Purpose led to leave our planet in a better place
WE ARE BUILDING A SUSTAINABLE LITHIUM REFINERY.
With a strong focus on environmental sustainability, ours is a low-carbon refining flowsheet which clearly differentiates us from conventional resource-intensive and carbon-intensive processes. Beyond process flowsheet selection, we're aiming to do all we can to minimise emissions from our refinery process. Our ability to deliver these results is unlocked by our presence in the low-carbon location that is the North East of England.
While we plan for some of our electricity to be solar or wind generated on-site, most will be purchased from third-party utility suppliers. We will therefore enter into green power purchase agreements for the supply of power to the plant. Our gas mix will progressively move towards 100% green hydrogen, which we target reaching by 2035.
We also have a no-waste ambition. In 2024, we had a UK patent published for sustainable re-use of our process byproduct. This has the potential to decarbonise an adjacent industrial sector.
Our key sustainability enablers
Low-carbon refining process
Utilising an alkali-leach process flowsheet, as opposed the more energy intensive acid-leach processes deployed by existing global refineries
Renewable electricity sourcing
Using increasingly available UK renewable electricity, rather than electricity generated from burning fossil fuels, to deliver power to our facility
Hydrogen gas adoption
Sourcing the green hydrogen available in North East England rather than natural gas for the rotary kiln ovens and process steam generation
As anticipated – and independently verified in Minviro’s LCA report – our potential emissions profile beats that of the incumbent refinery operations. We have the potential to bring down the overall carbon footprint by 75% compared to these refineries.
CO₂ IMPACT ASSESSMENT
We've partnered with Minviro, an organisation that conducts innovative life-cycle analysis across the raw materials sector. They undertook a preliminary carbon and environmental life-cycle assessment to quantify the environmental performance for our production facility. They also benchmarked the environmental impact against other equivalent competitor lithium production routes and refinery projects.
There were some impressive key takeaways:
- Currently operating Chinese lithium refineries are large emitters of CO₂, typically emitting 16.2kg of CO₂ for every kg of lithium chemicals produced.
- Our ‘base’ plan targeting Scope 1 and some areas of Scope 2 would result in an approximate 50% reduction in CO₂ compared to operational Chinese refineries.
- Our ‘decarbonised’ plan which we are targeting from start up of the Full-Scale Plant refinery or soon thereafter results in emissions of just 3.3kg CO₂ per kg lithium i.e. a greater than 75% reduction.
