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Altilium and Connected Energy have announced a strategic collaboration aimed at extending the lifecycle of electric vehicle (EV) batteries. This partnership highlights their commitment to sustainability by combining Altilium’s expertise in battery recycling with Connected Energy’s development of second-life battery energy storage systems.
Key Highlights:
- Strategic collaboration between Altilium and Connected Energy to extend EV battery lifecycle.
- Focus on sustainability and reducing environmental impact.
- Altilium’s EcoCathode™ process recovers over 95% of battery metals, reducing carbon emissions by 60%.
- Repurposing EV batteries extends their life by up to ten years.
- Recycling end-of-life batteries ensures valuable resources remain in the UK supply chain.
- Support for UK’s net-zero emissions goal by 2050.
Connected Energy designs and develops energy storage systems using second-life EV batteries, while Altilium pioneers EV battery recycling, processing end-of-life EV batteries and manufacturing scrap to produce low-carbon cathode active materials (CAM) for direct reuse in new batteries.
Under this agreement, Altilium and Connected Energy will collaborate to develop sustainable and environmentally responsible business models for the repurposing and recycling of EV batteries. This brings value to both companies as well as battery manufacturers and automotive OEMs. They also aim to establish responsible repurposing and recycling protocols, to be adopted as industry-wide standards, following the waste hierarchy principles of reuse, repurpose, and recycle.
Repurposing EV batteries in stationary systems can extend their life by up to ten years, delivering significant environmental and circular economy benefits. Once these batteries reach the end of their second life, they can then be recycled, and the critical minerals recovered for reuse in the production of new batteries, ensuring that valuable resources remain in the UK supply chain.
Altilium has already received its first batch of batteries from Connected Energy, which will be processed at the company’s state-of-the-art recycling facilities in Devon. Using its EcoCathode™ recycling process, Altilium can recover over 95% of the battery metals, including lithium, in a format that can be directly reused in the production of new batteries. This process also results in a 60% reduction in carbon emissions and 20% lower costs compared to virgin materials, paving the way for the production of more affordable and cleaner EVs.
Rod Savage, Program Director, End-of-Life Batteries at Altilium, commented: “We’re excited to be working with Connected Energy to advance our shared vision of a circular economy for EV batteries. This collaboration is further demonstration of Altilium’s commitment to ensuring the responsible management of end-of-life EV batteries, working with best-in-class partners across the value chain to support the growth of the entire battery ecosystem.”
Matthew Lumsden, CEO of Connected Energy, added: “Over the next five years, we will see a rapid increase in the availability of used EV batteries. As an industry, it is critical that we work together to ensure that we move batteries through the value chain in a way that minimizes their environmental impact whilst maximizing their financial value. This collaboration is an important step in creating a model for true battery circularity.”
Connected Energy’s storage systems are increasingly used across the UK and Europe for applications such as supporting EV charging hubs, cutting energy bills, balancing the grid, and maximizing the return on investment from solar arrays. Giving their batteries a second life enables EV manufacturers and other battery owners to further monetize their batteries for several years before they are recycled.
Through this collaboration, Connected Energy hopes to capture more of the residual value of these spent batteries once they reach the end of their second life, while Altilium will gain more visibility of available feedstock for its recycling facilities, including its planned Teesside refinery (ACT 4). The plant will have the capacity to recycle waste batteries from 150,000 EVs a year, producing 30,000 MT of CAM, enough to meet 20% of the expected UK demand by 2030.
Both companies are already part of a £30.1 million Nissan-led project, backed by the Advanced Propulsion Centre, aimed at strengthening the UK’s capabilities in EV battery reuse, recycling, and grid balancing. By promoting the reuse and recycling of EV batteries, Altilium and Connected Energy are helping to build a circular economy for EV batteries in the UK, reducing the UK’s reliance on imported materials and decreasing the carbon footprint associated with battery production and disposal. This, in turn, supports the UK’s goals to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050.
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