Watercycle Technologies has secured two UK Government grants for separate projects focused on scaling UK lithium production and developing new battery recycling technology.
The company has secured £3 million in grant funding towards a £6 million project to establish a demonstration-scale manufacturing line capable of recovering and refining lithium from waste streams for use in electric vehicle batteries.
The 36-month ReLiVE project, funded through the DRIVE35 Scale Up Fund, will use Watercycle’s proprietary DLEC™ technology to recover lithium from sources including industrial wastewater and materials arising from battery recycling, refining it into high-purity lithium salts suitable for battery production.
Separately, Watercycle has secured £1 million in grant funding for CAMCYCLE, a £2 million project to demonstrate a new approach to recycling lithium-ion batteries and producing new battery materials in the UK.
Funded through the DRIVE35 Innovation Fund: Demonstrate 2 competition, the 12-month project is led by Watercycle and supported by CPI. It will develop a shorter and more efficient route for turning end-of-life batteries into recycled cathode active material (CAM), a critical component of EV batteries.
Both awards form part of the UK Government’s DRIVE35 programme, delivered in partnership with the Advanced Propulsion Centre UK and Innovate UK.
Watercycle Technologies is a University of Manchester spinout developing technologies to recover critical minerals and clean water from waste streams, supporting more circular and resilient UK supply chains.
To find out more about, visit www.watercycletechnologies.com.
