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Ever Resource has secured a European patent covering its innovative technology for recycling lead-containing waste, marking another major milestone in the development of the company’s international intellectual property portfolio.

The patent protects key aspects of Ever Resource’s hydrometallurgical process for recovering lead from waste materials, including spent lead-acid battery paste. The technology uses solution-based chemistry to recover lead and convert it into an intermediate material that can subsequently be transformed into high-performance leady oxide for manufacturing new batteries.

The European grant is particularly significant as Ever Resource moves towards commercial deployment of its technology. Europe represents an important market for lead-acid battery manufacturing and recycling, while increasingly stringent environmental and circular-economy requirements are driving demand for cleaner approaches to recovering and reusing materials.

The patent further strengthens the intellectual property underpinning Ever Resource’s ambition to transform conventional lead-acid battery recycling: reducing reliance on high-temperature processing while recovering waste materials in forms capable of delivering greater value in their next life.

Ever Resource has been featured in Monarchy and Democracy: A History of Leadership, a landmark publication produced by St James’s House in partnership with the History of Parliament Trust. The book explores the evolving relationship between Crown and Parliament and celebrates examples of leadership, innovation and progress. Ever Resource was selected for inclusion alongside organisations demonstrating leadership and innovation in their respective fields.

The publication was officially unveiled on 9 June 2026 at College Garden, Westminster Abbey, at an event attended by more than 500 guests from Parliament, industry and the media. Ever Resource CEO Dr Athan Fox attended the launch on behalf of the company. Dr Fox said: “Leadership helps people see a future that does not yet exist; sustainability helps ensure that future is worth arriving at.”

Ever Resource’s inclusion recognises its work in developing new approaches to the circular economy, including technologies designed not simply to recycle waste materials, but to recover them in forms capable of delivering improved performance in their next life. For Ever Resource, this reflects its commitment to building better systems and better products – including recycled materials that outperform the originals.

Ever Resource has achieved a significant scale-up milestone in the development of its lead-acid battery recycling technology, successfully demonstrating continuous production of its proprietary metal-organic framework (MOF).

More than 10 tonnes of the material have now been produced, demonstrating the transition of the process from smaller-scale production towards sustained manufacturing at industrially relevant quantities.

The MOF is a key intermediate in Ever Resource’s patented process for recovering lead from end-of-life lead-acid batteries and converting it into high-performance leady oxide for use in new batteries. Demonstrating continuous production at this scale represents an important step towards commercial deployment of the technology.

Due to commercial confidentiality, Ever Resource is not disclosing the location at which the material has been produced.

Ever Resource has reached a significant milestone in the protection of its intellectual property, with its tenth patent now granted for technologies relating to the recycling of lead-containing waste.

The latest grant, in Taiwan, protects Ever Resource’s technology for the desulfurisation of lead-containing waste and follows patent grants across a growing number of international markets. The company now has granted patents in Brazil, China, India, Japan, Russia, South Africa and Taiwan, covering technologies for both recycling and desulfurisation of lead-containing waste.

The patents underpin Ever Resource’s approach to recovering valuable materials from end-of-life lead-acid batteries using cleaner chemical processes. This includes technology capable of converting waste battery paste into leady oxide suitable for manufacturing new batteries, providing an alternative route to conventional recycling processes.

The tenth patent represents another important step in building and protecting the intellectual property behind Ever Resource’s vision: not simply to recycle materials, but to recover them in forms capable of delivering greater value in their next life.

Ever Resource co-founders Dr Athan Fox and Miles Freeman have been named East of England finalists for Sustainability Entrepreneur of the Year in the 2025 Allica Bank Great British Entrepreneur Awards.

Described as the “Grammys of Entrepreneurship”, the Great British Entrepreneur Awards celebrate outstanding founders and business leaders from across the UK, recognising entrepreneurship, innovation and impact. More than 800 entrepreneurs were selected for the 2025 shortlist.

Dr Fox and Mr Freeman were recognised for their work developing Ever Resource and its approach to upcycling end-of-life lead-acid batteries. The company’s technology is designed not simply to recycle waste lead, but to recover it using lower-impact processes and return it to battery manufacturing as a higher-performance material.

The recognition follows Ever Resource’s previous success at the UK StartUp Awards, where the company was named both Cleantech Start-Up of the Year and Global Start-Up of the Year in the East of England before going on to win Global Start-Up of the Year at the 2024 UK National Final.

Ever Resource has secured its second granted patent in China, strengthening the intellectual property protection surrounding its hydrometallurgical technology for recycling lead-containing waste.

The newly granted patent, Recycling of lead-containing waste, protects important aspects of Ever Resource’s process for recovering lead from waste materials, including spent lead-acid battery paste, through a hydrometallurgical route. It follows the grant of a separate Chinese patent covering the desulfurisation of lead-containing waste.

Hydrometallurgy uses solution-based chemistry to recover and transform metals and offers an alternative to conventional high-temperature pyrometallurgical processing. Ever Resource’s technology is designed to recover lead from end-of-life batteries and convert it into material suitable for manufacturing new batteries, creating the opportunity to reduce energy consumption, emissions and waste while retaining valuable materials within the battery supply chain.

Securing a second patent in China is particularly significant given the country’s position at the centre of global battery manufacturing and lead-acid battery production.

Ever Resource has achieved a remarkable milestone by being named “Global Start-Up of the Year” at the 2024 UK Start-Up Awards National Final, held at Ideas Fest in September 2024. This prestigious national recognition follows Ever Resource’s earlier success in May, where the company secured both the “Cleantech Start-Up of the Year” and “Global Start-Up of the Year” titles at the East of England regional awards.

The UK Start-Up Awards were established to highlight the success of start-ups across ten UK nations and regions, including the East of England, and to celebrate the achievements of entrepreneurs in all sectors of the economy. The awards are supported nationally by Starling Bank.

Ever Resource, founded in 2020 by Dr. Athan Fox and Mr Miles Freeman, is pioneering advanced battery upcycling technologies. Our innovative approach not only recycles materials but enhances them, introducing new features that surpass the capabilities of the original materials while reducing the carbon footprint by 85% and waste by at least 90%. This process currently focuses on lead-acid batteries, with plans to expand into zinc and other battery chemistries.

Ever Resource’s journey from regional recognition to national acclaim underscores the company’s commitment to innovation and sustainability in the battery recycling industry.

Following our acquisition of Infinion, a Luxembourg-based battery recycling company with operations in Sweden, we are excited to launch a new European initiative: upcycling zinc and manganese from end-of-life alkaline batteries.

Infinion, founded by Hydrovolt co-founders Anders Bonde Bakken and Peter Qvarfordt, has been rebranded as Regenerate Technology Europe and integrated into our operations. Located just outside Västerås City, our Kolbäck facility spans 204,000 square feet and specialises in non-ferrous scrap trading and automotive scrap processing.

We are initiating an alkaline battery recycling line with an ambitious mission: to recover zinc and manganese from spent alkaline batteries and produce upcycled compounds that surpass both primary industry standards and current recycled materials. These superior-performance materials are intended for use in next-generation energy storage solutions, including zinc-air and zinc-ion batteries.

Ever Resource announced a major validation milestone following the independent audit of Regenerate, their next-generation lead-acid battery recycling technology. The audit, conducted at the Regenerate facility in Bergamo, Italy, confirmed a remarkable 94% reduction in energy consumption compared to traditional smelting.

The breakthrough comes alongside an 84% reduction in carbon emissions and more than 90% reduction in landfill waste, making the Regenerate process one of the cleanest and most advanced solutions for lead-acid battery recycling worldwide.

But the innovation goes beyond sustainability. Regenerate’s patented process upcycles waste into a next-generation leady oxide, delivering up to 40% higher energy density in battery performance when compared to both mined and state-of-the-art recycled alternatives.

“This is upcycling, not just recycling, and the results speak for themselves,” said Dr Athan Fox, Co-Founder of Ever Resource.

Cambridge-based start-up Ever Resource has been named “Cleantech Start-Up of the Year” and “Global Start-Up of the Year” at the 2024 East of England Start-Up Awards.

The UK Start-Up Awards were established to highlight the success of start-ups across ten UK nations and regions, including the East of England, and to celebrate the achievements of entrepreneurs in all sectors of the economy.

The awards are supported nationally by Starling Bank. Harriet Rees, CIO at Starling Bank says: “Turning an idea into a successful business takes a lot of courage and dedication. Congratulations to Ever Resource on winning their category in the East of England and making it to this year’s UK national final. Start-ups need certainty to plan ahead. It’s great to see so many thrive, especially in these challenging economic times”.

Nearly 70,000 new firms were created in the East of England in 2023 and according to Professor Dylan Jones-Evans OBE, creator of the awards, this demonstrates the growing importance of entrepreneurs to the regional economy. He is also excited that the awards are, yet again, recognising the best new firms from Cambridge to East Anglia to Essex and celebrating the amazing entrepreneurial talent from every corner of the region.

He said: “Start-ups are the life of any economy and that is especially true in the East of England where those new businesses are contributing to job creation, innovation, and prosperity across the whole of this entrepreneurial region. It’s been an honour and a pleasure to read the stories of those founders who have spotted the opportunity and taken the risk to launch their own venture. All of the winners have demonstrated that they deserve to win their categories and I’m looking forward to having the ‘best of the best’ from the East of England competing at the UK final later this year”.

As a regional winner in their category, Ever Resource will now progress to the UK Start-Up Awards final being held at Ideas Fest on September 12th, dubbed ‘the Glastonbury for Entrepreneurs’.