Vedanta Aluminium Announces Breakthrough Process for Recovering Graphite from Aluminium Industry Waste
12th May 2025
- On National Technology Day 2025, company showcases a game-changing innovation aligned with this year’s theme – by transforming industrial waste into a strategic national resource.
New Delhi; May 12th, 2025: On National Technology Day 2025, Vedanta Aluminium, India’s largest aluminium producer, announced that a patent has been granted for its breakthrough technology that enables the recovery of high-purity graphite (>99%) from aluminium industry waste. This achievement exemplifies the spirit of this year’s theme: ‘YANTRA – Yugantar for Advancing New Technology, Research & Acceleration’ – by transforming industrial waste into a strategic national resource.
As the nation celebrates National Technology Day, Vedanta Aluminium’s patent is a testament to Indian industry’s capacity for deep-tech innovation, aligned with national missions like Atmanirbhar Bharat, National Critical Minerals Mission, and Net Zero goals.
The patented process is developed by Vedanta Aluminium’s in-house Research & Development (R&D) team in collaboration with the CSIR – Institute of Minerals and Materials Technology (IMMT), Bhubaneswar. It recovers battery-grade graphite from Spent Pot Lining (SPL) and Shot Blast Dust, the two waste streams generated during aluminium production. This innovation not only aligns with India’s circular economy and sustainability priorities but also holds the potential to significantly reduce India’s dependence on imported graphite, which currently exceeds 70%.
The recovered graphite has demonstrated exceptional electrical conductivity and structural properties suitable for lithium-ion battery applications. Its atomic structure makes it highly effective for lithiation and de-lithiation, processes critical to battery performance.
Rajiv Kumar, CEO, Vedanta Aluminium, said, “With India’s demand for electric vehicles, energy storage, and high-tech electronics set to skyrocket, our patented solution is both timely and transformative. It strengthens our contribution to India’s critical minerals roadmap while advancing our vision of zero-waste, future-ready manufacturing.”
In 2024, India imported approximately $41 million worth of natural graphite, positioning it among the top three importers in the Asia-Pacific region, alongside South Korea and Japan. This substantial import value underscores India’s continued reliance on foreign sources for critical minerals essential to high-tech industries, including electric vehicles and renewable energy storage. Vedanta Aluminium’s patented technology for recovering high-purity graphite from aluminium industry waste offers a promising solution to reduce this dependency, aligning with national objectives for self-reliance in critical mineral resources.
About Vedanta Limited:
Vedanta Limited, a subsidiary of Vedanta Resources Limited, is one of the world’s leading Oil & Gas and Metals company with significant operations in Oil & Gas, Zinc, Lead, Silver, Copper, Iron Ore, Steel, and Aluminium & Power across India, South Africa and Namibia. For two decades, Vedanta has been contributing significantly to nation building. Governance and sustainable development are at the core of Vedanta's strategy, with a strong focus on health, safety, and environment. Vedanta has put in place a comprehensive framework to be the ESG leader in the natural resources sector. Vedanta is committed to reducing carbon emissions to zero by 2050 or sooner and has pledged $5 billion over the next 10 years to accelerate the transition to net zero operations. Giving back is in the DNA of Vedanta, which is focused on enhancing the lives of local communities. The company’s flagship social impact program, Nand Ghars, have been set up as model anganwadis focused on eradicating child malnutrition, providing education, healthcare, and empowering women with skill development. Under the aegis of the Anil Agarwal Foundation, the umbrella entity for Vedanta’s social initiatives, the Vedanta group has pledged Rs 5000 crore over the next five years on social impact programmes with a thrust on nutrition, women & child development, healthcare, animal welfare, and grass-root level sports. Vedanta and the group companies have been featured in Dow Jones Sustainability Index, and was conferred Frost & Sullivan Sustainability Awards 2020, Golden Peacock Award for excellence in Corporate Governance 2022 and certified as a Great Place to Work 2022. Vedanta Limited is listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange and the National Stock Exchange.
For more information, please visit www.vedantalimited.com
About Vedanta Aluminium Business:
Vedanta Aluminium, a business of Vedanta Limited, is India’s largest producer of aluminium, manufacturing more than half of India’s aluminium i.e., 2.37 million tonnes in FY24. It is a leader in value-added aluminium products that find critical applications in core industries. Vedanta Aluminium ranks 1st in the S&P Global Corporate Sustainability Assessment 2023 world rankings for the aluminium industry, a reflection of its leading sustainable development practices. With its world-class aluminium smelters, alumina refinery and power plants in India, the company fulfils its mission of spurring emerging applications of aluminium as the ‘Metal of the Future’ for a greener tomorrow.
For more information, please log on to www.vedantaaluminium.com
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Disclaimer:
This press release contains “forward-looking statements” – that is, statements related to future, not past, events. In this context, forward-looking statements often address our expected future business and financial performance, and often contain words such as “expects,” “anticipates,” “intends,” “plans,” “believes,” “seeks,” “should” or “will.” Forward-looking statements by their nature address matters that are, to different degrees, uncertain. For us, uncertainties arise from the behaviour of financial and metals markets including the London Metal Exchange, fluctuations in interest and or exchange rates and metal prices; from future integration of acquired businesses; and from numerous other matters of national, regional, and global scale, including those of a political, economic, business, competitive or regulatory nature. These uncertainties may cause our actual future results to be materially different than those expressed in our forward-looking statements. We do not undertake to update our forward-looking statements.
