[ad_1]
LG Chem and LG Energy Solution are building a battery ecosystem that goes beyond simple battery manufacturing and covers everything from materials to battery waste recycling.
LG Chem announced on Dec. 21 that it will invest 24 billion won in battery recycling company Jae Young Tech. The two companies plan to start a battery recycling business in North America. LG Chem will create the business model, while Jae Young Tech will handle technology-related issues such as plant design.
Jae Young Tech has experience in extracting high purity lithium from lithium scrap or used batteries. Unlike existing companies that melt down batteries to extract manganese, cobalt and nickel and then lithium, the company has improved efficiency with a simple process of first thermally extracting the lithium. According to LG Chem, Jae Young Tech’s lithium recovery rate is over 85 percent, the highest in the world.
By partnering with Jae Young Tech, LG Chem and LG Energy Solution will be able to further strengthen their battery value chain.
Last June, LG Chem decided to form Korea Precursor Co., a joint venture with KEMCO, the Korean zinc division that produces nickel sulfate. The precursor material is an intermediate material for the cathode material made by mixing raw materials such as nickel, cobalt, manganese, and aluminum. Precursors account for about 70% of cathode material costs. LG Chem and KEMCO plan to produce precursors using recycled metals from used batteries and waste, not just KEMCO-produced nickel sulfate.
In China, LG Energy Solution plans to establish a joint venture with China’s Huayou Cobalt to recycle waste batteries. The plant will be built in Kuzhou, Zhejiang Province, China, and is operated by LG Chem. LG Energy Solutions will be responsible for the pretreatment of other battery waste. The joint venture will be responsible for the rapid processing of post-recycling. The metal mined here is made into cathode material and sent to LG Energy Solution’s battery plant in Nanjing, China.
In December last year, LG Chem signed a long-term nickel supply contract with Li-Cycle, North America’s largest battery recycling company. Li-Cycle extracts raw materials using an environmentally friendly wet method, which does not emit toxic substances during the extraction process and recycles 100 percent of waste water. It is understood that Li-Cycle will operate recycling plants located in Ohio and Arizona, USA, where LG Energy Solution’s battery plants are located.
LG Energy Solution has partnered with EcoPro CnG to recycle around 20,000 tons of waste annually from its battery plant in Wroclaw, Poland. In Poland, Korean battery recycling company Sungil Hitech plans to build a battery recycling facility near the LG Energy Solution plant. It is expected to be the only battery recycling plant in Poland.
LG Chem and LG Energy Solutions’ partnership with Indonesia’s Hyundai Motor Group in the Caravan electric vehicle and battery manufacturing base project includes battery recycling. The Karawang Electric Vehicle and Battery Manufacturing Base is expected to be a major industrial complex in Indonesia that integrates nickel mining and refining, making cathode precursor materials with nickel into batteries, charging into electric vehicles, and recycling waste batteries. The total investment amount will far exceed 10 trillion won.
[ad_2]
Source link
