LG, SK, POSCO enter battery waste business to recycle nickel, lithium
來源：開云體育app官方網站發布日期：2023-01-27 06:53:20 瀏覽：69924
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| SK on's battery plant in Georgia, U.S. / Courtesy of SK |
By Kim Hyun-bin
LG, SK and POSCO are expanding their battery recycling investments, as costs for key materials such as nickel and lithium have been skyrocketing amid rapid growth of the electric vehicle (EV) market, according to company officials Thursday.
The price of nickel, the main material for EV batteries, soared 60 percent in one year, and the price of lithium jumped six-fold.
Leading battery makers such as SK and LG have established recycling businesses to extract major metals such as nickel, cobalt and lithium from battery waste.
LG Energy Solutions (LGES) agreed to secure a 2.6 percent stake in Recycle Canada, the largest battery recycling company in North America. It will also receive 20,000 tons of nickel a year, enough to manufacture 300,000 EV batteries.
In addition, Ultium Cells, a joint venture between LGES and GM, decided to construct a battery recycling facility at its Ohio battery plant in 2023.
"We are trying to build all businesses throughout the entire life cycle of batteries, including recycling of battery waste. Related domestic and foreign investments are also actively being made and reviewed," an LGES official said.
SK Innovation has developed its own lithium hydroxide recovery technology and applied for 54 patents. In addition, the mechanical construction of its Daejeon waste battery recycling plant was completed last December and the facility is currently in trial operation.
The company is expected to generate about 300 billion won in earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) from this business alone by recycling 30 gigawatt-hours of batteries per year by 2025.
"By 2040 more battery materials will come from used batteries than from mines. The supply will not be able to keep up with demand, so demand for recycling battery waste will increase drastically," an SK Innovation official said. "Also, it is more eco-friendly, as recycling produces 70 percent less carbon dioxide than mining nickel and 40 percent less carbon dioxide compared to extracting lithium from lithium hydrochloric acid."
According to SNE Research, the global battery recycling market is estimated to surge from $5.558 billion in 2030 to $57.395 billion in 2040.
In addition, POSCO, aiming to take a leap forward as an eco-friendly materials company, inked a joint venture with Huayou Cobalt in China to establish POSCO HY Clean Metal.
POSCO HY Clean Metal plans to process battery waste scraps from a European battery plant into black powder and then import it to extract nickel, lithium, cobalt and manganese, which are core materials for battery cathodes.
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