduct comprehensive validation studies on the pouch cells at its own battery testing facilities.
The project builds on Altilium’s partnership with UKBIC, supported by Innovate UK’s Faraday Battery Challenge, to begin prototyping of EV battery cells using recycled CAM.
According to Faraday’s research, demand for UK EV battery manufacturing capacity will reach nearly 110 GWh per annum in 2030. The partnership comes as JLR has invested £250 million into increasing EV production capacity at its in Halewood site in Merseyside.
Dr Christian Marston, COO of Altilium, commented: “We are proud to lead this pioneering project with JLR that brings us one step closer to a circular economy for battery materials in the UK.
“By demonstrating that EV battery cells made from recovered materials can meet the rigorous standards of the automotive industry, we’re not only reducing the environmental impact of battery production but also supporting the UK’s efforts to build a more sustainable and resilient EV supply chain.
“This project is a vital milestone in our mission to decarbonise the battery value chain and support automotive OEMs in achieving their regulatory and sustainability goals.”
The project will utilise Altilium’s EcoCathode process which it said should reduce the volume of carbon used in EV production. The process will also recover critical materials in the form of lithium, cobalt and nickel.
Altilium said that the project has been made possible through funding from the Advanced Propulsion Centre (APC) UK.
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