Iondrive Ltd (ASX:ION) has received a cash injection of $406,364 from the Australian Government’s Research and Development (R&D) tax incentive scheme for the year ending June 30, 2024.
The funding strengthens ION’s cash position, offering further capital support for development of the company’s sustainable Deep Eutectic Solvent (DES) battery recycling technology.
The cash will support the development of ION’s pilot plant, as well as ongoing R&D efforts to scale the technology toward commercialisation.
Economically viable, environmentally sustainable
“This R&D rebate allows us to accelerate the development of our DES recycling technology, bringing us closer to commercialising an innovative, sustainable solution for battery recycling,” Iondrive CEO Dr Ebbe Dommisse said.
“The funding supports our ongoing efforts to deliver a process that recovers critical minerals from spent lithium-ion batteries, reducing the need for virgin metals from mining and helping to lower the overall environmental impact.”
ION believes its technology offers several environmental and economic advantages over other battery recycling technologies, including:
- Environmental sustainability: The DES process has a much smaller environmental footprint by using benign organic solvents with lower waste and energy consumption than traditional methods like pyrometallurgy and hydrometallurgy processes that use strong toxic mineral acids.
- Economic efficiency: The recycling and re-use of DES and organic solvents, and reduced energy consumption contribute to lower operational costs.
- High metal recoveries: Iondrive’s trials have demonstrated high recovery rates for critical battery metals, supporting the scalability of the technology.
The company intends to position itself as a leader in the sustainable recycling of critical battery metals with its proprietary DES technology.