According to a report by Nihon Keizai Shimbun on March 28, Japan’s Sumitomo Metal Mines (abbreviation: Sumitomo Mines) has recently developed a method to recover the rare metal cobalt, which is the main material, from used lithium-ion batteries equipped with pure electric vehicles (EVs) as battery materials. New technologies for repurposing. It will be put into practical use as soon as 2021. Cobalt is one of the indispensable raw materials for batteries, but its origin is limited to Africa. With the popularity of pure electric vehicles, insufficient supply will be the most worrying issue in the future. New technologies will provide a timetable for the recycling and reuse of cobalt and speed up response to supply risks. Lithium-ion batteries are the core components of pure electric vehicles. It consists of positive electrode material, negative electrode material and isolation layer. Cobalt is a material used in cathode materials and plays an important role in battery quality such as stabilizing the internal temperature of the battery. Sumitomo Mining smelts cobalt from ore in smelters in Southeast Asia and other places, and then processes it into battery materials for pure electric vehicles in Japan, giving it an advantage in one-stop production. It also supplies large automotive battery companies such as Panasonic. This time, when cobalt was extracted from used batteries, high-quality cobalt material was successfully extracted by optimally controlling the temperature of the melted batteries. With the development of recycling technology for cobalt, which has been a source of concern for supply shortages, cobalt can be more stably secured, and it is possible to promote low-cost pure electric vehicles in the future. Sumitomo Mining has established a pilot plant to verify new technologies in Niihama City, Ehime Prefecture, Japan. Impurities are removed from recycled used batteries and rare metals such as cobalt, nickel and copper are recovered. The plan is to first verify feasibility with a small-scale plant and then build a new practical chemical plant. Other Japanese rivals such as JX Metals are also developing technology to recycle cobalt from used batteries. However, the technical characteristic of Sumitomo Mine is that it does not simply recycle the cobalt material itself, but recycles it in the form of battery materials that can be quickly used for itself or for pure electric vehicles. Eliminating the need to process cobalt into battery materials may also contribute to the cost reduction of pure electric vehicles. Japanese companies are accelerating the development of battery reuse technology for pure electric vehicles because of the risk of cobalt shortages as global demand for pure electric vehicles expands. According to data from the research company Fuji Keizai (located in Chuo-ku, Tokyo), global sales of pure electric vehicles in 2025 are expected to increase to about 7.5 times that of 2017, reaching about 5.8 million units. It is expected to increase rapidly, mainly in the Chinese market. On the other hand, from the perspective of cobalt production, the Democratic Republic of the Congo accounts for about 60%, and the production areas are uneven. It is estimated in the industry that as pure electric vehicles become more popular in the future, the supply of cobalt will be overall lower than the demand starting from 2022. In addition, cobalt is a by-product of nickel and copper, so increasing cobalt production alone is not easy. Mastering the recycling and reuse technology of cobalt from used batteries has become a top priority as one of the few means to achieve stable supply. Out of a sense of crisis, Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry is also taking action. The ministry has appealed to Japan's major domestic automobile manufacturers and battery companies to form a joint venture to promote cobalt security in fiscal 2019, and is currently coordinating. Discuss joint procurement and stockpiling of cobalt, and exchange supplies between companies as needed. Forecasts from the Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association show that the full emergence of scrapped vehicles such as pure electric vehicles and other environmentally friendly vehicles will have to wait until after 2025.

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