Ecopro Innovation and Hydro-Québec announced on the 12th that they signed an agreement for the 'joint development of next-generation lithium metal anodes' last week at the InterContinental Hotel in Seoul. Representatives from both companies, including Kim Yoon-tae, CEO of Ecopro Innovation; Pierre-Luc Maquis, research director at Hydro-Québec; Damien Ferreira, representative of the Government of Québec; and John Zimmermann, representative of the Canadian Embassy, attended the ceremony alongside executives and representatives from the State Governments of Canada.
With this agreement, Ecopro Innovation and Hydro-Québec will conduct joint research and establish pilot facilities for lithium metal anode production for secondary batteries by next year. They plan to eventually establish semi-production pilot facilities.
Ecopro Innovation is a company that converts lithium carbonate into high-purity lithium hydroxide. It has a production capacity of 26,000 tons (t) of lithium hydroxide annually and has supplied a total of 32,000 tons of lithium hydroxide to battery cell companies, including Samsung SDI, since 2022.
Hydro-Québec is a power company owned by the Government of Québec, which operates a research institute called 'CEETSE' with extensive experience in battery material development. CEETSE has made leading investments in the field of lithium metal anodes and all-solid-state batteries since the early 1980s. In particular, it has played a significant role in the development and commercialization of essential technologies for lithium iron phosphate (LFP) cathode materials through joint research with Professor John Goodenough, a Nobel Prize winner in Chemistry.
Unlike graphite anodes, which store lithium ions through tiny internal spaces, lithium metal anodes are made entirely of lithium metal. The theoretical ion storage capacity of lithium metal is more than 10 times higher than that of graphite, and batteries equipped with lithium metal anodes are assessed to achieve an energy density that is 40 to 50% improved compared to existing lithium-ion batteries. However, commercialization has faced challenges due to high costs and relatively short lifespans.
Kim Yoon-tae, CEO of Ecopro Innovation, noted, 'With this agreement, I expect that Ecopro Innovation will expand its business area from lithium processing to lithium metal anode development, thereby gaining an advantage in all-solid-state batteries.'