Anwar Sattar

Basic Information

Applicant Type: Individual/s

Key Contact: Anwar Sattar

Main Questions

Problem Solution

Lithium ion batteries (LIBs) are essential for modern life. They are used in a countless
applications and according to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission
(ACCC), by 2026, the average Australian household will have 33 items which will contain a
lithium ion battery. Many house fires occur as a result of lithium ion batteries. In 2023, lithium
ion batteries caused more than 1000 fires across Australia [ABC News] – averaging almost 3
fires per day. This will only get worse as the number of batteries in households increase.
Our solution will address the following problems;
1. Cheaper method of recycling lithium ion batteries
2. Storage and recycling of dangerous batteries
3. Recycling of vapes and other battery containing devices (such as Battery Energy
Storage Systems)
4. Clean up of sites where a lithium ion battery fire has occurred

LIBs often end up in waste streams at the end of life. The waste streams are processed in a
recycling centre where the batteries go through a number of machinery, often ending up
damaged and unstable. Such batteries are incredibly dangerous and are stored alongside
other batteries. When the damaged battery catches fire, it quickly spreads to other batteries
and then other combustible material on site. These batteries cannot be transported on the
road for fear of catching fire during transit and require recycling on site.

Vapes contain lithium ion batteries and nicotine. Recycling of vapes is dangerous as it can
easily catch fire. Vapes are often discarded in domestic waste and end up in recycling
centres. In 2024, the vape market in Australia was estimated at $486 million. Assuming an
average price of $30 per vape [NSW Health], that is 16.2 million vapes sold. The market is
expected to grow to over $600 million by 2030 [TechSci Research].
Furthermore, Australia has become a market leader in Battery Energy Storage Systems
(BESS) with 25 big battery projects connected to the grid in the last 10 years. This is
expected to grow further, with a billion dollars already committed to further battery utility
sized projects [Ratedpower https://ratedpower.com/blog/bess-australia/]. These devices at
end of life will need to be safely recycled.

Once a lithium ion battery fire has occurred, the clean up can take years as it involves
digging through burnt and semi-burnt batteries that can easily catch fire again. The costs can
run into millions of dollars per site. In the UK, a battery fire in Kilwinning, Scotland, occurred
in April 2024. The site was visited by Dr Sattar in May 2024 and he advised the Scottish EA
to clean it up as soon as is practicable as it was liable to catch fire again. Failure to heed this
advice resulted in another fire at the same site in April 2025. The main issue is removing the
batteries from site and transporting them to a recycling site which could be hundreds of kilometres away

Impact

Our proposed solution is a transportable battery recycling plant (TBRP) that can be taken
from one location to another.

The transportable battery recycling plant (TBRP) will be a full battery recycling plant bolted
onto a truck with another truck carrying a generator and a portable water treatment plant.
The TBRP will consist of the following process items; conveyor system (to get the batteries
into the shredder), shredder system (for battery communition), nitrogen generation system
(for an inert atmosphere), a quench tank (to stop the thermal chemical reactions) , a wet mill
(to remove the black mass from the foils), a wet screening system (to separate the black
mass from the rest of the components), a vacuum filtration system (to remove the moisture
from the black mass) and a gas treatment module consisting of a UV thermal oxidiser, a
cyclone and a spray tower (to ensure no harmful emissions are released into the
atmosphere). The plant will be accompanied by a water purification unit and a diesel
generator.

The transportable plant will be much cheaper to operate than a full battery recycling plant as
it will require far less space, buildings and labour. It will allow for the shredding and
processing of dangerous batteries that are unsuitable for road transport. It will also be able
to shred problematic wastes such as vapes and extract the value from them. Finally, it will be
able to go to sites where a battery fire has occurred and shred the material on site, avoiding
months of delays and the shipment of potentially highly dangerous batteries.

Impact
The TBRP will allow for on-site shredding of batteries anywhere in Queensland. It will be
able to handle any sort of battery from portable to module size in any condition, whether
charged or discharged, damaged or undamaged. By taking the solution to the problem, the
number of battery fires will be severely significantly reduced as the batteries will no longer be
sitting around for months or years on end waiting to be recycled. Batteries that are too
dangerous to transport on the road will be shredded on site, producing a valuable black
mass product and a mixture of metals that contain copper, aluminium and steel which can be
sold into the metal recycling industry. Many of these materials are critical materials and so
could be further processed at the planned critical mineral processing facility in Townsville.
The TBRP will also assist councils in providing safer and more convenient disposal of
problem batteries. Recent correspondence with the Fraser council outlined the limited
options for disposal of problematic batteries and it was thought that an amnesty type
arrangement with residents when batteries could be dropped off/picked up might be a way of
approaching the problem. The TBRP would be perfect for these amnesty periods, being able
to be transferred to a particular councils transfer station and making these problematic
batteries safe. Once a particular councils amnesty period had finished the TBRP would be
transferred to another neighbouring council

Business Model

The business model for the TBRP is simple; we shred the batteries and sell the products.
Our modus operendi will be to shred batteries at our own site where we will have contracts
with various customers who will send us high quality batteries. The first iteration of the TBRP
will be designed to shred 6 tonnes of batteries per day. When shredding off site, we will only
charge the customer for the travel expenses providing that sufficient quantities of batteries are
present, i.e. 6 tonnes. Any quantity less than that and the customer will have to make up the
difference.

The economics are as follows;
- Price of TBRP: $3 million

Operating costs
- Labour: 2x drivers/operators + 2x battery sorters + 1x operators/FLT drivers @
40AUD/hr + 1x engineer/manager@$60/hr for 10h/day = $2,600/day
- 30L/h diesel consumption @ $1.9/L for 10 hours = $570/day
- Consumables (water, filters, chemicals etc) = $500/day
- Wear and tear = $500/day
- Insurance = $250/day
- Waste disposal = $500/day
- Administrative and management costs = $1,500/day
Total operating costs: $6,420 per day

Income
Assume no gate fee is taken for recycling LIBs and on average, 5t of batteries are processed
per day
- Steel = 20% of mass of batteries. Sold at $200/t = $200/day
- Copper = 12% of mass of batteries. Sold at $8,500/t = $5,100/day [copper is sold at
60% of its LME value as it has aluminium foil present alongside it]
- Aluminium = 10% of the mass of the batteries. Sold at $1200/t (30% of LME) =
$600/day
- Black mass = 45% of the mass of batteries. Sold at 50% of the LME value of nickel
($22,700/t) and cobalt ($51,000/t) = $8,291. Black mass contains on average around
10% nickel and 10% cobalt.

Total income = $14,191/day

Profit = $7,771/day

Market Readiness

Market Readiness
The idea of a transportable battery recycling plant is novel and has not yet been built or
tested. However, the machinery required to make it is all readily available off the shelf and
the challenge is to package it into an integrated, workable unit that fits onto the back of a

truck. Since all the machinery required for the plant has already been proven at commercial
level for many years, we are confident that the market readiness level of this technology is
TRL 6 and fits into the system/sub system development. This is justified as we are not
developing anything new but merely connecting existing technology to make a new
application. So long as the integration of the various components in done successfully, the
system will work as the sub components are all proven with years, if not decades of
industrial operation.

Pilot Tests
In a previous employment, Anwar Sattar undertook a number of tests shredding various
types of LIBs (portable, EV, powertools, e-bikes, vapes, etc) to determine the behaviour of
these batteries during and post shredding. The conclusions from the testing were as follows;
- All types of lithium ion batteries require an inert atmosphere when being shredded
- The shredding process produces dust, vapours and gases – all of which require
filtering and scrubbing
- The temperature of the shredded material can reach upwards of 250 o C when
charged batteries are shredded. This can easily cause fires
- The material requires another milling process to remove all the black mass
From the trials, it is clear that for a transportable battery recycling plant, a wet process is
more suitable than a dry process as the material is quenched straight away post shredding.
This eliminates the risk of fire and secondary reactions at a cost of water contamination,
requiring a reverse osmosis water treatment plant to remove.

What testing and piloting still needs to be done before it’s commercially ready?
The following is required before the TBRP is ready for commercialisation
- Engineering drawings of the whole system
- Purchase and deliveries of all the components
- Coupling and integration of all the components
- Commissioning of the plant

Anticipated timeframes for product development
- Engineering drawings of the whole system – 6 months
- Purchase and deliveries of all the components – 6 months
- Coupling and integration of all the components – 3 months

Estimated number of weeks notice needed to run a pilot – 1 week
Estimated number of weeks the pilot would take – 16 weeks. We will need around 4 months
to fully carry out the commissioning operations
Estimated number of weeks from pilot to commercial launch (ie: how long would it take to
run a pilot and how long before ready to sell product to market – 4 weeks. We will need
around 1 month to analyse all the data from the commissioning operation and make small
changes where necessary before the plant can be ready for full commercial operations.

Team

The two core members of the team are Dr Anwar Sattar and Mr Justin Holloway.
Anwar Sattar
Dr Sattar has a degree and a PhD in Chemical Engineering. He has ben working in the field
of battery recycling since 2016. He developed a shredding and sorting process for LIBs
which has been commercialised by RS Bruce in the UK. He was the Principal Engineer for
battery recycling at Warwick Manufacturing Group (WMG), University of Warwick, where he
led the Battery Recycling Group from 2019 to 2024. During his tenure, the group went from
just one person (Dr Sattar) to one of the most influential battery recycling groups in the
country. He brought together a consortium of eight different companies and led the writing of
a bid for a £8.9 million ($18 million) 50/50% private/public funded RECOVAS project
(Recycling of EV Cells from Obsolete Vehicles at Scale). The highly successful project
established the end of life infrastructure for LIBs in the UK. Prior to the project, LIBs were
exported to the EU for recycling, at great cost. As part of the RECOVAS project, Dr Sattar’s
team developed innovative battery recycling solutions, including a patented lithium recovery
process capable of recovering 95% of the lithium in batteries at a purity of 99.8% and at the
time of publishing, it was the only process in the world that could recover the lithium as
lithium hydroxide [Patent number WO2024/003541 A1]. Dr Sattar has also worked in the
battery recycling industry where he was involved in the commissioning of a battery shredding
and sorting plant in Wolverhampton, UK.

Mr Justin Holloway
Justin is a leading battery engineer with 15 years experience. He has recently returned to
Australia from the UK and is working on developing new battery chemistries.
Previously he led a dynamic team within Warwick University's electrochemical materials
group in the UK. He worked on various projects related to the safe use of batteries in electric
vehicles, energy storage, and lightweight transport. This involved developing and
implementing regulations to manage battery safety and he also engaged in risk management
for different battery chemistries. His tenure was marked by active participation and
presentation at numerous conferences, alongside publication of influential articles in
specialized journals. This extended to the UK's prestigious Faraday Institution, a pivotal hub
for the advancement of innovative electrical storage technologies.
He is a certified ceramic (materials) engineer, welding engineer, and chartered engineer. He
has worked on and delivered many large complex projects in his career. One example is
construction of the largest ship ever built for the Australian Navy.