Exploring the responsibility of recycling lithium-ion batteries

Ministry of Industry and Information Technology Ministry of Science and Technology Ministry of Transport Ministry of Commerce Ministry of Commerce Quality Supervision Bureau of the Energy Bureau on the issuance of the "Interim Measures for the Management of Recycling and Utilization of New Energy Vehicles' power battery", clarifying the main responsibility of new Energy vehicle manufacturers to undertake the recovery of power batteries. Relevant enterprises fulfill corresponding responsibilities in all aspects of power battery recycling and utilization, and ensure the effective utilization and environmental protection of power storage batteries. However, the recycling and utilization of power batteries has a long chain, many links and a wide range, involving management systems, policy convergence and market mechanisms. New energy automobile production enterprises are in the middle of the power battery industry chain. They are neither battery manufacturers nor battery recycling enterprises. It is difficult to implement the responsibility in the future. The implementation effect remains to be seen, and effective coordination of various social systems is still needed. In particular, it requires the state's policy subsidy support in the battery scrapping and dismantling process and effective monitoring of scrapped battery companies.

1. The vehicle enterprise is the core of responsibility

The growth of automotive-based power lithium batteries is rapid. According to statistics, in 2009-2012, a total of 17,000 new energy vehicles were promoted, and the assembled power battery was about 1.2GWh. After 2013, new energy vehicles were widely promoted and applied. By the end of 2017, more than 1.8 million new energy vehicles were promoted, and the installed power batteries were about 86.9GWh. According to industry experts from the enterprise warranty period, battery cycle life, vehicle use conditions and other aspects of comprehensive measurement, after 2018, new energy vehicle power battery will enter the scale of decommissioning, is expected to exceed 200,000 tons (24.6GWh) by 2020, If 70% is available for ladder use, approximately 60,000 tons of batteries need to be disposed of.

The traditional multi-vehicle vehicle enterprise has a relatively strong marketing network, and the responsibility for sales vehicle after-sales maintenance is relatively important. However, with the development of electric vehicles, the new marketing model is continuously introduced, and the after-sales service of electric vehicles is relatively weak. After many consumers buy a car, they have basically lost contact with the production company. Especially with the transfer of used cars, it is difficult for the new energy vehicles to be grasped by the manufacturers, especially the new energy vehicles, including passenger cars and passenger cars. Three parts, poor passenger car, battery consumption is particularly large, the scrapping cycle is short, the management difficulty is relatively small, and the electric car, then the use of the ladder is more complicated, the recycling of used batteries, it should be said that the machine is difficult, but many cases Under the supervision of the whole vehicle enterprises on used vehicles and used batteries, although it is not enough,

Lithium battery manufacturers should say that the design performance of lithium battery products as well as dismantling is relative. In the power battery recycling system, there is no effective clear responsibility for power battery companies. It should be said that it is a pity. . In order to have a strategic industrial vision, in the future, with the continuous development of the industrialization of power batteries, large power battery companies will emerge rapidly. China should cultivate the enthusiasm and strengthen responsibilities of the recycling of resources of core battery companies. This should be the future battery recycling important considerations.

2. Lithium battery is widely used

Lithium-ion batteries are widely used as emerging energy storage components. The application fields of lithium-ion batteries have also evolved from small digital electronic products to large-scale energy storage products such as electric vehicles and energy storage power stations. According to the data, the total demand for lithium battery cells in the world's three major application terminals increased from 34GWh in 2011 to 129.4GWh in 2016, with a compound annual growth rate of 30.64%. It is estimated that by 2017, the global lithium battery cell demand will reach 160.9GWh. Among them, the largest use of consumer electronics energy storage batteries such as mobile phones and energy storage products of new energy vehicles, 17 years of new energy vehicle batteries should be the largest users, while energy storage power stations and other scales are relatively small.

After years of development, the lithium battery industry has formed a complete industrial chain with a high degree of specialized engineering, and the global lithium-ion battery market has made great progress. It should be said that the battery manufacturer is the technical authority of lithium batteries, and should have a strong technical advantage in the classification management of batteries and the use of ladders.

The lithium battery of the early consumer electronics products is large, and the scrapped batteries have not been effectively managed. The future lithium battery scrapping should be considered as a comprehensive consideration for all kinds of lithium batteries. Especially for the recycling of lithium batteries, a unified social recycling system should be formed, and a collection of power battery consumption batteries to the recycling of the East Star squad leader, so that the division of labor in each department can be achieved, and the respective work can be done. An intermediate link in the chain makes it difficult to effectively monitor the scrapped batteries. The recycling system for scrapped batteries in this city should be an important part of urban management.

3. Power battery traceability information system is based on battery pack

For the battery pack of the power battery, the battery code is used as the information carrier, and the “new energy vehicle national monitoring and power battery recycling and traceability comprehensive management platform” is constructed to realize the source of the power battery, the traceable, the node controllable, and the responsibility can be investigated. The implementation of information management and control in the whole process of recycling and utilization of power batteries is the core management measure of the Administrative Measures.

Since the power battery of the electric vehicle is within the warranty period and has a relatively complete maintenance record, the replacement of the power battery and other codes should be said to be effective, but as the ladder is used, the battery pack must be backed up. At the level of the tomb group, each small utilization unit is formed, and some battery out of the supervision system in the middle link cannot be effectively found. Therefore, the management is extremely difficult, and there is no corresponding main responsible unit.

4. Lithium battery ladder after the use of supervision is more difficult

Even if the vehicle company can assist the smooth recovery of the battery to the recycling outlets, the next thing is the work of the social system. Although the cost is the biggest advantage of the use of decommissioned power battery cascades, it is also a source of economic benefits for cascade utilization. However, in the field of power battery recycling, due to the high cost of equipment and labor input due to battery detection and reorganization, the battery ex-factory price is high. In addition, the operation and maintenance of products, how to determine a reasonable warranty period, achieve intelligent management, remote diagnosis and maintenance, etc., will affect the product life cycle cost.

At present, China's key technologies for the evaluation of residual value and health status of decommissioned power storage batteries are still immature. The research and development of related technologies for cascade utilization and recycling are relatively lagging. It is necessary for industry experts to cooperate and promote technological innovation and application technical difficulties. For example, in the case of battery disassembly, flexible configuration is required, and the disassembly pipeline is segmented and refined. For different battery packs, when constructing the disassembly operation process, it is necessary to reuse the existing assembly line and process as much as possible to improve work efficiency and reduce duplication of investment. At the same time, it is necessary to completely record the running data of the power battery during the service period, and the manufacturer of the ladder can establish the life model of the battery module based on the data.

5. Should strengthen the unified recycling management of lithium batteries

The various types of batteries of used batteries are very complicated, especially the power batteries. Different models have different battery designs. The internal and external structural design, module connection method and integration form are different, and the same set of disassembly pipelines cannot be used. All battery packs and internal modules make it extremely inconvenient to disassemble the battery. In the dismantling operation, if the automatic dismantling is carried out, the flexible configuration of the production line is relatively high, resulting in excessive disposal cost. Therefore, in the current low level of automation, most of the processes are done manually, the skill level of the workers may affect the yield of the battery recycling process, and because the pack itself is a high-energy carrier, if it is not operated properly, it may Various safety problems such as short circuit and liquid leakage may occur, which may cause fire or explosion, resulting in personal injury and property damage. Therefore, what measures and methods are adopted to ensure safe and fast operation during battery disassembly is an important issue.

Considering that the power battery, the consumer battery and the energy storage battery are all produced by the battery manufacturer, the recycled raw materials are also recycled by the battery company. Therefore, how to mobilize the enthusiasm of battery companies, achieve the construction of the whole process of recycling, scrapping and scrapping under effective conditions, and foster an effective profit model to stabilize the chain. If the profit model is unclear or difficult to profit, there may be a state that supports a portion of the subsidy. In this way, the effective recovery of the lithium battery can be achieved.

6. The rare metals of lithium batteries in the future are strategic resources.

As the energy storage of lithium batteries becomes an important part of the entire social energy system, ensuring sustainable production and sales of lithium batteries and efficient recycling of core raw materials is an important part of ensuring the sustainable development of our social energy system. In particular, how can rare metals such as nickel-cobalt-lithium be used to ensure maximum efficiency? It is one of the sustainable goals of our linear industry powerhouse.

In the past, which country had mastered oil, it had the lifeblood of the world economy. Then you may now say that whoever masters the lithium ore and cobalt resources has mastered the lifeline of the future energy revolution. Therefore, how to realize the effective recycling and utilization of special rare metals such as nickel-cobalt-lithium will be an important part of promoting our industrial power.

At present, it is a good choice for the temporary use of automobile vehicles as the main body of responsibility for the reuse of power batteries. But in the future, the entire battery of power and consumer electronics should be managed in an integrated manner, which is an important management issue for our battery and energy systems. Moreover, each city and place should have a unified management system for the entire resource recycling, that is, the management of the entire life cycle of the overall energy battery should be integrated into a larger resource recycling system.

The page contains the contents of the machine translation.