SK Innovation’s battery recycling technology gets recognised by U.S

South Korea’s largest energy and chemical company SK Innovation’s electric vehicle (EV) battery recycling technology has been recognised by Argonne National Laboratory which is a U.S based research centre.

The company’s battery recycling technology has been recognised for its superiority in reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

The research centre, Argonne National Laboratory, which comes under the U.S Department of Energy has verified SK Innovation’s technology to be eco-friendly through its life cycle assessment test.

SK Innovation’s technology is used to extract raw materials needed for making EV batteries and it was mentioned by U.S. research centre that it could profoundly contribute in reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Due to high demand for electric vehicles, recycling of used EV batteries has also increased.

Battery recycling firms follow a wet process to extract key substances such as cobalt, nickel and manganese from the used batteries from used batteries before extracting lithium which results in low rates of purity and recovery.

In a Statement SK innovation said

“As the world-renowned U.S. national research institute recognised the eco-friendly nature of our technology, we expect we will have growing business opportunities with global EV makers regarding the recycling of used EV batteries.”

The battery metal technology used to manufacture lithium hydroxide by SK innovation will reduce gas emission by 74 per cent compared to sourcing lithium from mining sites, the Argonne National Laboratory said in a statement.

When the technology is applied to anode manufacturing, a core material for lithium-ion batteries,

The institution said battery producers could reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 47 percent compared to mining sites and 39 percent compared to lithium salt lakes.

Argonne National Laboratory has developed a life cycle analysis tool called GREET with the support of Department of energy. which stands for “greenhouse gases, regulated emissions and energy use in technologies”