Australia storage start-up applies for li-ion battery recycling patents

ASX-listed energy storage hopeful Lithium Australia has filed two patent applications for the battery recycling processes used by its majority owned Envirostream Australia at its recycling plant in Victoria.

Lithium Australia said the Patent Cooperation Treaty applications covered Envirostream’s recycling processes for lithium-ion batteries and ongoing R&D of “value-adds” from the downstream processing of critical battery metals.

The company said the first patent application described a size-selective process for recovering electrode material from lithium-ion batteries, including as a mixed metal material “dust” made up of both cathode and anode powders.

In May last year, Envirostream successfully completed a trial testing mixed metal dust recovered from recycled alkaline batteries for use as plant fertiliser in a glasshouse setting. At the time, the company said the results were “encouraging enough” to commit to the next stage of assessment.

The second patent application described processes for the selective recovery of mixed metal sulphates (such as a mixed cobalt-nickel sulphate) from a metal sulphate process liquor following leaching of mixed metal material (MMD) recovered from lithium-ion batteries.

In a statement accompanying the patents announcement, Lithium Australia managing director Adrian Griffin said the group was “acutely aware of its environmental footprint” and could no longer afford to discard any products to landfill.

“We have developed unique processes to deal with battery waste and invite like-minded industry participants to work with us in improving the sustainability of our consumer-based society,” Griffin said.

Envirostream, which is 90 per cent owned by Lithium Australia, is a trail-blazer in this country for its progress on commercial battery recycling, including the launch of the nation’s first lithium-ion battery recycling plant New Gisbourne, Victoria, in April 2018.

At that time, the $2 million facility, which began operations the year before, had recycled 240,000 kilograms of batteries that would otherwise have gone to landfill, or been shipped to China for processing.

Lithium Australia, meanwhile, has been working to become a contender in the global battery storage market and establish itself as an end-to-end provider of lithium battery technologies.

The company holds a range of exploration rights to prospective lithium supplies throughout Australia, a key ingredient in modern battery storage technologies, as well as strategic partnerships with battery manufacturers and battery recycling providers.