“Battery industry pollutant discharge standards” may be implemented

From March 1st, the “Battery Industry Pollutant Emission Standard” was officially implemented. This is the first time that China has released the pollutant discharge standard for the battery industry. China is the world's largest battery producer and exporter, with zinc-manganese batteries exporting more than 65%, secondary battery exports exceeding 65%, and solar cell exports exceeding 90%.

The battery industry is a key industry for heavy metal consumption and emissions. In recent years, heavy metal pollution incidents have occurred frequently, and a considerable part of the cause is caused by battery companies (especially lead storage battery companies). Previously, the pollutant discharge of the battery industry implemented the Integrated Wastewater Discharge Standard and the Integrated Emission Standard for Air Pollutants. However, over time, these standards have become unable to meet the environmental development needs of the current and future battery industries. With the promulgation and implementation of the "Battery Industry Pollutant Emission Standards", what impact will it bring to the battery industry? Will the role in promoting industry transformation and upgrading be as expected? Our reporter interviewed Hui Wu, general manager of CCID Consulting Automotive Industry Research Center.

Low environmental pass rate

Reporter: At present, what is the environmental protection situation of the domestic battery industry, and what progress is there, and what problems still exist?

Hui Wu: At present, there are 20 enterprises in the first two batches of lead-acid batteries for environmental protection verification by the Ministry of Environmental Protection, and the pass rate is low. The actual situation is also the case. There are many lead-acid battery enterprises in China. A large number of small and medium-sized enterprises pay insufficient attention to the environmental protection facilities of lead-acid batteries, and they have no ability to invest in building environmental protection facilities.

However, due to the fact that the pollution problem of lead-acid batteries has been gradually recognized in recent years and many measures have been introduced by the state, large enterprises in the industry have begun to pay attention to environmental protection issues and have investment plans in related fields. In general, the importance attached by domestic enterprises is far from enough. Lead-acid battery companies have not really realized the benign mechanism of “who produces and recycles”.

Reporter: In recent years, due to heavy metal pollution and other reasons, many places have strengthened the rectification of lead-acid batteries and other industries, what impact does this have on the battery industry?

Hui Wu: The rectification of lead-acid batteries in various places has led to a large number of lead-acid battery companies shut down, the industry concentration has increased, and the industrial structure has been optimized. At the same time, leading enterprises have used remediation opportunities to implement mergers and acquisitions and capacity expansion, accelerating the process of industrial integration. Industry rectification also requires enterprises to pay attention to investment in environmental protection equipment and increase the cost of enterprises.

On the other hand, the lead-acid battery industry rectification has brought better opportunities for new batteries such as lithium batteries, and has accelerated the replacement process of lithium-ion batteries in lead-acid batteries in certain application fields (such as electric bicycles, energy storage, etc.).

Said to be out of fashion early

Reporter: In your opinion, will lead-acid batteries be eliminated? What is the future prospect of this industry?

Hui Wu: At present, the secondary batteries for large-scale applications mainly include lead-acid batteries, nickel-hydrogen batteries and lithium-ion batteries. The fuel cell has not yet opened due to the immature technology market. Various batteries have advantages and disadvantages. For example, lead-acid batteries have mature technology and low cost. Lithium batteries have long life and good performance, but the cost is high and the safety issues have not been completely solved. Nickel-hydrogen batteries have certain market advantages in hybrid vehicles.

We believe that lead-acid batteries will not be eliminated in the foreseeable time, and the lead-acid battery industry itself will continue to carry out technological innovations, such as new lead-carbon batteries. In the fields of power batteries, car start batteries, and energy storage, lead-acid batteries are highly competitive. In the future, lithium batteries will replace some lead-acid batteries in some applications, but the market size of the lead-acid battery industry will continue to grow steadily.

From the perspective of industry enterprises, lead-acid battery companies have been greatly reduced due to factors such as environmental verification, blood lead events, and shutdown. In the future, the number of lead-acid battery companies will also be greatly reduced. Therefore, we predict that there will be more closures and mergers and acquisitions in the lead-acid battery industry in the future, and large enterprises will take advantage of consolidation opportunities to become bigger and stronger, and increase the concentration of the entire industry.

The investment of large-scale enterprises in environmental protection facilities will be strengthened, and the concept of circular economy will be used to produce lead-acid batteries, so that battery production-battery consumption-battery recycling and reuse will form a closed-loop circular economy industrial chain.

New standards help industry consolidation

Reporter: After the implementation of the new standard, what are the main impacts on the battery industry? How can the new standard play a role in the industrial upgrading?

Hui Wu: The overall impact of the new standard on the battery industry is to tighten the pollutant emission limit, reducing the battery industry's wastewater discharge, COD emission limits, atmospheric and water, lead and cadmium and other heavy metal emission limits, will make the battery The industry's environmental pollution has been greatly reduced. On the other hand, the implementation of the new standard will inevitably increase the investment in environmental protection facilities of lead-acid battery companies, thereby increasing the cost of the industry, which may lead to the weakening of the competitiveness of the lead-acid battery itself in competition with other batteries.

For enterprises, the implementation of the new standards will cause SMEs to withdraw or choose to be acquired because they cannot meet the standards, and to a certain extent help accelerate the pace of integration of lead-acid battery industry.

To be forced to upgrade the industry, the standard operability is particularly important. In addition, for enterprises that fail to meet the standard requirements, the relevant departments should make suggestions for the enterprises, not simply shutting down, but guiding the rectification to meet the standard requirements. Enterprises that still cannot meet the standard requirements should actively build various public service platforms to provide guarantees for their implementation of mergers and acquisitions. In short, government departments should do a good job in the transformation and integration of enterprises.

What is the difficulty in recycling lead batteries?

China is the world's largest producer and exporter of lead storage batteries, but the waste lead storage system is extremely unsound. It is estimated that the number of waste lead batteries produced in China each year exceeds 2.6 million tons, but the proportion of formal recycling is less than 30%. At present, China does not have a national and regional recycling network built by battery manufacturers or recycled lead manufacturers. A large number of waste lead batteries are arbitrarily dismantled and disposed of by individual traders, and the environmental problems are increasingly serious.

China Battery Industry Association:

In China's waste lead-acid battery recycling volume, individual channels account for 50% to 60%, and waste battery flow to non-standard renewable lead enterprises is one of the root causes of lead pollution.

The state stipulates that units with comprehensive hazardous waste management licenses can engage in the business activities of collecting, storing and disposing of waste lead batteries. However, due to the high application threshold for hazardous waste comprehensive operation licenses, many enterprises or individuals are difficult to meet the requirements.

At present, there are no more than five companies with professional qualifications for recycling lead-acid batteries in China. On the other hand, units with hazardous waste management qualifications do not have the ability to independently build a widely distributed recycling network of lead-acid batteries.

Xiaoming Yang, Senior Engineer, Environmental and Economic Policy Research Center, Ministry of Environmental Protection:

Although the waste lead storage battery is one of the 49 dangerous waste products in the National Hazardous Waste List, there are strict regulations on its recovery, storage and disposal. However, in practice, due to the lack of relevant supporting policies, measures and supervision, there are the phenomenon of illegal operation and disorderly competition.

A large number of illegal entities exist in the market, and the subject of qualification recovery lacks price competitive advantage. The data shows that in 2009, the output of recycled lead was about 1.23 million tons, and the number of recycled lead enterprises was 200-300. The average size of enterprises was only 0.67~45 million tons/year. Due to the lack of competitiveness of the recycling prices of qualified recycling enterprises, the lack of motivation for enterprises and lead battery consumers to participate has also made it difficult to reduce the current model cost.

Xuejie Wan, deputy general manager of Shanxi Jitianli Company:

Jitianli Company has a large investment in waste battery recycling, plus the recycling company must pay 17% of the value-added tax. The recycling of lead-acid batteries is only less than 4,000 Yuan / ton, there will be profits, otherwise it will lose money, but some small smelting The factory recycles at a price of 7,000/ton and has profits. There are too many small smelters that are not standardized, and the big investment and income are disproportionate. We are faced with the predicament of no rice.

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