News: VUL Pure Battery Tech wins funding to expand low-carbon battery material output

BERLIN, June 1 (Reuters) - Pure Battery Technologies (PBT) has secured at least 1 million euros ($1.1 million) from an EU-backed fund to expand a refinery in Germany, the Australian start-up said on Wednesday.

PBT has patented a method to filter out the nickel and cobalt required to make battery cathodes which emits 70% less carbon dioxide than the standard method, according to a McKinsey study.

PBT is in talks with chemicals giants including Umicore UMI.BR and BASF BASFn.DE about incorporating the technology into their production processes and selling material to them to produce cathodes, PBT CEO Bjoern Zikarsky said in an interview with Reuters.

European battery makers and recyclers are ramping up investments in the battery supply chain amid growing pressure from regulators to reduce independence on suppliers in Asia who control the vast majority of production.

Umicore and Volkswagen VOWG_p.DE have established a joint venture for precursor and cathode material in Europe with the aim of producing enough to power 2.2 million electric vehicles (EVs) by the end of the decade.

BASF plans to produce battery precursor material in Finland beginning this year to feed into enough cathodes for around 400,000 vehicles a year.

PBT's plant in Hagen, Germany aims to produce 10,000 tonnes of precursor material by the end of 2023, enough to make batteries for around 120,000 EVs annually.

The EU-backed fund supporting PBT, called EIT InnoEnergy, has already invested over 560 million euros ($650 million).

It holds stakes in firms including Swedish battery cell maker Northvolt, steel venture H2 Green Steel, and lithium miner Vulcan Energy Resources (VUL) .

($1 = 0.9330 euros)