Lithium Australia strengthens intellectual property protection for battery recycling breakthroughs

Lithium Australia NL (ASX:LIT) has filed two provisional Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) applications relating to the recycling of battery materials, in particular lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) The first application involves the recovery of electrode materials and electrolyte from spent LIBs and the second the selective separation of mixed metal sulphates. These processes are ideal for the efficient recycling of end-of-life electric vehicle batteries in that they generate high-value chemicals for return to the circular battery economy. “Accelerating commercialisation” Lithium Australia managing director Adrian Griffin said the company was in a strong position to accelerate commercialisation of its technologies after the recent successful capital raising of $4.5 million. He said: “Lithium Australia, through its recycling subsidiary Envirostream Australia Pty Ltd, is a leader in the field of battery recycling technologies. “The first of those has already been implemented on a commercial scale at our Melbourne processing plant. “These technical advances are timely, in that they coincide with the introduction of a national battery stewardship scheme designed to divert batteries from landfill, thereby increasing the quantities of spent batteries available for recycling.” Extraction of cathode materials The PCT application entitled ‘Process for recovering values from batteries’ (Australian Provisional Patent Application 2020902848) relates to processes for the recovery of electrode materials from LIBs. For example, this includes electrode material comprising a cathode material and/or an anode material, such as a mixed metal dust, as well as recovery of the electrolyte. Extraction of critical battery metals The provisional patent application ‘Process for recovering metal values from process liquors’ (Australian Provisional Patent Application 2020902849) relates to processes for the selective recovery of mixed metal sulphates, for example; a mixed cobalt-nickel sulphate from a metal sulphate process liquor.