IGO suspends annual dividends from Tianqi JV amid market downturn
The JV experienced a build in lithium hydroxide inventory at Kwinana over recent months.
European battery producer InoBat Auto has announced its ‘green battery ecosystem’ for Europe, as the race to develop and produce the best and ‘greenest’ electric vehicle (EV) batteries heats up.
InoBat’s AI-driven R&D battery production centre, which was recently approved by the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA), is the first stage of the company’s green battery ecosystem, which begins with discovering and developing better performing, and more environmentally friendly cell chemistries more efficiently.
Inobat said this can be achieved through a patented combination of artificial intelligence (AI) and high throughput (HTP) technology, which allows for large numbers of different battery cell chemistries to be tested and improved simultaneously under one roof in InoBat’s battery centre in Slovakia.
InoBat Recycling will complete the sustainable battery ecosystem by reclaiming more essential raw materials like lithium from used batteries
InoBat is also tackling EV battery recycling issues with the launch of InoBat Recycling. Through ‘hydrometallurgy’ recycling technology, InoBat Recycling will complete the sustainable battery ecosystem by reclaiming more essential raw materials like lithium from used batteries than standard recycling processes, creating a patented sustainable technology-led solution for Europe.
Hydrometallurgy recycling sees used battery cells dissolved in acid to leave the desired useful metals within a solution, which is refined into active materials for new cells, thereby cutting dependence on sourcing raw materials, and closing the loop on the lithium-ion supply chain.
This recycling process will be fulfilled through a partnership with battery recycling company Primobius. InoBat will deploy a state-of-the-art hydrometallurgical process to recycle batteries from the company’s €100 million, 100MWh R&D centre before scaling up the recycling process to its €1 billion, 10GWh Gigafactory in 2025, which will have the potential to provide 240,000 EVs with batteries in 2025. Until now, the majority of battery recycling has focused on pyrometallurgical techniques, which Inobat said is more wasteful and destroys vital raw materials like lithium in the process.
“We are committed to not only discovering and producing the best possible batteries for the EV market, but also to ensuring we produce better batteries for a greener world by using the most advanced technology for recycling,” InoBat CEO Marian Bocek said in a media release.
“Without Europe’s own sustainable battery ecosystem, there is a risk that Europe’s EV market will fall further behind and become a production workshop for Chinese and Korean producers.”
