University of Queensland has taken the wraps off Pure Battery Technologies, which will commercialise technology to extract nickel and cobalt from low grade ores.
Pure Battery Technologies, an Australia-based element extraction technology spinout from University of Queensland, was officially unveiled by the institution on Monday.
Founded in September 2017, Pure Battery is set to commercialise an acid leaching process to extract nickel and cobalt from low grade ores at a lower cost and more efficiently than current alternatives. The licence was supplied by UniQuest, the university’s tech transfer arm.
Pure Battery is in the process of raising capital to construct a demonstration plant to produce up to 5,000 tons of nickel per year, with a report in local newspaper the Courier-Mail putting the targeted figure at $15m.
The company is based on research by James Vaughan and Will Hawker, who had been working with UniQuest on commercialising the technology since 2011.
Bjorn Zikarsky, managing director and CEO of Pure Battery, said: “It is estimated that by 2025, almost half of all new energy generation will be renewable, and demand is increasing for battery-supported clean energy such as wind and solar.
“Nickel is also used in the production of stainless steel and other metal alloys, and our process has very little environmental impact and consumes less carbon dioxide and chemicals compared to other processes.”
