Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, with reference to the Government Office for Science's research entitled What are the technical and policy barriers to increasing EV battery recycling capacity in the UK?, updated on 21 November 2023, what progress he has made in researching (a) water miscible binders, (b) binderless electrodes and (c) methods of recycling polyvinylidene difluoride.

The £610m Faraday Battery Challenge, delivered by Innovate UK, supports mission-led academic research on battery recycling technologies through the Faraday Institution’s (FI’s) ReLiB project. ReLiB researchers at the University of Leicester have recently demonstrated algae-derived water miscible anode blinders that can be fully recovered at the end of the batteries life, and are looking to demonstrate an “all” water-soluble binder system that will simplifying battery recycling by the Summer 2025.

ReLiB researchers at the University of Birmingham have also been collaborating with a leading supplier of polyvinylidene difluoride (PVDF) binder on the use of “green” solvents for binder recovery from used batteries. They have also recently demonstrated a new process to recover and reuse PVDF binders in new cells.