The Korea Institute of Machinery and Materials (KIMM, President Park Sang-jin), under the Ministry of Science and ICT, analyzed waste battery recycling as a new growth engine for Korea's battery industry.

The Korea Institute of Machinery and Materials (KIMM) published the 109th issue of its Machinery Technology Policy, titled "Global Trends and Implications of the Waste Battery Recycling Industry," which analyzes global trends in waste battery recycling and outlines promising technologies and activation measures. The institute also predicted that investment at the national level would be necessary to secure a leading position in the waste battery recycling market.

According to global market research firm SNE Research, the global waste battery market is projected to grow at an average annual rate of 33%, reaching approximately 68 trillion won by 2040, and global battery manufacturers from various countries are scrambling to enter the waste battery recycling market.

At the national level, major countries such as the United States, Europe, and China are expanding battery recycling policies to address the rapidly increasing generation of waste batteries as part of their efforts to achieve carbon neutrality. In particular, latecomers to the battery industry, such as Europe, are showing signs of leveraging the trends of carbon neutrality and recycling as an opportunity to secure market dominance.

There are three main ways to utilize waste batteries: reuse, remanufacturing, and recycling. Among these methods, recycling involves dismantling and crushing waste batteries to extract valuable raw materials such as lithium and cobalt. For Korea, which relies on imports for most battery raw materials, securing technology for the resource recovery of waste batteries through recycling is crucial.

In order for Korea to secure a leading position in the waste battery recycling market, it is necessary to plan inter-ministerial R&D programs considering the characteristics of recycling technology that require multidisciplinary convergence research, induce investment by clarifying the profit structure of resources generated through recycling, and establish standardized evaluation methods and verification measures to ensure the safety of waste batteries.

In order to contribute to securing a leading position in Korea's waste battery recycling market, the Korea Institute of Machinery and Materials is conducting joint research with related companies and universities to develop optimal recycling process technologies for used lithium secondary batteries with support from the Ministry of Science and ICT, the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, and others.

Kim Cheol-hoo, a senior researcher at the Mechanical Technology Policy Center of the Korea Institute of Machinery and Materials, said, “Waste battery recycling is a field expected to become a huge market in the future. It is a future growth engine that Korea, which possesses global battery manufacturers but must import 100% of its raw materials for battery manufacturing, cannot afford to miss.” He added, “In addition to expanding related R&D and investment, close cooperation among government ministries is necessary to revitalize the waste battery recycling industry.”

The Korea Institute of Machinery and Materials (KIMM) publishes the specialized journal 'Machine Technology Policy' at least four times a year, which analyzes trends in the machinery industry and proposes policies, and fulfills the role of a think tank as a national research institute in the field of machinery. You can subscribe to and download 'Machine Technology Policy' from the KIMM website (https://www.kimm.re.kr/).