November 24, 2024: UK clean technology group Altilium has announced a breakthrough in the development of the UK’s only domestic supply of sustainable low-carbon battery materials with a test confirming that the company’s recycled cathode active materials (CAM) are comparable to commercial materials.

Recycling old EV batteries and production scrap looks set to play a significant role in alleviating the shortage of raw materials needed for the energy transition and reducing the environmental impact of battery production. However, little work has been done to date to show if the performance of recycled materials can match commercial materials.

Now, results from electrochemical testing of cells produced from Altilium’s recycled CAM at its facility in Devon in southern England have shown comparable rate and cycle performance with commercially available CAM used in today’s high-nickel NMC 811 batteries. The cycle cell capacity of Altilium’s recycled CAM reached 193 mAh.g⁻¹ in testing, aligning closely with the 190-194 mAh.g⁻¹ range typical for commercial CAM, showing its equivalency.

Battery cycle testing, a vital step in the design and validation phases, involves repeated charge and discharge cycles to confirm a material’s reliability and lifespan.

“With these results, Altilium 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” said Christian Marston, Altilium co-founder and COO.

The CAM was produced as part of a collaborative research project backed by the Advanced Propulsion Centre in the UK. Atlilium produces CAM from recycled materials for production and qualification of new EV batteries.

The company’s EcoCathode process is able to recover over 95% of the critical metals, including lithium, from spent batteries, before upcycling and re-engineering them to produce modern battery chemistry materials.

Currently almost all the world’s CAM is produced in Asia.