Battery Materials R&D Centre of Excellence, UK: Validating the lithium refining process flowsheet and designing a facility for rapid scale up

快速增长的电池-电动汽车(EV)和存储行业要求电池生产迅速升级。电池供应链包括正极活性材料(CAM)制造商、正极制造商、电池制造商(千兆工厂)和汽车原始设备制造商(OEM)，这些制造商必须紧急确保上游锂化学品供应。英国和欧盟目前依赖中国精炼锂化学品进口，导致重大价格和数量不确定性。陆上锂精炼对于满足欧洲2030年电动汽车每年约80万吨的需求至关重要，而能源储存的需求并未广泛纳入预测。绿色锂计划在蒂赛德建造世界上第一座扩大规模的锂工厂。它的放大工厂将是一个介于中试和大型工业设施之间的中型商业规模运营。扩大规模的工厂将采用低碳“碱浸”湿法冶金工艺，从原料阿尔法锂辉石精矿(一种含锂矿物)生产一水氢氧化锂。

The fast-growing battery-electric vehicle (EV) and storage industries demand battery production upscales rapidly. Battery supply chains include cathode-active-material (CAM) manufacturers, cathode manufacturers, battery manufacturers (gigafactories) and automotive original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), which must urgently secure upstream lithium chemical supplies.The UK and EU currently depend on Chinese refined lithium chemical imports, driving major price and volume uncertainty. Onshore lithium refining is essential to meet the c.800,000 tonne per annum European 2030 demand from EVs, with demand from energy storage not widely factored into forecasts.Green Lithium plans to build the world's first lithium scale-up plant in Teesside. Its Scale-Up Plant will be an intermediate-sized, commercial-scale operation sitting between pilot-scale and large-scale industrial facility. The Scale-Up Plant will deploy the low-carbon 'alkali-leach' hydrometallurgy process for producing lithium hydroxide monohydrate from raw material alpha-spodumene concentrate, a lithium-bearing mineral.