Metallium Validates Multi-Unit Flash Joule Heating Operation with 83% Availability

Multi-Unit Operation Marks Crucial Scale-Up Step

Metallium Limited (ASX:MTM) has successfully completed its first multi-unit commissioning campaign for its proprietary Flash Joule Heating (FJH) technology, operating three reactor units simultaneously over a 12-hour period. The campaign achieved an 83% availability rate and nearly 100% utilisation, exceeding internal expectations for a maiden multi-unit run. This milestone represents a significant engineering validation of the platform’s scalability beyond laboratory-scale trials.

During the campaign, the three FJH units processed approximately 0.3 tonnes of inert test material across 18 successful batches, demonstrating stable fluidisation and coordinated operation of multiple reactors. Although the campaign focused on mechanical performance and process control rather than metallurgical outcomes or metal recovery, the throughput aligns with feed volumes expected from several tonnes per day of commercial feedstocks after preprocessing.

Advancing Technology Readiness and Operational Confidence

The campaign’s success advances Metallium’s FJH platform from Technology Readiness Level (TRL) 5 toward TRL 6, indicating integrated system validation under relevant operating conditions. The company gathered critical operational, instrumentation, and engineering data to inform future automation and process optimisation efforts.

Managing Director Michael Walshe highlighted the campaign’s role in underpinning the next development phase, which will involve multi-unit chlorination and metal recovery testing with commercial feedstocks. The company is currently awaiting chlorination permits for its interim Texas testing facility, a prerequisite for commencing these reactive commissioning campaigns.

Pathway to Commercial Deployment and Feedstock Campaigns

Metallium’s technology roadmap outlines a staged scale-up approach, with the current campaign validating mechanical and control systems using inert feedstock under nitrogen atmosphere. The upcoming multi-unit chlorination trials will test the chemistry, metal recovery efficiency, reagent utilisation, and process economics using real feedstocks such as catalytic converter scrap and electronic waste.

The company’s Texas Technology Campus remains central to demonstration-scale operations, although recent structural issues have necessitated roof repairs and the use of an interim testing site for the current campaign. Metallium expects to receive the necessary chlorination permits imminently to proceed with the next phase.

These developments come on the back of Metallium’s recent US$1 million Phase II SBIR contract award from the U.S. Department of War, supporting pilot-scale advancement of the FJH platform focused on critical metals like gallium and germanium. The company has also secured binding contracts for half of its targeted 8,000 tonnes per annum printed circuit board feedstock, reinforcing its commercial scale-up trajectory.