Altilium
Plymouth EV battery recycling startup; received \xC2\xA318.5m DBT grant, April 2026.
Last refreshed: 22 April 2026 · Appears in 1 active topic
Can Plymouth really anchor the UK battery recycling supply chain against China?
Timeline for Altilium
Received £18.5m Department for Business and Trade grant for EV battery recycling
UK Startups and Innovation: Altilium and TraqCheck headline £76.7m UK tech week- What does Altilium do with EV batteries?
- Altilium uses hydrometallurgical processing to recover lithium, cobalt, and nickel from end-of-life EV batteries at its Plymouth facility. It received a £18.5m DBT grant in April 2026 to scale operations.Source: DBT / Lowdown
- Why is EV battery recycling important for the UK?
- The UK lacks domestic sources of battery-grade lithium, cobalt, and nickel. Recycling end-of-life EV batteries domestically reduces dependency on Chinese processing and meets EU battery regulation sustainability requirements from 2027.
Background
Altilium received an £18.5m grant from the Department for Business and Trade on 16 April 2026, the headline award in a week that saw UK tech funding rise 45% to £76.7m . The grant will fund expansion of Altilium's Plymouth facility, which processes end-of-life electric vehicle batteries to recover lithium, cobalt, and nickel for re-entry into the battery supply chain.
Altilium is a Plymouth-based cleantech company focused on closed-loop EV battery recycling. Its hydrometallurgical process recovers critical minerals at high purity, offering UK-manufactured battery manufacturers an alternative to virgin materials imported from the Democratic Republic of Congo and Indonesia. The company operates a pilot plant and has announced plans for a commercial-scale facility.
The DBT grant positions Altilium as a cornerstone of the UK's domestic critical-minerals strategy, reducing dependency on Chinese and Southeast Asian supply chains for battery-grade lithium and cobalt.