Doosan Enerbility is taking steps to lead the battery recycling sector, a market that is forecast to have huge growth potential. On July 28th, Doosan Enerbility announced that its Board of Directors had adopted the resolution the previous day to establish “Doosan Recycle Solution,” a subsidiary that is to specialize in the battery recycling business.
The battery recycling market is growing at a most rapid pace in line with the rise of the electric vehicle sector. According to the global market intelligence firm SNE Research, the global battery recycling market, which is estimated to have a size of approximately KRW 700 billion as of 2023, is forecast to grow more than 120 times to KRW 87 trillion by 2040.
In 2021, Doosan completed developing its own technology for extracting lithium from waste batteries, which was then followed by a successful demonstration project. Doosan Enerbility’s technology involves applying the heat treatment process to materials in waste batteries, after which distilled water is used to separate the lithium and the crystallization method is applied for extraction of the lithium carbonate. Compared to the conventional methods, this eco-friendly chemical-free process has the advantage of being more simple and economical, with improvements being provided in the areas of lithium purity and recovery rate.
“We decided to establish a new subsidiary, one with its own independent management system, to dominate the rapidly growing battery recycling market” said Jaehyuk Choi, Doosan Enerbility’s Strategy & Innovation Vice President, who has been overseeing the efforts for this project. “Equipped with Doosan’s competitive technology, we aim to expedite business growth through swift decision-making and by effectively leveraging our expertise.”
Doosan Recycle Solution will be working to expand business through cooperation with the raw materials suppliers. Once the company is established, the plan is to have a commercial manufacturing facility built and to start processing approximately 3,000 tons of materials per year for lithium extraction in the second half of 2025.