Europe’s first lithium refinery is aiming for production of lithium hydroxide with the lowest possible environmental impact.
The partnership between sustainable supply chain provider Circulor and cleantech company Rock Tech Lithium will provide supply chain provenance and emissions traceability for the plant in Brandenburg, which is expected to produce 24,000 metric tons of lithium hydroxide a year – enough for the batteries of half a million electric vehicles.
Circulor’s work will precede the EU’s battery regulation, which takes effect as early as 2024. “A sustainable and resilient raw material supply chain is increasingly important to our automotive customers, and we are proud to work with Rock Tech to deliver their product with clear proof of origin and embedded CO2 emissions,” said CEO and founder Douglas Johnson-Poensgen.
“As the automotive industry prepares for the EU Battery Directive and battery passport provisions, we’re very pleased to support Rock Tech in pioneering low-carbon, European-produced lithium hydroxide.”
Rock Tech Lithium CEO Markus Brügmann added: “With the holistic documentation of our value chain, we create a decisive added value for our customers.
“Customers have information about the origin and life cycle assessment of our lithium hydroxide at all times. Based on the work of Circulor and Fraunhofer UMSICHT, Rock Tech will create a material passport for its product.”
Dr Ilka Gehrke, of Fraunhofer UMSICHT which is also collaborating on the project, explained: “We will carry out the life cycle assessment (LCA) of Rock Tech’s production processes. Extensive collection and analysis of their data not only allows Rock Tech to make the production of lithium hydroxide more sustainable, but also supports them in implementing subsequent process optimizations in the most energy and environmentally friendly way possible.”
Fraunhofer UMSICHT specialises in climate neutral energy systems and circular products, and is part of Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft, Europe’s largest organization for applied research and development services.
The Rock Tech and Circulor partnership also entails traceability and CO2 tracking for Rock Tech’s planned recycling at the facility, aiming to become Europe’s first closed loop supplier of lithium hydroxide. Currently, only one percent of lithium from batteries is recycled worldwide. By 2030, Rock Tech Lithium aims to achieve 50 percent of its materials to come from recycled batteries.
