Australian battery recycling start-up given $8 million to scale tech

Perth-based company Renewable Metals has been given $8 million in funding to scale up its new battery recycling technology.

The money has been invested by the Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC), through companies Virescent Ventures and Investible.

Renewable Metals says can extract over 95% of the lithium, as well as high amounts of nickel, cobalt, copper and manganese from lithium-ion batteries without having to finely grind the batteries into a substance called ‘black mass’.

The process – which uses an alkali-based leach instead of acid – recovered more minerals, is less energy and chemically intensive, can be used for harder to recycle lithium iron phosphate batteries, and produces less byproducts.

“Usually what companies will do is use sulfuric acid, then they need to add something like sodium hydroxide to neutralise the acid,” said Renewable Metals CEO Luan Atkinson.

“When they do that, they create sodium sulphate. Usually there’ll be 1.5 tonnes of sodium sulphate produced for every tonne of battery being recycled, which is really significant.”

“Our process doesn’t produce any chemically precipitated byproducts.”

The funds will be used to continue running a pilot plant in Perth, WA, and speed up the construction of a larger demonstration plant which can recycle 1,500 tonnes of battery waste a year. Atkinson told RenewEconomy that the team are hoping to have the demonstration plant up and running in about 12 months.

According to the CSIRO, Australia produced about 3,300 tonnes of lithium-ion battery waste in 2020 but this has probably already expanded.

Research done earlier this year by the University of Technology Sydney and commissioned by the Battery Stewardship Council found that 30,000 tonnes of used electric vehicle batteries will enter the waste stream in Australia by 2030.

“Based on conversations we’ve had with people in the industry, we think that there should be enough to feed the 1500 tonne per annum plant,” said Atkinson.

“Then scale up to between 5,000 and 15,000 towards the back end of the decade, to meet the volume that’s coming.”

Currently, most of Australia’s battery waste that doesn’t end up in landfill is turned into black mass in Australia before being shipped overseas. Refining it in Australia could double or triple the value of the product.

“Battery recycling that extracts valuable metals and materials is an important part of building Australia’s circular economy as demand for batteries grows,” said Virescent Ventures Partner, Blair Pritchard.

“By developing end-of-life battery systems, Australia can participate across the battery value chain, from critical minerals extraction, refining, processing operation and maintenance and the eventual repurposing and recycling of batteries and components.”

In the next few years the world will likely see more of a shortage of lithium and other critical minerals as more EVs and battery storage are required to transistion away from fossil fuels.

While recycling batteries over and over again in a circular system will be critical in the coming decades, an infinite loop of battery use and recycling is still a while away yet.

“Funding for Renewable Metals is the kind of thing the CEFC was made for, giving Australian companies a boost and helping finance clean energy innovation and groundbreaking technology as the world transforms to a net zero economy,” says Minister for Climate Change and Energy, Chris Bowen.

“Battery recycling is good for jobs and the environment. It’s projected to grow to be a $3 billion industry, meaning plenty of jobs in handling, transporting and recycling across Australia.”

Renewable Metals won the inaugural Supercharge Australia Award earlier this year.