Power battery recovery affects the development of new energy vehicles?

The Chinese automotive industry has taken shape since the early 1950s. By 2016, the production and sales of automobiles had exceeded 28 million vehicles. In the eighth year, it has won the world's first place, and it has taken a total of more than half a century. It took only 10 years for the country's new-energy cars to reach the world's highest production and sales in 2008. In the past 10 years, the development of new-energy vehicles has made rapid progress. Not only has sales increased at an explosive rate, but more and more companies have been deployed in this area, and the national level has also attached great importance to it. In the "Made in China 2025" and the "Medium and Long-term Plan for the Automobile Industry"(abbreviated as "Plan"), new energy vehicles are placed in a very important position. Among them, the "Plan" proposes that by 2020, the annual production and sales of new energy vehicles will reach 2 million vehicles.

The development situation of new energy vehicles is very good, but from the perspective of sustainable development, the power battery recycling link on the industrial chain has not kept pace with the development of new energy vehicles. The service life of power batteries is 5 to 8 years. The first new energy car batteries that were put into the market have already entered the retirement period, and the first round of large-scale power battery retirement will arrive within a year or two, according to China Automotive Technology Research Center. Forecast, By 2020, the total scrap volume of electric vehicle power batteries in China will reach 120,000 to 170,000 tons. At present, although our country has some layout in the new energy vehicle power battery recycling, but both consciousness level and policy and technical level are not yet a climate. Now the pace of development of new energy vehicles in China is making great strides, but there has been no progress in the recycling of power batteries.

The establishment of power battery recycling system is imminent

"A small button battery can pollute 600 cubic meters of water, which is equivalent to a person's drinking water for a lifetime; One section of No. 1 batteries rot in the ground, making 1 square meter of land useless ... "This is a line in public service advertisements. The numbers are staggering, but not alarmist. There are many types of batteries, but all batteries contain one or more harmful substances, such as positive materials for powered lithium-ion batteries. Mishandling can cause pollution of heavy metals, electrolytes are also highly corrosive and toxic, and they are prone to toxic chemical gases..

Since 2009, the first new energy vehicles for the private consumer market have been delivered in 2010. By 2016, the number of new energy vehicles in China has reached about 1 million. According to the existing power battery technology, the first new energy vehicles entering the market will soon face the problem of power battery recycling. The promotion of new energy vehicles has embarked on the fast track in 2015. According to the service life of power batteries for 5 to 8 years, there will be large-scale power batteries retired in 2020. The time for "preparing for the future" is not much, and the establishment of a power battery recycling system is even more urgent.

power battery Recovery Trend

Power battery recycling is not only due to environmental stress, but also to reduce costs. In the current market for new energy vehicle power batteries, lithium trioxide batteries and lithium iron phosphate batteries are the main types, while lithium trioxide batteries are widely used by new energy passenger vehicles because of their high energy density. However, heavy metals such as cobalt and nickel are very limited in mineral resources in China. With the rapid growth of the new energy automotive industry, the demand for heavy metals such as cobalt and nickel has continued to rise, and the import ratio and price have also risen. Therefore, used power batteries have become potential stocks in the battery raw material market. General power cells reach the retirement period, there will still be 70 % -80 % of the capacity available for use. If direct recycling is carried out, it will cause great waste, through the dismantling, testing, and classification of power cells after use in automobiles. After secondary use, The purpose of cost reduction of 30-60 % of the power battery can be achieved by realizing power battery cascade recovery.

In the face of the development trend of new energy vehicles, the government and related departments have long realized its importance in power battery recycling. As early as 2006, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of Science and Technology, and the former State Environmental Protection Administration issued the "Technology Policy for the Recycling and Utilization of Automobile Products," which stipulates that electric vehicle(including hybrid vehicles, etc.) manufacturers must be responsible for the recovery and disposal of electric vehicle batteries for their sales; It is required to hand over such hazardous wastes as waste batteries to qualified enterprises for disposal. In addition, China has issued a number of policy documents such as the "Technology Policy for the Recovery and Utilization of Electric Vehicle Power Batteries(2015 Edition)" and the "Standard Conditions for the Comprehensive Utilization of New Energy Vehicle Power Batteries". Most of the policies introduced are encouraging policies, lack of incentive mechanisms for power battery recycling, and are not mandatory, so this makes it impossible for policies to really fall into place in specific practice.

In terms of power battery recovery, dismantling, and echelon utilization, due to the large number of battery specifications, it is difficult for testing, and the recycling process of used batteries is complex and the process is relatively long. Many enterprises do not have the experience and professional ability of battery recycling, nor do they have mature battery recycling professional technical equipment; The original traditional wet smelting and manual dismantling technology can not solve the Environmental Protection problems and safety problems caused by the complex structure of power cells; In addition, there is no convenient and effective method for judging the residual value of the battery. In addition, the recycling field is only a small profit industry compared with the automotive and battery industries. Therefore, power battery recycling has not established a complete system, and the industrialization road has also been extremely difficult.

Although, the power battery recycling problem is urgent, but because the power cell in our country just began to enter the recycling peak period, so the previous market is not mature, the supply channel of small and medium-sized enterprises is a problem. According to statistics, less than 10,000 tons of power batteries were actually dismantled and recycled in 2016, and more than 80 % of end-of-life batteries were still stranded in the hands of car companies. According to the industry, this is due to the fact that the technical rules for the recycling of power cells and the corresponding economic problems have not been resolved, resulting in a relatively slow progress in the recycling of power cells.

Power cell market potential huge preemption ahead of schedule layout

With the development of new energy vehicles, the future power battery recycling market has great potential and will become a rising market. According to industry estimates, the scale of the recycling market created by the recovery of metals such as cobalt, nickel, manganese, lithium, iron and aluminum from used power lithium batteries will exceed 5.3 billion yuan in 2018, exceed 10 billion yuan in 2020, and will be used in 2023. The lithium battery market will reach 25 billion yuan. Although this emerging market is not yet mature, some companies have smelled the business opportunities in this field.

In terms of power battery recycling, new energy car companies and power battery manufacturers are responsible, while some new energy car companies and power battery manufacturers are also stepping up the distribution of recycling areas. Beiqi New Energy has a demonstration line for recycling used lithium ion power cells; BYD uses authorized dealers to recycle used power cells; In the era of Ningde, it built a power battery recovery system and cooperated with Yutong, SAIC, Beiqi, and Geely. Guoxuan Gaoke established a trial line for battery dismantling resource recovery; The lion science and technology plan will put the national chain service system under construction and perfection into the recycling of used batteries and the use of terraces; Wotema built a lithium iron phosphate battery storage power station in 2012 to explore the secondary use route and method of power cells; Chaowei Group cooperates with research institutions and universities to solve the technical problems of lithium battery recycling; China Aviation Lithium is also studying recycling through the establishment of a power cell recovery demonstration line in the power cell.

Although power battery manufacturers and new energy car companies have already laid out the power battery recycling market, due to the lack of technology and experience, other companies prefer to hand over to third parties for professional recycling power battery processing. Therefore, more and more professional power battery recycling enterprises can be seen in the market. For example, the Bond Group has formed three major industrial sectors: battery cycle, carrier cycle, and recycling services, and has invested 1.226 billion yuan in 100,000 tons of waste battery recycling and recycling expansion projects; The Sand Group also plans to invest 1 billion yuan in the construction of an industrial base for 100,000 tons of used batteries and waste materials with an annual output of 30,000 tons of nickel-cobalt manganese / nickel-cobalt aluminum ternary precursor materials, with an estimated output value of more than 3 billion yuan; Grimm Co., Ltd. has built the largest domestic waste battery and scrap battery material treatment production line; Haopeng International Group and Beiqi New Energy Automobile Co., Ltd. jointly established Haopeng Technology Co., Ltd. of Ganzhou City to engage in professional waste battery recycling and processing and utilization ...

In the exploration of the power battery recycling model, some companies have made successful attempts. For example, BMW has established partnerships with the Bond Group and the Ningde era on behalf of car companies, power battery recyclers, and power battery manufacturers. BMW handed over the recycled power batteries to Bangpu, Bump dismantled and recovered raw materials, handed the obtained raw materials to the Ningde era to produce new power batteries, and finally produced new power batteries to be reloaded into the BMW. The car, forming a closed loop, Li Changdong, president of Bump Group, The overall recovery efficiency of closed-loop mode can reach 98.5 %.

New energy vehicle power battery recycling market is a huge cake, experts and scholars are also making suggestions for the healthy development of this industry. Zhang Tongzhu, a senior engineer at the Institute of Automotive Standardization at the China Automotive Technology Research Center, said that the establishment of a power battery recovery system and industrial alliance is conducive to the formation of economies of scale for the industry, and the formation of scale effects is an important breakthrough point for power battery recovery. Tian Neng Group Chairman Zhangtianren suggested strengthening the standardized research on the structural design, process technology, and integrated installation of power lithium batteries, linking the traceability system with the management of new energy automotive product announcements, ensuring the record of battery life cycle information, and improving testing and evaluation. Convenience and accuracy. "There is also a need to establish incentives for the recycling of power lithium batteries and establish rewards and penalties. For example, enterprises that fail to meet their obligations under the recycling policy are punished, enterprises that recycle and reuse are subsidized or taxed according to the number of batteries, capacity, etc., and business models are encouraged to be innovated and applied. " said Zhangtianren. Wang Fang, director of the new energy laboratory of the experimental research institute of the China automotive technology research center, said that the secondary use of power cells includes a comprehensive system for monitoring the operation of batteries and the standardization and large-scale implementation of battery modules. For the system of battery operation monitoring, it is necessary to design the whole system of the battery coding system, the annual collection and accurate monitoring of the parameters of the utilization phase. For the standardization and scale implementation of battery modules, on the one hand, it is necessary to consider the universality of the vehicle application, and on the other hand, it is necessary to consider the convenience of the echelon utilization site and need to achieve a good combination.

Summary:

Although the development of new energy vehicles abroad is not as rapid as that of China, a relatively developed cascade recycling system has been established in power battery recycling. Japan, the United States, and Europe are relatively comprehensive in the research and development of power battery cascade recycling. The experience is worth learning. The huge market for power battery recycling in the future has created new opportunities for many companies, but the pressure is also unprecedented. Power battery recycling is not the responsibility of one party, Rather, it requires car companies, power battery manufacturers and power battery recyclers to work together.

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