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7/6/2023
Sustainability & CO2 neutrality
Report
Livista to build first lithium refinery in Europe
Livista Energy Europe S.A. plans to build the first low-carbon lithium refinery in Germany in Emden. An agreement in principle has now been reached with port operator Niedersachsen Ports, which still requires approval by the NPorts supervisory board. The refinery is expected to start production in 2026 and fill a critical gap in Europe's supply chains for electric vehicles and batteries, as currently all lithium refineries are operated in Asia.
By locating our first site in Germany – a country with such a clear policy towards electrification and battery cell production – we will have access to the right partners and create even shorter, cleaner, more sustainable supply chains with embedded resilience.
Daniel Bloor, Managing Director Livista Energy Europe
Standing behind: Tim Kruithoff, Matthias Arendt, Jean-Marc Ichbia, Olaf Lies, Stefan Klaassen | Seated: Daniel Bloor, Hanne Hollander, Roland GetreideEmden is the third largest German North Sea port and offers good infrastructural and geographical connections. From here, lithium will be supplied to Europe’s growing electric vehicle industry. “Our first plant will provide enough battery grade lithium to produce 850,000 EVs each year”, says Daniel Bloor, managing director of Livista Energy Europe. “By locating our first site in Germany – a country with such a clear policy towards electrification and battery cell production – we will have access to the right partners and create even shorter, cleaner, more sustainable supply chains with embedded resilience.”
Initial capacity of up to 40,000 tonnes
The city of Emden is expected to become an important building block in the energy transition and transformation to e-mobility because of the settlement. “The possible settlement of Livista brings a great opportunity in the cooperation of the Lower Saxony, German and European industry for EV and lithium-ion batteries”, says Lower Saxony's Minister of Economics Olaf Lies. “We will therefore continue to follow the realization of the investment project very closely.”
The refinery will initially produce up to 40,000 tonnes of battery-grade lithium products (30,000 tonnes of Li hydroxide and 10,000 tonnes of Li carbonate LCE) per year. In the future, capacity could double. This is to enable OEMs and battery manufacturers to meet the targets of the EU's Critical Raw Materials Act (CRMA). It stipulates that all batteries manufactured in Europe must contain a minimum proportion of lithium battery products from local production by 2030.
