United Kingdom – ABB and Altilium, a UK-based clean technology group, have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to jointly explore how the integration of automation, electrification, and digital technologies in plants across Europe can support the scaling up of battery materials recycling.
Altilium is developing green processing technologies and building infrastructure at scale for the recycling of metals and electric vehicle (EV) battery waste, with the aim of ensuring a domestic supply chain of low-carbon battery materials for the automotive industry.
ABB will introduce the design and delivery of control systems equipment and solutions for the distribution and management of electrical power for Altilium’s UK pilot battery recycling scheme, which will produce battery-ready cathode active material (CAM) from used EV batteries. The global technology leader will also explore the use of its ABB Manufacturing Operations Management (MOM) and Manufacturing Execution System (MES) digital applications. Such integrated automation standardizes and optimizes processes with intuitive interfaces and edge data collection.
Commercial plants
The two companies plan to extend their work into commercial plants. This includes the retrofit of Altilium’s European Solvent Extraction-Electrowinning (SX-EW) facility in Eastern Europe, which will start processing battery waste in 2024; and development of a planned UK plant in Teesside from 2026 that will create 20 per cent of the country’s required CAM, making it one of the largest projects in the region.
ABB’s technology and approach will allow Altilium to speed up its time to market, supporting the provision of scalable solutions as the company expands its operations, and will significantly reduce the carbon footprint of EV batteries.
The partnership between ABB and Altilium has the potential to revolutionize the battery recycling industry in Europe. By combining their expertise in automation, electrification, and digital technologies with Altilium’s green processing technologies, the two companies can help to scale up battery materials recycling and reduce the carbon footprint of EV batteries.
