SK Innovation announced Wednesday it is entering the global battery recycling market by licensing its battery metal recycling technology to KBR, a Texas-based energy solutions provider.

Kim Pil-seok, head of the Institute of Environmental Science and Technology at SK Innovation, and Gautham Krishnaiah, chief technology officer of KBR, attended the signing ceremony for the memorandum of understanding Tuesday at the Fastmarkets European Battery Raw Materials Conference 2025 held in Lisbon, Portugal.

Under the agreement, SK Innovation's BMR technology, which directly recovers lithium hydroxide from used batteries through a prerecovery method, will be integrated with KBR's advanced PureLi purification system. KBR will commercialize and market this solution globally, while SK Innovation will be entitled to royalty payments.

SK Innovation's BMR technology differs from conventional methods by prerecovering lithium as lithium hydroxide directly from used batteries before extracting other metals like nickel, cobalt and manganese. On the other hand, traditional recycling typically recovers lithium later as lithium carbonate, often with lower purity.

KBR's high-purity crystallization technology effectively removes impurities from lithium-containing solutions, producing battery-grade lithium hydroxide through a continuous cooling and recrystallization process.

Since 2017, SK Innovation has been developing its BMR technology by combining innovative research with expertise in refining and petrochemicals to overcome the limitations of existing lithium recovery methods.

In 2021, the company established a commercial-scale demonstration plant at its Institute of Environmental Science and Technology in Daejeon, capable of recovering enough lithium hydroxide directly from spent batteries to power approximately 800 electric vehicles annually. It has also secured over 100 domestic and international patents for producing high-purity lithium.

Kim stated, "SK Innovation's innovative lithium recovery technology is well-equipped to meet the EU Battery Directive's stringent recycling targets. The lithium recovered through this process has already been validated for battery performance. We are committed to leading the global battery recycling industry with a strong focus on environmental sustainability and regulatory compliance."

SK Innovation, KBR team up on battery recycling