UK battery recycling company Altilium said it has been awarded 18.5 million pounds ($24.1 million) in grant funding from the UK government to support construction of a battery recycling facility in Plymouth.
The funding was awarded through the DRIVE35 Scale-Up Fund, delivered by the UK Department for Business and Trade in partnership with the Advanced Propulsion Centre UK and Innovate UK, the company said.
Altilium said the planned ACT3 facility will process up to 24,000 end-of-life electric vehicle batteries annually and recover battery materials including nickel mixed hydroxide precipitate, lithium sulphate and graphite.
Construction is expected to begin in summer 2026, with commissioning targeted for the end of 2027.
Once operational, the facility is expected to produce about 5,200 tonnes per year of nickel mixed hydroxide precipitate, 8,000 tonnes per year of lithium sulphate and 5,400 tonnes per year of graphite, according to the company.
“This funding marks a pivotal moment for Altilium and for the UK’s battery ecosystem,” Christian Marston, chief operating officer of Altilium, said in a statement.
The company said the project is expected to create 70 jobs in Plymouth and support development of its planned ACT4 recycling plant in Teesside.
Altilium said its hydrometallurgical recycling technology can recover more than 95% of cathode and anode materials from battery waste.
The UK government’s DRIVE35 programme is part of a broader automotive industry support package aimed at funding research, industrial scale-up and manufacturing transformation through 2035.
