Comprehensive analysis of lithium battery ladder utilization and resource recycling

Ladder battery utilization and recycling are mainly based on environmental protection, resource conservation, and profitable three aspects:

Environmental protection: The positive electrode material of lithium battery contains heavy metal elements such as nickel, cobalt, manganese and lithium. These heavy metal elements cause pollution to the environment and water. The carbon materials inside the negative electrode material and graphite may cause dust pollution. In addition, lithium The electrolyte of the battery contains toxic chemical components and can also cause fluorine contamination.

Resource saving: Lithium battery contains a lot of metal elements, nickel, graphite and so on in China, but metal elements such as cobalt are scarce in China. China has a lot of lithium elements, but it is difficult to mine and generally distributed. In Tibet, Qinghai, Sichuan and other relatively difficult mines; salt lake lithium has a relatively high content of magnesium ions, and it is difficult to extract lithium.

Profitable: The use of lithium batteries for ladder utilization and resource recycling can still be commercialized, because in recent years, the automotive industry has been heavily converted into electrification, and the demand for lithium batteries has increased, resulting in a very high price of precious metal materials in the upstream, metallic cobalt. The price is more than 600,000 / ton, nickel 100,000 / ton of lithium carbonate 170,000 / ton, metal lithium 900,000 / ton.

Market outlet

1. Policy support

At the earliest in 2012, the“Energy Conservation and New Energy Vehicle Industry Development Plan” issued by the State Council mentioned “the development of power battery recycling management methods”;

In 2014, the General Office of the State Council issued the “Guiding Opinions on Accelerating the Promotion and Application of New Energy Vehicles” to study and formulate the recycling policy for power batteries;

In 2015, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Science and Technology, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, and the National Development and Reform Commission mentioned in the "Notice on the Financial Support Policies for the Promotion and Application of New Energy Vehicles in 2016-2020" that "the electric vehicles and power battery companies should be responsible for the recycling of used batteries";

In 2016, the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Environmental Protection Bureau, the Ministry of Commerce and the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine issued a series of policies. So far, there have been more than 20 policies specifically for lithium battery recycling.

In March 2018, the seven ministries and commissions jointly issued the latest "Notice on the Pilot Work on the Recycling of Power Battery for New Energy Vehicles".

To sort out these policies, we can summarize the following four points:

The ministries and commissions of the state advocate that the power battery should be used for cascade utilization and then recycled.

Implement the extension of producer responsibility, that is, “who produces and who is responsible”;

Establish a recycling system for power batteries, carry out pilot projects, establish recycling networks and information supervision;

The industry norms are constantly improving, and the state's qualification requirements for enterprises are gradually clear.

2. Market size

Lithium batteries can be divided into three categories:

Consumer batteries: batteries used in consumer electronics such as mobile phones, IPADs, notebook computers, etc., mainly based on lithium cobalt oxide batteries;

Power battery: used in new energy vehicles, passenger cars are mainly ternary batteries, commercial vehicles are mainly lithium iron phosphate batteries;

Energy storage battery: used in charging stations, thermal power stations, commercial energy storage, etc., mainly using lithium iron phosphate batteries.

What is the use of the ladder? For example, if the battery is used in a new energy vehicle, the battery is 100% energy when it is fully charged. When the battery is used for a period of time, the power is attenuated. When the battery is decayed to 80%, Can not be used in the car, this is the first stage of use; from the car attenuated battery, the power from 80% - 20% of the interval can be used for ladders, such as low-speed cars, electric tricycles, electric motorcycles Cars, charging stations, energy storage, peak power storage, photovoltaics, etc.; batteries with less than 20% of electricity can be considered to have completed their life cycle, and then they can be recycled. In this way, the use of the entire battery is divided into three parts according to the capacity: the car, the use of the ladder, and the recycling.

The most comprehensive analysis of lithium battery ladder utilization and resource recycling

In 2017, the production and sales volume of China's new energy vehicles is about 80 million vehicles. The total number of new energy vehicles in the world is more than 1.3 million. It is estimated that by 2020, China's new energy vehicles will reach 300,000 vehicles, and the world will reach 500,000 vehicles. According to the sales of new energy vehicles, the demand for lithium batteries will reach 250 Gwh 2020, and the attenuation of these batteries needs to be gradually recycled.

According to the demand for new energy vehicle power batteries in recent years, when the passenger car battery capacity is from 100% to 80%, the life expectancy is about 5 years, and the commercial vehicle is about 3 years. The large-scale use of new energy vehicles in China in 2014, Based on this calculation, the power battery will enter a large-scale decommissioning stage by 2018. In other words, the real start of lithium battery recycling in 2018 will usher in a new enthusiasm, the next growth point. According to the calculation of high-tech lithium batteries, major brokers, etc., 2018 is expected to have 11 Gwh batteries decommissioned, the corresponding market space is about 60 billion; in 2020, the market space is 150 billion, 2023 to 100 million to 400 From 2018 to 2023, the compound annual growth rate will reach 50%. It can be said that the recycling of lithium batteries will become the next market outlet.

The most comprehensive analysis of lithium battery ladder utilization and resource recycling

According to the statistics of high-tech lithium batteries, the recovery of lithium batteries in 2017 is 8,000 tons, and the market scale is about 3 to 4 billion. Among the 8 tons, the battery dismantling accounted for 95%, and there was no use of the ladder. The main reasons for the disadvantages of the market use of the ladder are as follows:

The safety of battery technology in previous years is more prominent;

The amount of scrapped is relatively small, the degree of standardization is not high, and it is difficult to match the use of ladders;

The energy storage market has not yet been released on a large scale.

Technical route

1. Technical standards

China's "new energy vehicle waste power battery comprehensive utilization industry standard conditions" requirements: under the wet smelting conditions, the comprehensive recovery rate of nickel-cobalt manganese is not less than 98%, the recovery rate of fire smelting is not less than 97% . At present, the leading domestic enterprises like Bangpu have basically reached the standard.

2. lithium iron phosphate

The power battery is mainly divided into lithium iron phosphate, used in commercial vehicles, and ternary batteries, which are used in passenger cars. In comparison, lithium iron phosphate is more suitable for the use of the ladder. The performance of these two batteries is not the same, the lithium iron phosphate has a longer cycle life, and the power is reduced from 100% to 80% and the life can reach 2000-6000 times.

The Ningde era has done the above calculations, and the lithium iron phosphate battery after decommissioning can be used as an energy storage battery for at least 5 years. If the lithium iron phosphate is directly scrapped, dismantled and recycled, the income is limited, its composition is not worth the iron, and the lithium content is very small. The economic benefit of recycling 1 ton of lithium iron phosphate is about 10,000, and if it is used as a ladder utilization income is 30,000 - 40000 Left and right, so from these two aspects, lithium iron phosphate is more suitable for the use of the ladder.

3.the use of ladders

The process of the ladder utilization can be divided into three steps: firstly, the recovered battery is screened, then the battery is connected in series and parallel, the third step is to charge and discharge management, and the BMS is added to design the capacity and power matching. Generally, the matching ratio of battery capacity to power is 8:1, and the discharge rate is 0.125 degrees Celsius.

The key technologies for the use of ladders are two:

Discrete integration technology: different battery package technologies are different, after disassembly, it is necessary to integrate different single cells according to the performance and life of the battery module;

Full life cycle traceability technology: Estimated by SOC, SOH, SOP technical indicators provided by Bristol-Myers Squibb.

The state requires the construction of a comprehensive management platform for national monitoring and power battery recycling and traceability of new energy vehicles. The platform uses the code of battery production as the information carrier, and the battery life is traced back to the full life cycle and data records.

4. Resource recycling

The life of lithium iron phosphate is relatively long, and the cycle life of ternary battery is about 800-2000 times, which is relatively short; the safety of ternary battery is not as good as that of iron-lithium battery, and the ignition point is relatively low, which is not suitable for energy storage power station. Communication base stations and other areas with complex environments.

In addition, the price of nickel, cobalt and manganese contained in the ternary battery is relatively high, and even if it is directly disassembled, the profit is considerable. So in comparison, the ternary battery is more suitable for dismantling and recycling. The price of the ternary battery dismantling and recycling is 40,000- 50,000 yuan / ton. If the dismantled nickel-cobalt-manganese is used as the precursor of the ternary material, the price is higher. Take the Ningde era as an example, the unit price is 80,000 yuan / Ton.

The resource recycling is divided into two stages: the recovered battery is pretreated, discharged, the outer package is removed, and the battery is manually disassembled and separated, and then recovered.

Recycling technology can be divided into three categories:

Dry method (physical method):

The most comprehensive analysis of lithium battery ladder utilization and resource recycling

Mechanical sorting method: mechanical means crushing and screening, direct sorting

High temperature pyrolysis method: high temperature incineration, formation of vapor volatilization condensation

Dry heat repair: After the dry process, the recovered crude product is reprocessed into a material.

Wet method (chemical method):

The most comprehensive analysis of lithium battery ladder utilization and resource recycling

Hydrometallurgical: Dissolution and separation by chemical reagent

Chemical extraction: separation with reagents

Ion exchange: exchange with ions

Biorecycling technology:

Mainly using microbial leaching, it is still difficult at present, and technical problems need to be broken.

At present, in the industry, the ternary battery is generally used in the wet method, and the lithium iron phosphate is used in the dry method, which is also a recommended method. In comparison, the cost of the wet process is relatively high, but the purity of the recovered materials is relatively high, each having its own advantages and disadvantages.

Operating mode

1, the United States: producer responsibility extension + consumer deposit system

Take Tesla as an example. In 2015, Tesla released POWERWALL for the energy storage market and used lithium battery ladders.

2, Germany: producers bear the main responsibility

Taking Bosch as an example, in 2015, the recycling of batteries was started, and the recovery rate is expected to be more than 50% by 2018.

3, Japan: legislation + subsidies for battery manufacturers

Japan has enacted legislation at the national level to subsidize the recycling of battery manufacturers. Take Toyota as an example. Toyota is the head of the global hybrid car dragon. In 1998, it began to recycle used batteries. There are three main steps for recycling: first establish a recycling network, then conduct a detailed evaluation of the recovered batteries, choose whether to repair or Ladder utilization, dismantling and chemical treatment of batteries that completely lose the value of reuse. In 2015, Toyota used the used batteries of Camry Hybrid for the energy storage of Yellowstone National Park facilities, and redesigned the energy storage battery management system, 208 The Camry battery can store up to 85 kWh of electricity, extending the life of the battery by a factor of two.

4, lead acid battery recycling

In 2016, the production volume of lead-acid batteries in China reached 400 million tons, and the value of lead reached 400 million. From a technical point of view, the recovery rate of lead-acid batteries in China can reach 98%, but the actual recovery rate is only 30%. The problem is that there has never been a large-scale network.

The recycling entity should implement an extension system of producer responsibility, that is, automobile production enterprises, battery production enterprises, and third-party resource recycling enterprises as the main body of recycling, among which automobile production enterprises are the focus.

In the business model, the establishment of a recycling network and the specialization of the combination of the two have begun to take shape. The future industry competition logic also focuses on these two points:

Establish a nationwide recycling network to generate economies of scale and dilute costs;

Break through the technical threshold.

At present, there are very few batteries used in China's ladders in 2017, and the main problem is economics. According to the data of the Battery Alliance, China's energy storage is mainly based on pumped storage, and the main power station is lead-carbon battery. The main reason for the delay in the use of lithium iron phosphate battery is the cost. The cost of lead carbon batteries and pumped storage is about 0.4 yuan / kWh, and the lithium battery is 0.7 yuan / kWh.Taking Xida Power Battery Liyang Project as an example, the calculation results show that the static investment recovery period of energy storage projects is about 6 years. If it is to generate income, it needs to operate for 10 years, so the after-tax return rate is 10%, although the current stage is The economics of utilization are not obvious, but as the cost of batteries decreases, the market for future utilization of the ladder will gradually erupt.

Investment mergers and acquisitions

1, China Tower

The company is a large-scale communication infrastructure comprehensive service enterprise jointly established by China Telecom, China Mobile and China Unicom. It is mainly engaged in the construction, maintenance and operation of base station supporting facilities and indoor distribution systems such as communication towers. At the beginning of January this year, the company With 17 companies including Chongqing Changan, BYD, Yinlong New Energy, Waterma, Guoxuan Hi-Tech and Thornton New Energy, they have jointly recovered lithium iron phosphate. Currently, more than 3,000 base stations have been established in 12 provinces and cities across the country.

2, SAIC Ningde

SAIC is the leader in the automotive industry. Ningde era is the head of the power battery industry. The two leading faucets teamed up with the recovery of the power battery. In March 2018, they signed a memorandum of understanding on strategic cooperation.

Ningde era has completed the acquisition of Bangpu in 2013. At present, the lithium battery recycling business segment has become one of the three core businesses. In 2017, the revenue of the recycling business segment reached 2.5 billion, and the unit price was 80,000 yuan/ton. 27%, the business accounted for 13%.

3, investment mergers and acquisitions

From the industry point of view, as early as 2013, Ningde era has acquired Bangpu; in 2017, Xiamen Tungsten acquired Ganzhou Haopeng, and the case of mergers and acquisitions in 2018 is more.

The page contains the contents of the machine translation.