POSCO Holdings has succeeded in localizing electrodialysis membranes, a key component for lithium extraction, with a small but promising Korean company.
On Dec. 14, POSCO Holdings and WSK announced that they signed a business agreement to jointly develop electrodialysis membranes for lithium production at WSK Plant 1 in Ochang, North Chungcheong Province.
The localization of electrodialysis membranes will enable POSCO Holdings to reduce the cost of core components and even secure procurement for a lithium commercialization plant currently under construction. Electrodialysis membranes are a core component applied to POSCO Holdings’ unique lithium extraction technology, but there has been no manufacturer of them in Korea, so the company has used imported electrodialysis membranes.
Therefore, the two companies started jointly developing electrodialysis membranes in 2021 and succeeded in localizing them. They will be applied to POSCO Holdings’ lithium commercialization plant beginning from 2024.
POSCO Holdings’ lithium extraction technology is a process that applies electrodialysis. By applying electricity to a stack of membranes that selectively pass certain substances, lithium hydroxide with high purity can be produced by a flowing lithium solution. It is environmentally friendly and has low maintenance costs because it does not generate byproducts and can recover them.
POSCO Holdings completed the first ore-based lithium hydroxide commercialization plant in Korea on Nov. 29. It is also building a brine-based lithium hydroxide commercialization plant in Argentina. Once completed, these plants will build a lithium hydroxide production system with a capacity of 43,000 tons per year based on ore and 50,000 tons per year based on brine.
With a total capacity of 93,000 tons of lithium hydroxide plants currently under construction, POSCO Holdings aims to expand its lithium production capacity to 423,000 tons per year by 2030, joining the club of the top three global lithium suppliers, and strengthen its entire value chain in the secondary battery materials business.