Battery Materials R&D Centre of Excellence, Tees Valley: Testing and selecting an innovative, low-carbon, lithium pyrometallurgy solution for deployment

Comprising two local collaborators, the consortium will build upon existing proof-of-concept work undertaken by the project lead:

* **Green Lithium** (lead): Teesside-based emerging expert in the lithium-ion battery supply chain, with extensive lithium processing design/testing experience from its full-scale lithium plant (Full-Scale Plant).
* **Materials Processing Institute** (MPI) (collaborator): Middlesbrough-based, world-leading minerals processing research body, experienced in thermal processes on minerals, providing expertise and physical trial facilities provision.

**Market opportunity**

The fast-growing battery-electric vehicle (EV) and storage industries demand battery production upscales rapidly. Battery supply chains include cathode-active-material (CAM) manufacturers, cathode manufacturers, battery manufacturers (gigafactories) and automotive original-equipment manufacturers (OEMs), which must secure upstream lithium chemical supplies.

The UK/EU currently depend on Chinese refined lithium chemical imports, driving major price/volume uncertainty. Onshore lithium refining is essential to meet the c.800,000tonne-per-annum (tpa) European 2030 demand from EVs, with unforecasted demand from energy-storage \[_source:BechmarkMineralIntelligence,2022_\].

**Significance**

Helping retain first-mover advantage, Green Lithium plans to build the world's first scale-up lithium plant in Teesside (Scale-Up Plant), deploying the alkali-leach hydrometallurgy process for lithium hydroxide monohydrate production.

Preparing raw material for hydrometallurgy requires decrepitation of lithium-bearing mineral alpha-spodumene concentrate (spodumene) to beta-spodumene through calcination, an energy-intensive pyrometallurgy process where spodumene is heated to high temperature and circulated to achieve consistent thermal-energy penetration.

Based on Green Lithium's previous life-cycle assessment (LCA), low-energy, clean-energy calcining can lead to a 41% reduction in carbon emissions \[_source:Minviro,2022_\] \[_see:Q4-Appendix_\]. Green Lithium's goal is to produce carbon-net-zero lithium. That is only achievable through deployment of electrified or hydrogen-enabled pyrometallurgy processes, which do not exist at scale today.

**Innovation**

Green Lithium's Scale-Up Plant process flowsheet already has clearly defined second-stage 'alkali-leach' hydrometallurgy and third-stage crystallisation requirements.

However, its first-stage pyrometallurgy has greater optionality, with various potentially low-carbon options available. These remain untested ahead of selection. This project therefore accelerates Green Lithium's Scale-Up Plant development by testing which low-carbon pyrometallurgy equipment should be deployed to target net-zero emissions and meet lithium production requirements, namely second-stage hydrometallurgy input requirements.

Competitors have not sought to deploy lithium scale-up plants; this project will help keep UK-based Green Lithium ahead of international competition by enabling development of its world-first Scale-Up Plant.

**Outcome**

This 12-month industrial research project, leading to key Scale-Up Plant pyrometallurgy equipment selection and process design, will drive significant export and profitability growth over a 5-year launch period, stimulating substantive Scale-Up Plant-specific revenues (£46.0m), UK R&D investment (£3.4m), and 13.0 new FTEs operating the plant.