Pilot demonstration of a novel extraction process to recover critical metals from end-of-life Li-ion batteries for immediate entry into electric vehicle battery supply chain

英国的电动汽车（EV）电池供应链将需要大量原材料，但一个主要挑战是钴和镍等不可或缺的电池金属在全球范围内供应短缺。由于俄罗斯是这些金属的主要来源，而中国主导着这些金属的加工，目前英国的供应链很容易受到地缘政治事件的影响。Altilium Metal Ltd发明了一种新颖，高效的工艺，可以从报废的电动汽车锂离子电池中提取镍，钴和锂，其质量和形式可以直接用于电池制造。该技术及其行业黄金标准的效率性能已由普利茅斯大学独立验证。这项为期18个月的工业研究计划，与帝国理工学院合作（分包商），将使Altilium能够应对来自投资界的具体挑战，支持我们为最初的10，000吨加工设施筹集资金，计划在2050年前满足英国需求的四个地点中的第一个。有足够的“承购”需求的证据。我们的初步经济预测预计，到2026年，阴极金属的产量将达到4，750吨（占行业需求的19%）。该项目使我们能够向潜在客户展示所生产的阴极材料的质量，帮助我们获得重大的早期商业利益。我们将与帝国理工学院合作，在现场环境（即电池）中试用该产品，以证明其质量/稳健性与市场上的同类产品相当。各种来源的原料供应充足的证据。为了实现到2026年的预测，我们的工厂将需要处理10，000吨黑色物质（锂离子废物）。电动汽车电池将不会达到大规模的寿命结束，直到十年结束;因此，该项目使我们能够证明我们的工艺能力，生产电动汽车电池阴极准备样品的规格，从不同范围的锂离子黑色物质化学/来源（例如消耗性电池），由工业回收商Cawleys（UK）和KGS提供（新加坡）。到2030年，我们计划拥有两个运营基地，支持400个新的高价值工作岗位，并产生1.834亿英镑的EBITDA。重要的是，我们的设施将有助于吸引电池制造商到英国（90亿英镑的市场机会），支持英国汽车行业（现有17万个工作岗位）。此外，与使用原始阴极材料相比，英国的电动汽车电池回收行业将降低电动汽车电池生产成本并减少碳排放。

Significant volumes of raw materials will be needed for an electric vehicle (EV) battery supply chain in the UK, but one major challenge is that indispensable battery metals such as cobalt and nickel are in short supply globally. With Russia being a leading source of these metals, and China dominating the processing into market ready products, the current UK supply-chain is vulnerable to geopolitical events.Altilium Metal Ltd has invented a novel, highly efficient process that extracts nickel, cobalt, and lithium from end-of-life electric vehicle lithium-ion batteries in a quality and format that can be directly reused in battery manufacture. The technology and its industry gold standard efficiency performance have been independently validated by the University of Plymouth.This 18-month Industrial Research programme, in partnership with Imperial College (subcontractor), will enable to Altilium to address specific challenges from the investment community, supporting our fundraising endeavours for our initial 10,000-tonne processing facility, first of four sites planned to meet UK demand until 2050\.* Evidence of sufficient "offtake" demand. Our initial economic forecasts project the offtake of 4,750-tonnes of cathode metals by 2026 (19% of industry demand). This project enables us to show to potential clients, in volume, the quality of the cathode materials produced, helping us to secure significant early commercial interest. We will work with the Imperial College to pilot the product in a live environment (i.e. battery cells) proving quality/robustness equivalent to at-market comparatives.* Evidence of a sufficient supply of feedstock from various sources. To meet projections by 2026, our plant will need to process 10,000-tonnes of black mass (lithium-ion waste). EV batteries will not reach end-of-life on mass until the end of the decade; therefore, this project enables us to demonstrate our processes ability to produce EV-battery cathode-ready samples to specification from a diverse range of Lithium-ion black mass chemistries/sources (e.g. consumable batteries) provided by industrial recyclers, Cawleys (UK) and KGS (Singapore).By 2030, we intend to have two operational sites, supporting 400 new high-value jobs and generating EBITDA of £183.4m. Critically, our facilities will help attract battery manufacturers to the UK (£9bn market opportunity), supporting the UK automotive industry (170,000 existing jobs).Furthermore, an EV battery recycling industry in the UK would reduce the cost of EV battery production and decrease carbon emissions compared to the use of virgin cathode materials.