Altilium, a UK-based clean technology company, has announced a significant advancement in EV battery recycling. New research from Imperial College London confirms that recycled cathode active materials (CAM) can match or even outperform the performance of virgin mined materials, marking a crucial step toward establishing a circular economy for electric vehicle batteries.
The findings reveal that Altilium’s recycled CAM offers superior purity, morphology, and electrochemical performance when compared to commercially mined materials.
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The company’s EcoCathode™ process recovers over 95% of critical metals, providing a sustainable domestic supply of materials for UK battery manufacturers. Extensive electrochemical testing at Altilium’s ACT1 facility in Devon demonstrated that its recycled materials outperform high-nickel NMC 811 batteries in terms of battery performance.
Recycled CAM materials provide several benefits, including longer battery life, faster charging, and reduced production costs. Higher purity and optimized particle size result in enhanced stability and cycling efficiency. Altilium’s efforts to scale up recycling operations include the development of a new facility in Teesside, which is expected to become one of Europe’s largest battery recycling plants. The facility will process scrap from 150,000 EVs annually and supply 30,000 metric tons of CAM, covering 20% of the UK’s battery material needs by 2030.
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Altilium’s breakthrough in recycling positions recycled CAM as a key enabler for the next generation of EV batteries, helping reduce reliance on imported virgin materials and accelerating the transition to more sustainable mobility solutions.