Clint Zahmel. Image: Licovolt
Founded last year, this UCD spin-out has developed a novel chemical compound and process to recycle minerals from batteries.
In January, researchers from Stanford released a study that highlighted the benefits of recycling lithium-ion batteries.
According to the study, which was published in Nature Communications, recycling lithium-ion batteries – which are commonly used in consumer electronics and electric vehicles (EVs) – has significantly lower environmental impacts than mining virgin materials for new batteries.
The researchers also found that battery recycling’s environmental impacts depend “heavily” on the processing facility’s location and electricity source. For example, the researchers stated that battery recycling plant in regions that rely heavily on electricity generated by burning coal would see a “diminished climate advantage”.
As the world of battery recycling continues to work on improving processes and environmental impact, our Start-up of the Week has found a way to recycle materials in a more efficient manner.
Licovolt is a spin-out from University College Dublin that has developed a novel chemical compound and associated process to extract critical minerals such as lithium, cobalt, nickel and manganese from spent battery material.
As co-founder and executive director Clint Zahmel tells SiliconRepublic.com, Licovolt’s process achieves this at a fraction of the cost and emissions of current methods.
“This in turn enables the infinite recycling of these critical minerals,” he says.
From lab to industry
Licovolt began as a lab research project funded by Research Ireland and the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade following the breakthrough chemical discovery by Dr Tony Keene and Dr Steven Ferguson, two associate professors at UCD.
At the same time, Zahmel – who has an extensive mining and processing background – was in Ireland studying for an MBA at Trinity College Dublin, where he met Mark Connolly, an experienced business executive.
“Mark knew Steven and through overlapping friendships I got to know both Steven and Tony and the exciting Licovolt project,” says Zahmel. “Given our backgrounds, we joined Steven and Tony as members of the founding Licovolt team.”
Despite only being founded last year, the NovaUCD-based start-up has seen considerable success so far.
Just last month, Licovolt announced a strategic partnership with Pure Battery Technologies (PBT) that aims to transform the production of sustainable battery materials for the EV industry.
“Over the next six months we will deploy our tech on to their industry recycling process,” says Zahmel.
“This programme will help advance our technology readiness level (TRL) while validating our lab-based research and helping us to refine our future IP development pipeline to cater for that real industry feedback.”
As well as this, Licovolt is also currently launching a seed fundraising round.
The future is circular
As with many lab-to-industry start-ups, Zahmel says Licovolt has had its fair share of challenges in getting its product ready for the market.
“Proving out the tech in a lab setting can take time especially when it is so novel, but now that it’s tested and validated and the company has spun out we are ready to accelerate,” he says, while also citing the technology transfer office team in UCD as “instrumental” in helping the team get the tech into industry and fully commercialised.
“Securing the development agreement with PBT is a huge achievement so it makes up for all of the sleepless nights over recent years.”
Currently, the start-up is in the process of exclusively licensing its patented technology to key industry partners and original equipment manufacturers. “We work with global battery recycling companies exploring mutual joint development agreements to advance each other’s technological and commercial objectives,” says Zahmel.
And as for the future, Zahmel says Licovolt has ambitious targets with the circular economy in mind.
“Our ultimate goal is to license our IP to all of the major global recycling players and to partner with an automotive manufacturer to help service their future EV battery supply and circular economy requirements.”
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