The importance of recycling waste batteries is being recognized by all companies and technology development is continuing, but experts have analyzed that the position of a leader is still vacant.

Son Jeong-su, a researcher at the Battery Recycling Research Group at the Korea Institute of Geoscience and Mineral Resources, gave a presentation on the topic of ‘Current Status and Prospects of Electric Vehicle Battery Recycling Technology’ at a conference hosted by the Korea EV Technology Association at the K-BATTERY SHOW 2023 held at KINTEX on the 14th.

▲Son Jeong-su, researcher at the Battery Recycling Research Group at the Korea Institute of Geoscience and Mineral Resources

Researcher Son emphasized, “All companies are paying attention to the prospects of the waste battery business and are continuing to invest, but no one has yet conquered the market.”

He continued, “Not only electric vehicles, but also batteries used in cell phones are very sensitive to problems such as fire and explosion, so no one wants to use anything other than existing products.” He added, “True recycling is only possible when products are made and supplied using metals obtained through recycling.”uo; claimed.

He added, “To achieve this, we must not only focus on recycling technology, but also lead the industry together with companies that manufacture cells and companies that sell them.”

It is projected that the number of electric vehicles scrapped will exceed 40 million by 2040, and recycling technology for batteries, which account for approximately 30% of the entire electric vehicle's life cycle carbon footprint and more than 30% of the electric vehicle's price, is considered a very important technology in the economic sector.

In addition, the size of the waste battery recycling market is expected to continue to expand in response to trends such as the CRMA in Europe and the IRA in the United States, which place great importance on environmental friendliness.

Researcher Son Jeong-su went further and pointed out that the true meaning lies in creating high added value by recycling batteries.

Researcher Son reported that the topic of discussion at a recent international symposium held in Valencia, Spain, was black mass, which is produced after crushing residues generated during the waste battery processing process.

As electric vehicles become more widespread, mining and refining of rare metals has also increased, but this process has raised issues of human rights and environmental pollution, and there have even been suggestions that metals extracted from black mass should be mandatory in new products, he added.

Black mass contains rare metals such as cobalt, lithium, and nickel, making it key to recycling. However, it is difficult to name a company that is leading the process of making it, and it has been confirmed that latecomers are unable to make products with added value from black mass.

Researcher Son talked about the latest trends in recycling, saying that the trend is to build automated processes that can minimize operating personnel and secure worker stability, and that processes that reduce environmental pollution compared to brine/mechanical power generation are actively being introduced with discharge-free crushing technology.

He cited Canada's Li-Cycle as a notable company in black mass manufacturing, explaining that it is the only company to have commercialized the technology.

LG Chem and LG Energy Solution also invested in Lifecycle in 2021.

Lifecycle also demonstrated the process of crushing a 700kg battery pack without discharging or disassembling it, using a patented solution that reduced the risk of fire and explosion and drew attention as an environmentally friendly process.

Lifecycle will begin producing nickel sulfate to supply to LG Energy Solution at its Rochester Hub (post-processing facility) in the United States, which is expected to be operational in the second half of 2023 with a capacity to process up to 35,000 tons of black mass annually.

Researcher Son Jeong-su said that if a system can be operated year-round, it could be a game changer.

SK Ecoplant announced on the 10th that it will build Korea's first secondary battery recycling plant in Gyeongju, and once the processing facility is completed in 2026, it is expected to be able to process 10,000 tons of black mass per year.

SK Ecoplant also strengthens its competitiveness in the post-processing process with its own solvent extraction process.

We are currently pursuing internalization of technologies such as solvent extraction for low-cost, high-purity rare metal recovery and highly efficient, eco-friendly next-generation metal recovery.

POSCO is also actively working to reduce carbon dioxide emissions through recycling.

At 'Battery Korea 2023' held on the 1st, Park Jae-beom, a senior researcher at the POSCO Research Institute, mentioned the effect of recycling, saying that while the energy cost of core minerals is 200kWh/kg, recycling is 55kWh/kg, and carbon dioxide emissions are 10.3kg for mining and 2.8kg for recycling.

He added that recycling is very important, as it can supply about 10% of the total raw material requirements by 2030, including recycling of scrap (defective) generated during the battery manufacturing process.

The waste battery recycling process is largely divided into preprocessing and postprocessing.

The preprocessing process is the process of dismantling and crushing discharged batteries to create black mass, a black powder mixed with nickel, lithium, etc., and the postprocessing process is the process of extracting metals from the black mass.

There are two representative post-processing processes: wet process and dry process.

The wet process uses density and magnetism to separate black mass and aluminum, and then melts the black mass with sulfur, and then recovers nickel, cobalt, etc. through filtration, solvent, and leaching processes.

The wet process has the advantage of high metal recovery rate and the ability to recover various raw materials, and has the characteristics of low investment cost (CAPEX) but relatively high operating cost (OPEX).

A representative company that has chosen the wet process is Seongil Hi-Tech.

The dry process is carried out through heat treatment in a high-temperature furnace without going through a physical pretreatment process such as crushing.

The dry process, which classifies metals by using their unique properties such as weight and chemical bonding, has the advantage of allowing free mixing of raw materials and simplifying the pretreatment process.

On the other hand, there are issues with carbon dioxide emissions and the obstacle of high investment costs.

A representative company is Belgium's Umicore.

Researcher Son Jeong-su said, “No one has yet conquered the electric vehicle waste battery recycling market,” and, “If you are thinking about a recycling business, it is better to start with small batteries rather than recycling large-capacity batteries from the beginning. “It is important to expand,” he said.