Leading the charge to a zero-emission future

To successfully move towards a net zero world, Europe will need – annually – about 600,000 tonnes of refined, battery-grade lithium chemicals to meet its targets for electric vehicle manufacturing. It’s an ambitious goal, especially when 80% of the world’s refined lithium is currently sourced in China, not to mention the added challenges of transportation and logistics from Asia. Yet, at Wood, we are focused on enabling goals like these to become reality, by partnering together with businesses, industries, cities, and governments to bring to life our shared ambitions of reducing carbon emissions and making the goals of net zero achievable.

Currently, there is a race to see which company will have the first fully functional lithium hydroxide refinery in Europe and I’m serving as technical lead for one of the contenders. Wood is Owner’s Engineer for a full-scale lithium refinery construction project in the United Kingdom that is a first-of-its-kind for both the UK and Europe. Not only will the facility – for mineral processing company Green Lithium – produce 50,000 tonnes of battery-grade lithium annually, it will also be accomplished with an environmentally friendly, low-carbon refining process that includes heat recovery and carbon dioxide recycling.

This project has a lot of challenging goals that are focused on the environment and that’s important to me. The Top 3 include key objectives for sustainability, like achieving net-zero by 2030, carbon capture, and water reuse. We will also be utilizing an enterprise model for project delivery in which everyone on the team has the same shared objectives.

Wood will be bringing its comprehensive environmental and technical delivery expertise to this project. Since the lithium refinery will be a first for both the UK and Europe, this will include support for project implementation – in terms of meeting the highest standards for Health & Safety, plus all standards for quality, in addition to codes of practice and specifications for the UK and Europe. On top of that, Wood’s Mining & Minerals team in Australia, which recently delivered a successful similar project in that country, will help guide certain technical aspects, and provide lessons learned and peer reviews.

Bottomline, it’s a keystone industrial asset that will help establish a critically needed battery market – as well as the production of battery-grade lithium – in Europe. At the same time, it will greatly enhance the UK’s green economy by reliably and securely delivering these crucial materials. Not only will it simplify and de-risk the supply chain for lithium battery manufacturing, it will also create more than 1,000 direct jobs through construction plus 200 long-term jobs when the refinery is operational.

In the longer term, this facility will also contribute to the creation of a wider mineral and processing industry in Europe, as well as much-needed recycling expertise and associated skills that will be able to support additional initiatives and industrial developments well into the future.

My own experience with mining – specifically the refining of lead and silver – is not only relevant but useful for this project, so is my 23 years of experience delivering infrastructure Capital Projects which, in my opinion, needs to be more of a norm for women in engineering! I bring a strategic view of environmental infrastructure projects, as well as a keen understanding of highly technical and complex undertakings that bring together teams around the globe. This will be my first time working on a lithium refinery, so I’m really looking forward to working with our client and the outstanding delivery team that’s been assembled for this project, especially since it touches on so many themes that I am personally passionate about, like sustainability and reducing our carbon footprint. Diversity of thought is part of the culture of this project and this team, too, and that will be one of the keys to our success.