Lithium Extraction from Acidic Leachates over Battery Metal Ions (Li-Solvate)

Funded by the NTNU Discovery Pilot Project

Norway has significant potential to supply critical energy transition materials — lithium, nickel, cobalt, and graphite — by recycling electric vehicle batteries, particularly as 89% of Norwegian car sales in 2024 were fully electric. Yet Norway currently lacks any hydrometallurgical plant to recover these materials; recycling is limited to producing a crushed "black mass" powder shipped abroad for further processing, in part because it lacks the thermal pretreatment needed for straightforward lithium recovery.

This NTNU Discovery pilot project takes an industrial symbiosis approach — rather than building an entirely new recycling value chain, a route on which many battery-recycling startups worldwide have struggled — by integrating black mass recycling directly into the region's established nickel matte processing industry. Black mass is leached alongside nickel matte to produce a mixed metal-ion solution, from which an innovative solvent extraction process selectively recovers lithium ahead of nickel, cobalt, and other metals, yielding a pure lithium stream convertible to battery-grade lithium carbonate or hydroxide. The remaining stream can then be processed using existing nickel matte infrastructure, with graphite recovered separately for regeneration.

The core chemistry has already been validated on industrial black mass leachates, achieving over 90% lithium recovery with a reusable solvent system. The pilot will now validate the process on a blended black mass–nickel matte leachate under industrially relevant conditions, in partnership with an established nickel refiner.

If successful, the technology could be licensed to nickel/cobalt ore processing industries or developed into a standalone venture built on local industrial symbiosis. The project supports UN Sustainable Development Goals 7, 9, 12, and 13.