Ecopro "Battery Recycling Production Capacity to Double by 2027"

EcoPro announced plans to expand its battery recycling business and double its production capacity by 2027.

EcoPro recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to establish an Alliance for the Activation of the Battery Ecosystem with Kia, Hyundai Glovis, EVASYCLE, Gyeongbuk Provincial Government, and Gyeongbuk Technopark, agreeing to expand its recycling domain to include electric vehicle (EV) waste batteries. EcoPro CNG, responsible for battery recycling, currently has an annual production capacity (CAPA) of about 30,000 tons. The company plans to begin construction of a second plant within this year and start full-scale operations in the first quarter of 2025. Furthermore, EcoPro aims to establish production lines overseas in countries such as Hungary and Canada, targeting a total capacity of 61,000 tons by 2027.

EcoPro Recycle’s Strength: Closed Loop System

EcoPro officially entered the battery recycling sector in 2020 with the establishment of EcoPro CNG. The company has led the battery recycling business by completing the world’s first 'EcoBattery Pohang Campus' and creating a closed loop eco-system for battery materials, known as the Closed Loop Eco-System?a comprehensive circular system.

The Closed Loop Eco-System refers to the entire process of the battery ecosystem, from lithium hydroxide to precursor, cathode materials, and recycling. EcoPro CNG leads the battery recycling business. It benefits from a synergistic effect by sourcing scrap (defective products) generated during the manufacturing process of its family company EcoPro BM, which produces cathode materials and is located in the same facility. This structure differentiates it from other companies that procure materials externally.

EcoPro also recycles battery scrap from LG Energy Solution’s plants in Poland and Ochang, forming a stable supply chain.

Differentiation in Recycling Technology through Wet Process Adoption

EcoPro CNG’s recycling method is another point of differentiation. Recycling processes are divided into dry and wet processes. The dry process involves pulverizing scrap and removing organic materials through calcination (thermal treatment). The wet process dissolves black powder in acid to separate and extract lithium and precipitates, instead of calcination. Black powder is a black powder collected after crushing lithium-ion batteries, containing nickel, lithium, cobalt, manganese, and other intermediate raw materials.

EcoPro CNG mainly adopts the wet process, which offers a much higher lithium recovery rate compared to the dry process. After extracting lithium first, the precipitate containing nickel, cobalt, and manganese is sent to EcoPro Materials, where it undergoes the RMP process (refining metal sulfates with low-purity intermediates to produce high-purity metal sulfates) to remove impurities.

Based on these strengths, EcoPro is working to establish a battery circular economy system not only in Korea but also in the United States and Europe. Following last year’s MOU with Ascend Elements in the U.S. for battery recycling cooperation, EcoPro signed another MOU in March this year with SK Ecoplant and its subsidiary TES to enter the European waste battery recycling market.

Park Seokhoe, CEO of EcoPro CNG, stated, "Our competitive edge is rooted in the collaborative system with family companies located at the Pohang Campus, from raw material procurement to the wet process. We plan to further strengthen the ecosystem for automotive OEMs and waste batteries."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.