.svg)
.png)
Centre will give customers early access to representative product, shortening the time from first production to full commercial volumes at Train 1
“Customers told us plainly what they need: our product in their hands, early,” said Vikki Jeckell, Chief Executive of Tees Valley Lithium.
Tees Valley Lithium (TVL) is to establish a Qualification and Validation Centre at the Billingham Chemical Complex, Teesside. The move responds to requirements from existing and prospective customers, including cathode manufacturers, cell manufacturers and OEMs.
Battery and cathode manufacturers validate a new supplier’s lithium hydroxide in their own production lines, a process that typically takes twelve months. For a new refinery, this usually begins once the plant is producing.
The centre will give customers early access to representative battery-grade lithium hydroxide, so validation can run in parallel with the construction of Train 1, the first 25,000 tonne per year production train of TVL’s refinery at Billingham. This is expected to shorten the time from first production to full commercial volumes.
The centre will be housed in an existing industrial building within the Billingham Chemical Complex. Its sampling line will replicate the Train 1 process configuration using Veolia’s process technology, so the product customers test is representative of the product the refinery will make. A customer and visitor area will allow customers and partners to review material and process performance at first hand.
The centre will also allow TVL to validate a wider range of feedstock, including lithium recovered by TVL’s battery recycling partners. Recycled feedstock supports customers’ obligations under the EU Battery Regulation, which requires minimum recycled lithium content in new batteries from 2031, with batch-level traceability provided through TVL’s partnership with Circulor.
Once complete, the centre will be able to process samples of lithium carbonate from Geothermal Engineering Limited’s demonstration plant in Cornwall, refining them to battery grade.
Vikki Jeckell added: “Qualification now runs alongside the development of the refinery rather than after it, which brings forward the point at which customers can move to commercial volumes. It also lets us test mined, brine and recycled feedstock side by side, and show that UK lithium, including domestic Cornish lithium from GEL, can be refined to battery grade on Teesside.”
Paul Atherley, Chairman of Alkemy Capital Investments, said: “The UK needs its own lithium-refining industry, and that industry will be built on the confidence of the customers it supplies. The Qualification and Validation Centre brings those customers to Billingham to work with TVL’s product firsthand. It is another practical step in building the world-class merchant lithium refinery the United Kingdom needs.”
