UK gives green light to large scale lithium plant

Bangkok Post Group

The UK has approved the construction of the country's first large-scale lithium refinery to produce badly needed material for electric car batteries. The project, run by Green Lithium, will also be one of the first and largest in Europe. - REUTERS

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00:00 Lithium, an essential component of electric car batteries, could soon be refined in the

00:06 UK. This computer-generated video shows a plan for Britain's first large-scale lithium

00:12 refinery in north-east England. The project, run by Green Lithium, claims to have the potential

00:19 to power the electric revolution and reduce the dependence UK and European car makers

00:25 have on China and East Asia, where 89% of the world's lithium is currently refined.

00:32 "Ensuring that refining to the UK means that we've got a huge opportunity to decarbonise

00:42 the process."

00:43 Sean Sargent is the CEO of Green Lithium and outlined some of the firm's big ambitions.

00:49 "We're optimistic that when we start operating it will be at a quarter of the carbon dioxide

00:54 production of a benchmark refinery that's producing the same material in China today.

01:00 So straight away we start with a huge dividend in carbon reduction, but we're also producing

01:06 our chemicals sustainably."

01:08 So how will that sustainability be achieved? Green Lithium says it plans to use low-energy

01:14 processes, renewable electricity, hydrogen gas and carbon capture technology. It claims

01:21 by doing so its plant will have an 80% lower carbon footprint than traditional refineries.

01:28 "The fact that we're building it in Teesside where we've got access to carbon capture,

01:33 that enables blue hydrogen and ultimately several developers are looking at green hydrogen

01:38 production on the site, plus great access to renewable low-carbon electricity."

01:44 Global demand for lithium batteries is expected to surge more than five-fold by 2030, according

01:51 to public-private alliance Leebridge, as more people opt for electric vehicles and energy

01:57 storage systems. Green Lithium wants to be ready to meet that demand, with plans to have

02:03 its plant operational by 2027 and an annual production capacity of 50,000 tonnes of battery-grade

02:11 lithium chemicals. That's enough lithium to provide batteries for one million EV car

02:17 batteries.

02:18 "So really it's the growth in battery materials that's required to power the electric revolution,

02:24 the fact that we need electric vehicles, the fact that we need grid storage and domestic

02:28 storage is producing a huge demand in battery chemicals in Europe. And we think by 2030

02:34 we're going to need about 800,000 tonnes per annum."

02:38 [Street noise]

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