A new report published by the National Engineering Policy Centre has called on the UK Government to develop an integrated materials strategy. Led by the Royal Academy of Engineering, the report emphasizes the need to reuse and recycle critical materials to improve economic security and achieve net-zero goals.
Globally mined minerals and metals are vital to the UK’s economy. They include lithium, which is essential for producing batteries, and magnesium, which is used in steel alloy production.
Recent supply chain challenges have raised concerns surrounding the availability of these materials, with projected demand expected to outstrip available supplies. The new report presents a range of policies that could be implemented to reduce the country’s reliance on importing scarce materials.
In addition to the need for a more circular economy, the report suggests reducing the size of electric vehicle (EV) batteries by a third to cut lithium demand by 17%. This would reportedly save 75 million tonnes of rock mined for lithium by 2040. It also calls for a ban on single-use vapes, and the creation of a National Materials Data Hub to monitor material consumption and use.
According to co-author Mark Enzer, “The state of our environment and the supply of items like lithium-ion batteries looks bleak without more recycling and moving away from how we dispose of our old electronic devices.”
The threats posed by insecure material supply chains have already gained significant attention in the US. Massachusetts-based material specialist 6K is leveraging its UniMelt microwave plasma technology to convert used battery minerals into cathode active materials (CAM). These materials are then sold to domestic battery manufacturers, creating a circular US-based supply chain. UniMelt can also convert end-of-life components and scrap metal into 3D printable powder.
Key recommendations of the new report
Professor Joan Cordiner, Chair of the National Engineering Policy Centre’s Working Group on Materials and Net Zero, led the study. She emphasizes that the UK must tackle the “unsustainable” practices surrounding material extraction and consumption.
The UK is highly dependent on resources that are mined around the world and imported into the country. In addition to the supply chain challenges associated with this, the authors note that mining practices pose environmental and social challenges.
Rare earth elements such as neodymium, praseodymium, and other elements like indium, cobalt, and niobium are found in very low concentrations. To mine them, vast quantities of rock and water must also be removed, making extraction highly damaging to the local environment.
Social harms are also associated with the extraction of critical materials with human rights violations regularly impacting laborers. Notably, cobalt is important for EV and battery storage, superalloys, solid oxide electrolysers, and portable electronics. In the Congo, many people, including children, directly remove the toxic material by hand through unregulated open-pit and tunnel mines without any safety equipment.
To combat this, the report emphasizes the need to improve material traceability through international collaboration. The authors believe the UK Government should more closely measure the global impacts of material emissions, pollution, and social harms using tools like digital passports.
According to the report, increasing demand for critical materials has partly been driven by infrastructure and energy demands associated with the UK’s goal of achieving net-zero emissions by 2050. Many decarbonizing technologies and infrastructures rely on critical materials, the authors argue. They therefore emphasize the need to halve the UK’s economy-wide material footprint to avoid overconsumption and support decarbonization initiatives.
Investment in design to reduce demand is highlighted as a key solution to this issue. The authors state that Government and industry must account for material requirements when planning infrastructure system transformation. This would avoid building dependencies on scarce or unsustainable material resources.
The report also points to the creation of more recycling facilities that can process machinery like wind turbines. Such sites could retrieve valuable materials which can then be recycled as part of a circular supply chain. Designing incentives and investing in engineering capacity is said to be essential in achieving this.
The report states that designing products with recyclability in mind is critical, as recovering minerals from existing technology is intricate and expensive. Consequently, despite containing valuable materials, large amounts of electronic waste end up in landfills. According to Enzer, 62 million tonnes of electronic waste is generated each year, with the UK producing the second-highest amount per capita in the world.
Additional policy suggestions include recommitting to the energy demand reduction target of 15% in the UK’s Net Zero Strategy and improving vehicle charging infrastructure across the country. The latter would reportedly support smaller EVs that require more compact batteries, and therefore less material.
The development of alternative technologies like sodium-ion batteries is also highlighted, along with the continued suspension of deep seabed mining.
Securing critical material supply chains
Cordiner asserts that the UK is “not the only country that will be competing for these finite minerals,” with demand heavily driven by their prominence in batteries, power systems and electronics.
The global implications of this have certainly been recognized by the US Government, which is pursuing efforts to re-shore its manufacturing capabilities. These efforts have been driven by global trade challenges and increased emphasis on environmental sustainability. By 2030, the lithium-ion battery manufacturing capacity in the US is set to reach nearly one terawatt-hour.
6K is an American company currently working to create a domestic, circular supply chain for critical materials. Last month, the firm raised $82 million in a Series E funding round led by Anzu Partners, Energy Impact Partners, LaunchCapital, Material Impact, and Volta Energy Technologies. The capital will be used to scale up CAM production and expand the processing of 3D printable metal powders.
6K will use the funding to achieve full production of its Inflation Reduction Act (IRA)-compliant lithium-ion battery materials. These will be produced using UniMelt technology at its PlusCAM battery material plant, currently under construction in Jackson, TN. This facility will reportedly be the world’s first plasma cathode plant, providing low-cost and sustainable production of battery material to support a circular US supply chain.
Earlier this year 6K Energy, a division of advanced material specialist 6K, signed a strategic supply agreement with metal recycling firm Aqua Metals. The two companies are working to establish a circular material supply chain for lithium-ion battery materials, reportedly the first of its kind in the world.
Through the agreement, Aqua is supplying recycled battery materials from its Sierra ARC facility based in Reno. 6K will then use UniMelt to convert the critical minerals back into CAM at its PlusCAM factory in Jackson, Tennessee.
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Featured image shows an aerial view of lithium fields in the Atacama desert in Chile, South America. Photo via the National Engineering Policy Centre/Shutterstock.
