Posted on 18 Sep 2025
SK Innovation said Wednesday it plans to license its waste battery recycling to US-based engineering giant KBR, targeting the commercialisation of lithium hydroxide recovery technology, Kallanish learns.
Under an MOU, KBR will combine SK Innovation’s Battery Metal Recycle (BMR) technology with its own high-purity crystallisation technology, known as PureLi, to sell the product globally. SK Innovation, part of the SK Group, will receive royalties.
The South Korean technology is said to “stand out” from existing methods because it initially recovers lithium from the black mass through a fluidised hydrogen reduction reaction. This innovative reaction involves injecting hydrogen gas into the fine particle form of black mass, causing it to become fluidised and move within the reactor, SK Innovation explains.
“As it interacts with hydrogen, lithium is selectively recovered, significantly enhancing both the efficiency and purity of lithium recovery while simplifying the process and ensuring environmental friendliness,” it adds.
Kallanish notes that traditional lithium recovery methods usually separate cobalt and nickel first, then precipitate lithium. This can result in low lithium recovery rates, SK argues.
According to Gautham Krishnaiah, chief technology officer of KBR, SK Innovation’s recovery technology has “superior economic feasibility compared to existing wet, dry, and carbon reduction technologies.”
SK Innovation built a commercialisation demonstration facility that can directly recover lithium hydroxide from about 800 electric vehicles annually at the Institute of Environmental Science and Technology in 2021. It has applied for over 100 patents domestically and abroad.
Without elaborating, the company claims battery performance using recovered lithium has already been verified. Further details, such as an estimated date for a binding agreement, are yet to be disclosed.
Source:Kallanish
