Master’s Student Solves Secondary Battery Challenge... Pukyong National University Student Presents Waste Battery Recycling Solution

Hwang Minki’s Team Develops “Large Single-Particle Upcycling” Technology
Solving High Costs and Environmental Issues, Published in Top International Journal ‘Joule’

A graduate student in a master’s program has developed a new technology for recycling waste batteries, a challenge considered one of the most difficult in the secondary battery field, drawing attention from the academic community.

On December 2, National Pukyong University (President Bae Sanghoon) announced that Hwang Minki, a student in Professor Pilgeon Oh’s research team, has developed a synthesis technology that upcycles conventional secondary particle-type low-nickel waste materials into large single-particle high-nickel materials with a particle size of over 8 microns.

Research on recycling waste batteries has recently become one of the most prominent topics in the secondary battery field. As secondary batteries such as lithium-ion batteries are rapidly spreading across all industries-including electric vehicles, drones, and robots-there is a growing need for technologies that reuse spent batteries to reduce costs and address environmental pollution issues.

Overview diagram of recycled battery material synthesis using Direct Exposure Heating (DEH) technology.

However, existing methods for recycling waste battery materials, which involve melting them at high temperatures or using strong acids (downcycling), face commercial limitations due to high costs and environmental issues. To address these challenges, research on direct recycling methods has recently been underway, but until now, it was reported that only materials with particle sizes of 2 to 4 microns could be synthesized.

For the commercialization of waste battery materials, it is necessary to recycle them into large-particle materials. Hwang Minki’s research team succeeded in achieving this by designing and manufacturing dedicated equipment that applies direct exposure heating technology.

The research team was able to convert lithium-ion battery materials into structurally stable, large single-crystal particles under weak pressure of less than 5 MPa by eliminating the non-equilibrium heating lamp stage, thereby minimizing irreversible phase transitions.

The results of this research were published as a sole-corresponding study by Professor Pilgeon Oh’s research team in ‘Joule’ (Impact Factor 35.4 / JCR 1.5%), a top-tier international journal in the energy field.

Hwang Minki, Master's Degree Student at National Pukyong University.

While pursuing his master’s degree, Hwang planned the research, led the experiments, and wrote the paper, achieving the significant accomplishment of being published in a world-renowned academic journal. Including this paper, he has published six papers in domestic and international journals during his master’s program alone, earning recognition for his outstanding research achievements.

He said, “I think I was able to achieve good results because I did not give up and continued my research despite many failures. I want to continue building my research capabilities and solve all the major challenges in the battery field during my doctoral studies.”

He added, “In the long term, my goal is to become a professor and foster future generations while continuing my research.”

Professor Pilgeon Oh (Department of Nano Convergence Engineering), Hwang’s academic advisor, commented, “Currently, cathode recycling technology can only produce small-particle materials, so the current electrode design system, which uses both large and small particles, has allowed for only extremely limited adoption of recycled materials.”

Professor Oh explained, “This research not only accelerates the commercialization of lithium-ion battery recycling technology, but also proposes a new thermodynamic synthesis perspective for producing large-particle single materials from waste battery materials, paving the way for synthesizing a wider range of advanced materials.”

This research was supported by the Ministry of Environment’s specialized graduate school project for waste batteries and the Regional Innovation Mega Project.

Research team gathered in Professor Pilgeon Oh's laboratory. (From left: Master’s student Minki Hwang, Professor Pilgeon Oh, Chanwhi So, student Geumju Shin)

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