As extra individuals select electrical automobiles, the UK faces an issue: most battery supplies come from abroad, particularly China. As a result of there may be little recycling and refining carried out regionally, it’s tougher to maintain issues sustainable and safe. Altilium, a clear know-how firm began in Plymouth in 2020, desires to assist resolve this.
The corporate obtained £18.5 million from the UK authorities’s DRIVE35 Scale-Up Fund, together with help from the Advanced Propulsion Centre UK and Innovate UK. This cash will assist construct ACT3, a big EV battery recycling plant in Plymouth. If it really works as deliberate, it will likely be the primary plant within the UK in a position to get well necessary minerals from used EV batteries on a big scale.
The DRIVE35 grant is the biggest authorities award Altilium has obtained up to now. The corporate has additionally gotten funding from the Faraday Establishment’s Battery Problem and the Automotive Transformation Fund. The £18.5 million grant is an element of a bigger £138.1 million bundle from the Division for Enterprise and Commerce to assist the UK automotive provide chain innovate.
When ACT3 opens, it would course of as much as 24,000 batteries annually. It would produce a nickel combined hydroxide precipitate (MHP), lithium sulphate, and graphite, all of that are wanted to make new batteries. The plant ought to create round 70 expert jobs in Plymouth, the place Altilium already runs its ACT2 pilot plant, which opened in late 2025.
Every year, ACT3 is predicted to supply about 5,200 tonnes of nickel combined hydroxide precipitate (MHP), 8,000 tonnes of lithium sulphate (roughly 1,000 tonnes per yr LCE), and 5,400 tonnes of graphite for battery anodes.
ACT3 is meant as a stepping stone. The principle strategic aim is ACT4, a large-scale facility deliberate for Teesside that may be among the many largest EV battery recycling crops in Europe. This plant would course of scrap from over 150,000 EVs yearly and produce 30,000 metric tonnes of cathode lively supplies, which the corporate says may meet about 20% of the UK’s battery wants by 2030.
