China's first new energy vehicle battery recycling national standard approved

Industry insiders predict that the power battery will usher in a small peak in 2018. By 2020, the scrapped power battery will form tens of billions of recycling market, and the scrap will exceed 240,000 tons. For this reason, more and more enterprises and capital start to layout power battery recycling. However, there is currently no hard policy document regulating the recycling of power batteries in the industry. Once the relevant national standards are introduced, it immediately attracts great attention from the industry.

It is reported that the first national standard for the recycling of power batteries for new energy vehicles, "Recycling and Dismantling Specifications for Waste Battery" and "Recycling and Recycling of Waste Battery" have been approved by the National Standards Committee in May and July this year, respectively. It will be officially implemented on December 1, 2017 and February 1, 2018. Such standards not only rigorously regulate the recycling of power batteries, but also clearly indicate that recycling and dismantling enterprises should have relevant qualifications.

Yu Haijun, vice president of Bangpu Group and the general manager of Hunan Bangpu Automotive Cycle Technology Co., Ltd., said that with the increase in the amount of power battery scrapped, it is easy to cause safety hazards and environmental protection problem. After the introduction of national standards, it has a normative guiding role for industrial safety dismantling. In addition, many capitals hope to invest in the new blue ocean of power battery recycling, and the national standards will guide the power battery recycling technology threshold, technical process, etc., which is also a good reference value for investors.

There were serious problems in the domestic lead-acid battery recycling industry before 2013. At that time, due to the lack of qualified individuals and small workshops to illegally recycle lead-acid batteries, direct discharge of waste acid, causing serious pollution to the environment, the lessons are very heavy. Although the power battery for new energy vehicles mainly uses relatively environmentally friendly lithium batteries, it is less polluting than lead-acid batteries. However, if the recycling is improper, it is very likely that the lead-acid battery will be repeated in the same year, bringing "secondary pollution". And even catastrophic consequences.

Therefore, how to standardize the waste power battery recycling market, ensure the safe recycling, environmental protection and resource utilization of decommissioned power batteries, and avoid serious environmental consequences caused by new solid waste, has become a major focus of the industry and outside.

In fact, as early as 2012, the State Council issued the "Energy Conservation and New Energy Vehicle Industry Development Plan (2012-2020)" stipulates: It is necessary to strengthen the power battery cascade utilization and recycling management. In July 2014, the “Guiding Opinions of the General Office of the State Council on Accelerating the Promotion and Application of New Energy Vehicles” also proposed: to study and formulate the policy of recycling and utilization of power batteries, and explore ways to promote the recycling of used power batteries by means of funds, deposits, and compulsory recycling. Waste power battery recycling system. In December 2016, the “Implementation Plan for Producer Responsibility Extension System” issued by the State Council was the first to determine the strict regulation of four types of products, such as electrical appliances, automobiles, batteries and packaging materials, and required manufacturers to carry out ecological design and use of recycled raw materials. Standardizing recycling and strengthening information disclosure will enable battery producers to extend their resource and environmental responsibility for their products from production to product design, circulation consumption, recycling, and waste disposal.

It should not be overlooked that although the country is constantly improving the power battery recycling system, there is still a long way to go in implementation, and the entire system still has serious shortcomings. First, there is a lack of targeted laws. At present, the standardization of waste battery recycling is mainly the departmental regulations and guidance documents issued by the Ministry of Environmental Protection, etc., only the principled provisions; second, there is no clear responsibility. The relevant laws and regulations have a low level of effectiveness and are very fragmented. There are no mandatory measures to ensure that battery manufacturers bear the responsibility for recycling. Third, the recycling system is imperfect. A large number of used batteries have flowed into informal channels, and informal recycling companies have cost advantages, which makes formal recycling enterprises face shortage of raw materials.

Industry analysts believe that the introduction of the "Dismantling Specifications" will further ensure the safe, environmentally friendly and efficient recycling of power batteries. In addition, the new national standard for power batteries such as "Recycling and Residual Energy Testing for Vehicle power battery" will be officially implemented to further improve China's power battery recycling standard system. The disordered state of power battery recycling and ladder utilization is expected to change.

In view of the limitations of recycling technology, process, capital and other factors, experts recommend that third-party battery recycling enterprises with professional technical advantages and rich processing experience should actively form collaboration with upstream and downstream groups. At the same time, auto companies and battery companies should actively cooperate with third-party battery recycling companies or to arrange this.

"As for the common problems and technical bottlenecks in the recycling industry, we hope that the relevant departments of the country can give strong support from the aspects of funds, policies, intellectual resources, etc., and establish a national level of power battery recycling based on the backbone enterprises of the industry. The engineering R&D center breaks through the technical bottlenecks and establishes a support system, which guides the sustainable development of the entire industry in multiple dimensions and multiple layers.” Yu Haijun added.

Recycling of used power batteries will be the most important obstacle to the sustainable development of the new energy vehicle industry. To overcome this obstacle, we must adhere to the leadership of relevant government departments, work together with upstream and downstream enterprises in the industry chain, and jointly improve our standards system. The recycling system can break through the technical bottleneck to ensure the healthy development of the industry.

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