Gwangju City Leads in Waste Battery Resource Recycling Technology

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[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Park Jin-hyung] Gwangju Metropolitan City announced on the 18th that the Korea Institute of Energy Technology (Gwangju Bioenergy Research Center) has been selected as the lead institution for the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy's first new support project of 2022, "Development of Innovative Low-Carbon and High-Value Electrode Material Remanufacturing Technology."

The Korea Institute of Energy Technology will serve as the lead institution, with participation from over 20 organizations and companies including the Korea Construction Living Environment Testing & Research Institute (Battery Center) and the Korea Institute of Industrial Technology. The project, titled "Development of Low-Carbon Integrated Technology for High-Value Resource Circulation of Electric Vehicle Waste Battery Cathodes," will be carried out over five years until 2026 with national funding of 24 billion KRW.

This project, jointly planned by Gwangju City and the Korea Institute of Energy Technology, aims to safely separate waste cathode materials from electric vehicle battery packs and develop technology to upcycle them into high-quality cathode materials. The goal is to reduce carbon emissions and costs associated with the resource circulation of waste battery cathode materials.

Gwangju hosts an annual production plant for 420,000 electric vehicle battery packs, along with facilities such as the Redox Flow Battery Testing and Certification Center, the Eco-friendly Vehicle Parts Certification Center, and the Gwangju Green Energy ESS Power Generation Regulatory Free Zone. These have continuously expanded the foundation for fostering the next-generation battery industry. Through this waste battery remanufacturing technology development, a resource circulation base will be established, expected to drive sustainable growth and synergy in the battery industry.

Kwon Dae-hyuk, Director of the Energy Industry Division, stated, "As the electric vehicle market expands, the importance of developing waste battery recycling processes to realize a carbon-neutral era is increasing. We expect that the development of innovative technologies for safe dismantling and remanufacturing of waste batteries will activate resource circulation of waste batteries and strengthen the competitiveness of the secondary battery industry."

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