UK clean technology company Altilium says its recycled cathode active materials (CAM) samples have shown rate and cycle performance matching commercially available materials.

Electrochemical testing of cells produced with the recycled CAM returned a cycle cell capacity of 193 milliampere-hours per gram mass (mAh.g-1), in line with the 190-194 mAh.g-1 range typical for commercial CAM.

Altilium produced the CAM at its ACT1 facility in Devon, England, using its proprietary EcoCathode recycling process, which can recover over 95% of the critical metals including lithium. High-nickel NCM 811 (nickel cobalt manganese oxide) batteries were then manufactured through a partnership with the UK Battery Industrialisation Centre (UKBIC) for validation with Jaguar Land Rover.

The battery cycle testing involved repeated charge and discharge cycles to confirm the material’s reliability and lifespan. The company says X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis confirmed the structure of its CAM remains “indistinguishable from commercial variants.”

“With these results, Altilium has shown recycled battery metals can perform as well as virgin metals and that critical minerals are essentially the same whether they come from a mine or an old EV battery,” comments company’s co-founder and chief operating officer, Christian Marston. “We have shown there is no need to compromise on performance, with the additional sustainability benefits of using recycled materials.”

Altilium says its CAM could reduce greenhouse gas emissions by up to 74%, compared to primary raw materials from a Chinese supply chain. The company is working to scale up its pilot CAM production with a new recycling facility in Plymouth, before stepping up to commercial scale at its planned recycling plant in Teesside. The latter is planned to produce 30,000 tonnes/year of CAM, processing 50,000 t/y of black mass.

Marston said in a recent interview with Kallanish that UKBIC would produce 100 cells for validation with local carmakers.