POSCO has completed the first lithium-ion battery production line for electric car batteries with an annual capacity of 1,500 tons. They will begin production in April.
Together with lithium carbonate,lithium hydroxide is an essential material for lithium secondary batteries. While lithium carbonate is used in notebooks and mobile phone batteries, lithium hydroxide is mainly used for high performance electric cars.
POSCO’s lithium hydroxide production line iconverts lithium phosphate recovered from waste secondary batteries into lithium hydroxide through a conversion enrichment process. This is more economical because it has a more than 80% recovery rate of lithium and it is environmentally friendly because no solid waste is generated. Furthermore, the company also explained, the impurities content is about one-third lower than that of its competitors.
POSCO plans to sell the lithium hydroxide to domestic and overseas battery makers, such as Samsung SDI Co. and LG Chem Ltd., after undergoing certification procedures. As a result of the company’s localization of high lithium hydroxide which has been entirely dependent on imports, it is expected that the domestic lithium secondary battery industry will gain a competitive edge.
“Lithium is the key growth engine of POSCO and has been in the early stages of commercialization thanks to the efforts of the past 8 years. POSCO will not only be responsible for lithium, but also for materials that have failed to be supplied in Korea,” said POSCO’s Chairman Kwon Oh-joon.
In 2010, POSCO developed the world’s first lithium direct extraction technology. Since February of last year, PosLX has been producing lithium carbonate at their plant in Gwangyang Steelworks.
With the successful production of lithium hydroxide after a year of producing lithium carbonate, it will be equipped with a 2,500-ton system (1,000-ton carbon dioxide and 1,500-ton lithium hydroxide) that produces both products simultaneously.
Currently, POSCO is producing lithium carbonate and lithium hydroxide from waste secondary batteries, and plans to install additional facilities that can be manufactured from lithium ore within this year to ensure a smooth supply of raw materials. In addition, it will also aggressively push to secure salt lakes to establish a plant that can use salt water, waste secondary batteries and lithium ore.
Meanwhile, the demand for lithium is expected to triple from 250,000 tons in 2017 to 710,000 tons by 2025, and the demand for lithium hydroxide, a major material for electric car batteries, is expected to soar as the electric car market expands.
