Doosan Enerbility is entering into a strong partnership with L&F to promote growth of its eco-friendly lithium production business. L&F, which is headquartered in Daegu city, is a leading manufacturer of cathode active materials for lithium-ion secondary batteries.
Doosan Enerbility announced on November 1st that it had signed a memorandum of understanding with L&F on “Cooperation for the Battery Materials Recycling Business.” The MoU signing ceremony that was held at the Bundang Doosan Tower in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province was attended by Yongjin Song, CSO of Doosan Enerbility, and SuAn Choi, CEO of L&F, among others.
With the signing of this MoU, L&F will be supplying the waste cathode powder generated from the production of cathode materials, while Doosan will be performing the extraction of lithium from the cathode powder. The cathode material is a key raw material of batteries which determines the battery capacity and output. Lithium is a critical component of cathode materials that is mostly used in the batteries of IT devices, such as laptops and mobile phones, and that of electric vehicles.
“With the battery market, along with the electric vehicle market, growing at a rapid pace these days, the demand for lithium is also steadily on the rise,” said Yongjin Song, CSO of Doosan Enerbility. He added, “We aim to create a virtuous cycle for the battery recycling business through cooperation with L&F, and will be using this as a basis to actively participate in the rapidly growing lithium market.”
Last year Doosan Enerbility developed the technology of extracting lithium by reusing the waste powder generated from the cathode material production process. This technology being Doosan’s very own patented technology involves heat treatment of the waste powder and the usage of distilled water to selectively separate lithium, after which lithium carbonate is extracted by applying the electro-adsorption crystallization technique. This method is more simple and economical compared to the conventional extraction methods, and also has the advantage of being eco-friendly as no chemicals are used.
