Chungcheongbuk-do (North Chungcheong Province) is expanding its battery industry ecosystem into the recycling sector. The move is expected to serve as a catalyst for upgrading the province's existing secondary battery manufacturing-centered industrial structure into a "resource-circular ecosystem."
The provincial government announced Monday that its "Eco-friendly and Safety Management Infrastructure for Secondary Battery Manufacturing Processes" project was selected in the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy's (MOTIE) 2026 Industrial Innovation Infrastructure Development Program. Chungbuk secured the project by combining the capabilities of regional research institutions including the Institute for Advanced Engineering (IAE) Chungcheong Campus (ICC), the Chungbuk Energy Industry-Academia Convergence Institute, and Korea National University of Transportation, based on cooperation with Chungju city.
The core objective of the project is to build demonstration infrastructure capable of reducing hazardous chemicals generated during battery recycling processes and preventing industrial accidents such as fires and explosions, going beyond secondary battery manufacturing. The project will also establish a foundation for evaluating and verifying resource circulation efficiency in recycling processes.
The project will run for five years from this year through 2030, with total investment of 18.17 billion won, including 10 billion won in central government funding. Major facilities will be located on the IAE Chungcheong Campus site within the Chungju Enterprise City.
A "full-cycle infrastructure" covering the entire process — from recycled metal recovery and refining to cathode material manufacturing, electrode and cell production, and performance evaluation — will be built in phases at the site. Environmental hazard diagnosis and monitoring systems for each manufacturing process will also be introduced. Secondary battery-related companies in the province will receive "eco-friendly and safe process technology consulting" for hazardous substance reduction and fire prevention.
Once completed, the facility will enable companies to conduct battery recycling process demonstration, prototype production, and performance evaluation for commercialization all in one location. This is expected to significantly strengthen corporate R&D competitiveness.
The importance of the "resource-circular secondary battery industry," which recovers critical minerals by recycling used batteries, is growing as electric vehicle and energy storage system (ESS) markets expand. With the European Union pushing to introduce the "Battery Passport," global environmental regulations are expected to tighten and the use of recycled raw materials is likely to become mandatory. As a result, securing "eco-friendly and safe processes" that reduce carbon emissions and hazardous substances across the entire lifecycle — from battery manufacturing to disposal and recycling — has emerged as a prerequisite for entering global markets.
"Through this project selection, we have laid the groundwork for extending Chungbuk's battery manufacturing ecosystem to the recycling sector," said Maeng Eun-young, director general of the AI Science and Talent Bureau at the Chungbuk provincial government. "We will do our best to ensure Chungbuk establishes itself as a sustainable, high-value-added 'resource-circular secondary battery cluster' by preemptively securing eco-friendly and safety technology standards for battery manufacturing and recycling processes."