Mintec (CEO Hong Young-jin), a company specializing in secondary battery inspection and diagnosis, announced that it has been selected as a joint research and development institution for the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport's project titled 'Used Battery Safety Inspection Technology and Remanufactured Battery Circulation System Safety Management Technology Development.' The government support fund for Mintec amounts to a total of 3.6 billion KRW over 3 years and 8 months.
This project aims to develop a three-stage safety inspection technology for establishing a classification system for used electric vehicle batteries and to develop a safety management system technology to ensure the safety of remanufactured batteries.
The government plans to demonstrate the safety inspection and safety management of the circulation system for used electric vehicle batteries through this project and to implement related legislation and mandatory pre-removal performance inspections of electric vehicle batteries starting in 2027.
Used electric vehicle batteries refer to batteries removed from electric vehicles after use. The current classification system for used batteries distinguishes between remanufacturing, which involves replacing or repairing components and reassembling them into electric vehicle batteries; reuse, which involves replacing or repairing components and reassembling them for other purposes such as energy storage systems (ESS); and recycling, which involves crushing and processing used batteries to extract valuable metals such as lithium, cobalt, and nickel.
According to the 'Secondary Battery Full-Cycle Industry Competitiveness Enhancement Plan' jointly announced in December 2023 by the Ministry of Economy and Finance, Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, and Ministry of Environment, the government stated its intention to systematically foster the industrial ecosystem by creating markets for remanufacturing, reuse, and recycling of used electric vehicle batteries and to conduct safety inspections in three stages for used electric vehicle batteries.
The safety inspection of used batteries first evaluates the remaining performance and safety before removing the battery from the electric vehicle to classify its use into remanufacturing, reuse, or recycling. The second stage is the pre-distribution safety inspection, which establishes inspection standards for the safe operation of products equipped with remanufactured or reused batteries. The final third stage is the post-inspection phase, which sets inspection standards to ensure continuous safety and quality maintenance for electric vehicles equipped with used batteries.
This project is being carried out to realize the government's planned three-stage safety inspection, and the development of technologies and equipment capable of inspecting the performance and safety of used electric vehicle batteries at each stage is essential. Mintec has been assigned to handle this part.
A Mintec representative explained, "Performance and safety inspections of high-voltage batteries have relied solely on the full charge-discharge method. Although the full charge-discharge method serves as the standard for measuring remaining life, it requires expensive charge-discharge equipment, takes a long time for inspection, and incurs very high costs, so an alternative method is needed. Mintec is providing the solution for this."
Mintec stated that it plans to reduce the inspection time to within 15 minutes while significantly lowering costs compared to the full charge-discharge method and enhancing the consistency of remaining life evaluation to the level of the full charge-discharge method.
© The Asia Business Daily(www.asiae.co.kr). All rights reserved.
