The funding has been awarded through the UK Government’s DRIVE35 Scale-Up Fund, delivered by the Department for Business and Trade in partnership with the Advanced Propulsion Centre UK and Innovate UK.
It is expected to go towards the development of Altilium’s ACT3 plant, which will be located in Plymouth, Devon.
Christian Marston, Chief Operating Officer at Altilium, commented: “This funding marks a pivotal moment for Altilium and for the UK’s battery ecosystem.
“By scaling our recycling technology and building the UK’s first commercial facility of its kind, we are closing the loop on battery materials and enhancing the growth, productivity and competitiveness of the UK automotive supply chain.
“We are grateful to the APC and the UK Government for this strong vote of confidence in our technology, our team and our role in building a domestic, circular battery supply chain.”
Industrial-scale EV battery recycling facility
The ACT3 facility will have the capacity to process 24,000 EV batteries per year once operational.
Refurbishment of the building begin in April 2025, with construction of the recycling plant scheduled to begin in summer 2026 and commissioning targeted for the end of 2027.
At full capacity, the plant is expected to produce a range of battery intermediates critical for next-generation battery manufacturing. These include approximately 5,200 tonnes of nickel mixed hydroxide precipitate (MHP) 8,000 tonnes of lithium sulphate and 5,400 tonnes of graphite each year – which are all used to produce lithium-ion batteries.
The project is also set to deliver around 70 new jobs in Plymouth, which is already home to Altilium’s existing pilot-scale hydrometallurgical recycling facility.
Testing ground for ACT4 facility
The ACT3 plant represents the industrial-scale rollout of Altilium’s proprietary hydrometallurgical recycling process. This technology has already been validated at pilot scale, where it has successfully produced battery-grade materials for cell manufacturing trials.
These trials have been conducted under previous programmes supported by the Advanced Propulsion Centre UK, including collaborations with automotive manufacturers such as Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) and Nissan.
It also lays the groundwork for Altilium’s planned ACT4 facility in Teesside, which will aim to process up to 150,000 EV batteries per year.
The £18.5 million grant is anticipated to unlock further private investment into the business.
To date, Altilium has secured more than £17 million in private funding, including strategic backing from global partners such as SQM, Marubeni Corporation and Mizuho Bank.
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