Marking a “pivotal achievement”, Iondrive Ltd (ASX:ION) has successfully completed large-scale bench trials that confirm the robustness and economic potential of its deep-eutectic solvent (DES) battery recycling technology.
The large-scale bench trials, conducted at the University of Adelaide, returned positive results for its DES battery recycling technology, showing high metal recoveries along with minimal solvent losses that enhance the economics.
These trials involved a 1,000x scale-up at 120g of black mass from initial small-scale trials at 120mg. These trials investigated the DES process in larger volumes to verify the scalability of the chemistry and establish an accurate mass balance to quantify solvent losses.
Black mass is a powdered mixture of the shredded anodes and cathodes containing various critical minerals, including lithium, cobalt, nickel and manganese. The prevailing methods for processing black mass are energy-intensive pyrometallurgical processes, which involve high-temperature smelting, and hydrometallurgical processes, which use acid leaching.
Iondrive’s battery recycling process utilises deep eutectic solvents (DES) and benign, biodegradable organic solvents in a nontoxic, closed-loop process. This eco-friendly method avoids toxic mineral acid leaching, ensuring a minimal environmental footprint.
The trials showed that Iondrive's DES battery recycling technology achieves very high recovery of critical minerals from lithium-ion batteries. The process was also shown to incur minimal solvent losses, which is crucial for the economic viability of the process, as solvent costs are one of the key cost drivers.
The metal recoveries have been independently verified by Independent Metallurgical Operations (IMO) in Perth.
“A significant milestone”
Iondrive CEO Dr Ebbe Dommisse said: “The independent verification of our large-scale bench trials at a 1,000x scale-up to the earlier university research is a significant milestone for Iondrive.
“It confirms that our DES battery recycling process scales effectively and maintains high metal recovery rates with minimal solvent losses.
“Our aim is to process black mass where it is needed, particularly in key markets like Europe, US and Australia. This approach aligns with the growing demand for recycled battery materials and ensures that the economic value of these critical minerals remains within these regions, rather than being lost through exporting to Asia.
“Furthermore, we convert these recovered minerals to battery-grade materials, directly supplying EV battery manufacturers. We are proud to have delivered these results as promised and are excited to continue our work towards optimising the process and advancing our pilot plant studies.”
To summarise, the large-scale trials confirmed:
- High metal recoveries - Both the University and IMO tests confirmed metal recoveries remained high demonstrating the process's efficiency in extracting critical minerals.
- Minimal solvent losses - Initial tests confirmed solvent losses were minimal, which is critical to the economic viability of the process. Further work is being undertaken in this regard.
- Scalability - The DES process chemistry scales effectively with larger volumes.
- Selectivity - Selectivity of metal separation was lower than in small-scale trials, however, the reasons for this are well understood and will be the focus of ongoing optimisation work.
Current activities & next steps
Results of the large-scale bench trials provide a robust foundation for ongoing optimisation work that’s essential for the design and costing of a commercial-scale plant.
This work will feed into engineering and economic studies that will be part of the pre-feasibility study’s (PFS) techno-economic analysis — a precursor to the pilot plant study.
The PFS activities seek to de-risk the technical, commercialisation and execution paths and build upon a global market study which concluded Iondrive’s DES recycling technology offers a unique environmental value proposition compared to incumbent technologies. PFS activities remain on track for completion by October 2024.
A successful PFS will clear the way for greater industry collaboration and progression to a pilot plant in FY2025.
Large-scale optimisation trials are now underway at the University of Adelaide, focusing on refining the DES process and further enhancing its efficiency. These trials aim to also confirm the minimal solvent losses from the previous large-scale trials. The ongoing trials will provide valuable data for the upcoming pilot plant studies.
The validated results, along with the data from the optimisation trials, will guide the following engineering studies being conducted as part of the PFS: