Breakthrough in UK production of large-scale battery-grade lithium carbonate

Watercycle Technologies, a climate tech spin-out from the University of Manchester specialising in the development of sustainable mineral recovery systems, has produced more than 100kg of battery-grade lithium carbonate from UK-sourced brines.

It is seen as a boost for the UK’s electric vehicle industry, which uses lithium in the manufacturing process.

It extracted +100kg lithium carbonate from UK brines with >99.5% purity using proprietary Direct Lithium Extraction and Crystallisation (DLEC) technology at its pilot plant in Runcorn.

The achievement demonstrates Watercycle’s ability to scale its processes for industrial applications, it said.

The enterprise will be scaling up to multi-ton production in the next six months. It is one of the first systems in Europe capable of producing significant quantities of high-purity lithium carbonate crystals onsite.

Watercycle said this result represents a major achievement towards building a robust battery innovation ecosystem in the UK and developing a globally competitive battery minerals supply chain.

The growth of the global electric vehicle market is building pressure on the supply of battery minerals like lithium and the UK’s 100% reliance on imports of the mineral represent a strategic risk.

Priority is now given to strengthening regional supply chains and fostering domestic job growth, reflecting the growing role of geopolitics in shaping energy policy.

Creating a homegrown supply of refined lithium products is, therefore, critical to supporting the UK’s Net Zero transition.

Dr Ahmed Abdelkarim, CTO and co-founder, said: “These results mark yet another technological breakthrough by our DLEC technology, one of the first in Europe to produce such quantities of lithium carbonate crystals.

“We understand our customers’ need to obtain this product more efficiently, so we’ve designed our end-to-end solution to meet this demand.

“With the ability to generate refined lithium carbonate onsite, our technology offers customers the ability to capture more of the value chain. We are now positioning ourselves to supply lithium salts at the ton-scale for OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) and chemical suppliers.”

Dr Seb Leaper, CEO and co-founder, said: “Thank you to all our partners who have supplied us with brine and enabled us to hit this exciting milestone.

“In particular, I’d like to thank Innovate UK, Cornish Lithium and HTS Group, without whose support, the production of our pilot would not have been possible.

“Together we are making great strides towards securing a sustainable circular supply of critical raw materials here in the UK.”