Watercycle lands £3M UK grant for lithium recovery plant in Runcorn
What's the deal? Watercycle Technologies, a University of Manchester spin-out, has secured £3m in grant funding from the Government of the United KingdomDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → towards a £6m project in Runcorn. The money will establish a demonstration-scale manufacturing line that recovers and refines lithium from waste streams for use in electric vehicle batteries.
Where it comes from: The grant was awarded through the DRIVE35 Scale Up Fund, part of the Government's £4bn DRIVE35 programme.
What's the endgame? Watercycle operates Europe's first commercial direct lithium extraction (DLE) plant. The new line moves the company from extraction towards refining battery-grade lithium at demonstration scale.
Why it matters: The award supports domestic lithium recovery as the UK builds an electric vehicle supply chain, with public grants helping scale deep-tech hardware and critical-minerals processing.
Read more: TheBusinessDesk.com
Image credit: Coordenação-Geral de Observação da Terra/INPE
