Green Lithium Ltd
The client
SOL Environment worked with Green Lithium to secure planning permission for a truly cutting-edge project: the UK’s first lithium refinery.
Green Lithium is a chemical production company based in London. Their mission is to accelerate the production of refined lithium, a crucial component in batteries. By ensuring sustainable lithium production from sources such as brine ponds and hard-rock mines, Green Lithium aims to power up the world’s progress towards Net Zero. They are now in the process of building the first lithium refinery in the UK, and one of the first in Europe.
Based in Teesside, North-East England, the Green Lithium Full-Scale Plant will use a novel alkali-leach refining process. This produces far fewer carbon emissions than the acid-leach processes that are standard in this type of refinery.
Lithium refining is an energy-intensive process. That’s why Green Lithium’s new refinery will be powered entirely by sustainably produced electricity and gas. SOL Environment’s team members Dudley Saunders (Planning Lead) and Sam Hunt (Sustainability Lead) supported them in finding a suitable location for this project and securing planning permission.
The challenge
The vast majority of the world’s lithium production is concentrated in three countries: China, Australia and Chile. When this project began, there was no lithium refinery operating anywhere in Europe. This meant that there was no precedent for obtaining planning permission.
Green Lithium’s commitment to sustainability also meant that it was important to find exactly the right site for the new refinery. Excellent land and sea transport links were required to maximise efficiency and keep carbon emissions low.
The process
We worked closely with Green Lithium to find the most appropriate location for the refinery, which we identified as Teesside, and to navigate the due diligence process. The site we found was perfectly adapted to accept feedstock from the Port of Middlesborough, with transport links to the whole of the UK.
The novel nature of this project, and its massive scale, presented a particular challenge in planning and regulatory terms. We had no precedent from which to work. This meant that applying for planning permission required intensive collaboration and future-forward thinking, so that every potential angle was covered.
The outcome
In spite of the challenges involved, we successfully gained planning permission for the new development, with a phased approach to follow. The building of the first British lithium refinery is now underway.
The first stage is the construction of a Scale-Up Plant on the Teesside site, which will bridge the gap between Green Lithium’s smaller-scale pilot projects and the final delivery of the Full-Scale Plant. This mid-scale refinery is flexible and replicable, with the capacity to produce both lithium hydroxide and lithium carbonate. You’ll find more details about the project, and Green Lithium’s future plans, on their website.
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