Watercycle Technologies secures £3m government funding to scale UK lithium production from waste
Watercycle Technologies has secured £3 million in grant funding provided by the UK Government towards a £6 million project to demonstrate how battery-grade lithium can be recovered from waste streams and produced at scale in the UK.
The funding has been awarded through the DRIVE35 Scale Up Fund, part of the UK Government’s £4 billion DRIVE35 programme, delivered by the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade in partnership with the Advanced Propulsion Centre UK and Innovate UK.
The 36-month project, Recover, Refine, Recharge: Scaling Lithium Extraction from Wastewater for UK Battery Production (ReLiVE), will be led by Watercycle Technologies and begin in April 2027.
Recovering lithium that would otherwise be lost
ReLiVE will design, build and operate a new pilot-to-demonstration-scale lithium production facility in the UK using Watercycle’s proprietary DLEC™ technology.
The system will recover lithium from sources that would otherwise be treated as waste, including industrial wastewater and lithium-bearing materials arising from battery recycling. The recovered lithium will then be refined into high-purity lithium salts suitable for use in electric vehicle batteries.
By bringing recovery and refining together, ReLiVE aims to demonstrate a circular route to producing battery-grade lithium domestically while simultaneously treating wastewater and recovering valuable critical minerals that would otherwise be lost.
Building a domestic lithium supply chain
Lithium is an essential component of electric vehicle batteries and is identified as a critical mineral by the UK Government. Demand is expected to increase substantially as electric vehicle adoption and domestic battery manufacturing grow.
However, the UK currently has no significant domestic lithium refining capacity and remains heavily reliant on imported lithium chemicals.
ReLiVE aims to help close this gap by demonstrating that high-purity lithium can be produced reliably, sustainably and competitively from domestic circular sources.
The project will work with partners across the UK lithium refining, battery and automotive sectors to ensure the material produced meets stringent industry requirements and can ultimately be incorporated into cathode materials and battery cells.
Environmental and economic assessments will also quantify the benefits of the approach, including its potential to lower the carbon footprint associated with imported lithium chemicals, reduce wastewater pollution through resource recovery and enable competitive production through modular deployment.
Dr Ahmed Abdelkarim, Co-founder and CSO of Watercycle Technologies, said:
“ReLiVE directly supports the UK’s ambition to build a secure, domestic supply of battery-grade lithium. The Government’s Critical Minerals Strategy sets a clear goal to establish large-scale UK lithium production and reduce our reliance on imports.
“By demonstrating that high-purity lithium can be produced from circular, low-carbon sources here in the UK, ReLiVE can help turn that ambition into reality. It shows how British innovation can support the transition to zero-emission transport while building the strategic capabilities the country needs for a more resilient battery supply chain.”
ReLiVE represents a significant step in scaling Watercycle’s technology from pilot operations towards commercial lithium production, demonstrating a circular approach to lithium refining at a scale not yet seen in the UK.