Technology Minerals, the company developing the UK’s first sustainable circular economy for battery metals, is delighted to announce that its subsidiary, the battery-recycling company Recyclus Group Ltd, in which the Group has a substantial economic interest, will take delivery of a lead acid battery breaker which is currently being shipped from Brazil. The breaker will arrive in the UK in mid-September 2021 and will become operational in the first quarter of 2022.
The breaker’s final destination will be Recyclus’s plant in the UK Midlands, where Recyclus will use the breaker, a chemical processor, to separate the various lead elements, battery acids and plastics for re-use. The plant will industrialise what is traditionally a labour intensive market, and will target a ‘zero to landfill’ and ‘zero to incinerator’ strategy for used lead acid battery stock.
Recyclus is on the forefront of both lithium-ion and lead acid battery recycling, and the breaker will add new capabilities for Recyclus with regard to the latter technology. The breaker allows Recyclus to take advantage of the burgeoning demand for lead-acid batteries through the retrieval, recycling and repurposing of used battery stock.
We have the opportunity to use hydrometallurgical processes to reduce the carbon footprint of lead-acid batteries by 85%, cut slag by over 90%, and recycle the plastics as well as the lead within these batteries to help meet increased demand
Alex Stanbury, CEO of Technology Minerals and Director of Recyclus, said that: “The lead battery market, globally, will reach US$95bn by 2026, and with a continued demand for vehicles this will increase. In the UK, the lead-acid battery recycling industry is also a major polluter. Spent lead-acid batteries are incinerated, and 18,000 tonnes are produced each year in the UK. We have the opportunity to use hydrometallurgical processes to reduce the carbon footprint of lead-acid batteries by 85%, cut slag by over 90%, and recycle the plastics as well as the lead within these batteries to help meet increased demand. Our new plant on order from Brazil will help us to achieve those targets, and we look forward to having it fully operational by the first quarter of 2022.
“Recyclus is an important strategic and financial asset for the Group and was established to take advantage of the growing need for more lithium-ion and lead-acid batteries through retrieval, recycling and repurposing of used battery stock from collection points; as well as from large user waste directly and from other nodes like online recycling networks.”