Two British firms, Allye Energy and SYNETIQ, have partnered to establish a supply agreement for repurposed electric vehicle (EV) batteries.
The green-tech start-up, Allye, and SYNETIQ, a vehicle salvage, dismantling and recycling company, will work together to supply the nation’s MAX battery energy storage system (BESS) with battery packs, once they have reached their end-of-life.
As confirmed by Allye Energy chief operating officer (COO), Jack Levy, the batteries from SYNETIQ come from all over the UK, however they will ultimately end up at one of three specialist centres in Gloucester, Winsford or Doncaster.
Allye will then buy a certain amount of EV batteries from SYNETIQ by using its own diagnostic technology to assess and identify all usable battery packs before installing them into a BESS.
The system is compatible with multiple types of lithium-ion batteries, including nickel-manganese-cobalt (NMC) and the more recently introduced lithium iron phosphate (LFP).
Speaking exclusively to Current±, Jack Levy, Allye COO, said: “The Allye Max is the world’s first mobile BESS to combine mixed lithium-ion chemistries, with both LFP and NMC packs.
“In the future we plan to integrate solid state, as well as cobalt free lithium-ion chemistries, with an eye also on eliminating lithium all together as EVs move to sodium-ion.”
The storage system will serve as a 300kWh energy-storage-as-service product for both industrial and corporate customers, namely electric aircraft network provider AeroVolt.
UK circular economy goalpost
According to the UK government, there were more than 660,000 electric cars on the road at the end of 2022 across the UK, including 265,000 newly registered EVs, a growth of 40% on 2021.
UK research group, The Faraday Institution, estimates that 16,500 tonnes of battery packs will need to be processed by 2028, with volumes rising rapidly thereafter to about 150,000 tonnes by 2035.
The need for a domestic circular economy with EV batteries is becoming increasingly necessary in the electrification of British transport, and Allye Energy is not the first to notice. Recyclus Group, based in Wolverhampton, was the country’s first industrial-scale battery recycling facility.
It is licenced to turn 22,000 tonnes of spent lithium-ion batteries, taken from a range of sources including electric cars, each year into black mass without using water, and has a low-carbon footprint.
A project named RECOVAS, led by EMR Metal Recycling, plans to introduce a new circular supply chain for EV batteries in the UK.
RECOVAS is also backed by three major automotive firms (Bentley Motors, BMW and Jaguar Land Rover) each of whom have agreed to collaborate on the design and construction of their batteries.