Sumitomo – success in demonstration for secondary battery recycling technology, includes cobalt recovery.
Sumitomo Metal Mining Co., Ltd. (SMM) has verified that nickel and cobalt from secondary batteries such as used lithium ion batteries (LIB) can be reused as a raw material for cathode material of LIBs through recovery and purification.
Additionally, through our world-first original lithium recovery technology, we have established a new recycling process that is able to recycle copper, nickel, cobalt and lithium from used secondary batteries.
Aiming for the creation of a sustainable circular economy, SMM has been engaging in the
practical implementation of horizontal recycling* of metal as battery materials. These recycled
metals include used secondary batteries and scrap from manufacturing processes.
In 2017, the existing smelting and refining processes at the Toyo Smelter & Refinery (Saijo
City, Ehime Prefecture) and the Niihama Nickel Refinery (Niihama City, Ehime Prefecture) were
utilized in the practical implementation of copper and nickel recycling and we were able to realize Japan’s first “battery to battery” recycling with used secondary batteries.
Moreover, in 2019, through a combination of pyrometallurgical smelting and hydrometallurgical refining processes independent of our existing processes, we developed a new recycling process for the difficultto-recover cobalt and have continued to test it at the pilot plant we constructed in Niihama City, Ehime Prefecture.
Now, we have optimized processes at this pilot plant, and have been successful in the recovery
of a high-purity nickel-cobalt mixture by stably and efficiently separating out the impurities in
used secondary batteries. Moreover, we manufactured and evaluated LIB cathode material that
we made from the nickel-cobalt mixture.
We were able to verify that the performance of those batteries was equivalent to that of batteries manufactured using existing raw materials derived from natural resources. Additionally, we were successful in producing a soluble slag that enables lithium recovery by pyrometallurgical smelting processes which has heretofore been difficult.
Through integration of this world-first original technology into our processes, we have established a new recycling process that is able to recycle copper, nickel, cobalt and lithium from
used secondary batteries.
This technology and process were also developed to aim the resource recovery rate for used
secondary batteries laid out in the European Commission’s proposal for a battery regulation
that was proposed in December 2020.
Moving forward, we estimate that the electrification of automobiles is going to further develop
worldwide towards a low-carbon society. Through this, the demand for the nickel and cobalt
used in EVs is going to expand. However, stable supply is a major issue as these are rare metals,
and there are unbalances in the regions producing these resources and the location of extraction
technologies. Demand for recycling of these resources is growing greater than ever.
If we are able to commercialize this process, which has verified “battery to battery” recycling,
we expect to be able to take the domestic sustainable circular economy to the next level and to
make contributions to resource recycling in response to global resource depletion.
Moving forward, through our battery recycling initiatives, SMM will continue to engage in the
realization of becoming “a company that generates resources through high technological capabilities” laid out in the “Effective Use of Non-Ferrous Metal Resources” material issue of
our “Vision for 2030.”
Success in Demonstration Experiments for Secondary Battery Recycling Technology
That Includes Cobalt Recovery, August 16, 2021