What is the pain point of the battery recycling market?

For power batteries, its life is generally 3 to 5 years. For a scrapped power battery to be "reborn" through recycling, it still needs to solve the following pain points: unsolved technical and environmental problems, unclear recycling model and profit model, narrow recycling channels, etc.

In the workshop of GEM Co.,Ltd(hereinafter referred to as "GMM"), a scrapped new energy vehicle power battery is being "processed" by the production line of nickel-cobalt-manganese ternary precursor system.

The nickel, cobalt, manganese, aluminum and other components of the battery, which are highly recyclable, have become a hot property for third-party battery recyclers.

Data shows that by the end of 2017, the number of new-energy vehicles in China reached 1.8 million. For early electric vehicles, battery life has gradually come to an end, with battery after battery facing scrap. Some professionals predict that in 2018, China's new energy vehicle power battery will usher in the first peak of scrap, scrap battery recycling market will expand to 5.2 billion yuan, and even reach nearly 7 billion yuan by 2020.

But the reality is that the recovery process for power batteries is relatively slow.

Technical and environmental problems in recycling have not been solved, the recycling model is not clear, the industrial chain is not complete, etc., these are to block a scrap battery recycling "rebirth" stumbling block.

While the market is promising, it is not an easy one for a growing number of organisations to tap into.

At present, the power batteries used in new energy vehicles are mainly lithium iron phosphate batteries and lithium ternary batteries.

Before 2017, most enterprises used lithium iron phosphate batteries as energy storage devices. Its advantages include long service life, good safety and low energy density. With the increasing demand for range of new energy vehicles, many new energy vehicle manufacturers have turned to lithium battery.

And a lithium battery "birth", mainly involving four materials, namely positive material, negative material, electrolyte and membrane. Lithium iron phosphate, ternary materials are lithium battery cathode materials. Tianjin east gao membrane technology co., LTD., vice general manager of webber, his company is mainly responsible for production of diaphragm, through the dock with the battery production enterprises, through the logistics delivery material, by the battery manufacturer of battery pack (group) and battery management system composition, composition for new energy automobile power system to provide the energy storage battery.

On January 26, the ministry of industry and information technology and other relevant ministries and commissions jointly issued a notice on the issuance of the interim measures on the management of the recycling and utilization of new energy vehicle power batteries (hereinafter referred to as the interim measures). In the interim measures, the definition of power battery includes lithium ion power battery, metal hydride/nickel power battery, etc., without lead-acid battery.

For power batteries, its life is generally 3 to 5 years.

Yun qiang, a researcher at the China research institute of science and technology, said that the strength of the battery market is mainly related to its service life, material and capacity. "At present, the domestic scrap standard for the power battery of new energy vehicles is that the battery capacity is less than 80%. Generally speaking, after three to five years of use, the range will not meet the standard and the lithium battery needs to be replaced once.fuqiang said.

According to the principle of "first step utilization, then recycling"

After the power lithium battery is scrapped, how to recycle it has become the main problem in the future new energy vehicle battery industry.

A staff member of green beautiful introduction, they are discarded according to commonly the different that battery loss amount will undertake corresponding processing.

"If the battery capacity is between 50% and 80%, we will use the corresponding technical equipment for cascade utilization. If the battery power is below 50% and cannot be used in cascade, the battery will be placed in the salt water and discharged. After discharging, the battery will be broken for processing and raw materials will be extracted. "Said the grinmei employee.

According to the provisional measures, about how to disposal of discarded batteries, battery production enterprises should be encouraged and comprehensive utilization of enterprise cooperation, on the premise of guarantee safe and controllable, in accordance with the principle of first pilot use regeneration after use, the waste power battery for the rational use of multilevel and multifunction, reduce comprehensive energy consumption, improve energy efficiency, enhance the level of comprehensive utilization and economic efficiency, and security is the use of residue environmental disposal.

As early as 2016, the state issued a series of policies on the scrapping and recycling of used batteries, clarifying the subject of responsibility, and established a traceability information management system for new energy vehicle power batteries to track and record the recycling and utilization of power batteries.

After years of work in the battery industry, wang bo found that at present, there are two main disposal methods for scrapped batteries, namely disassembly and recycling and cascade utilization.

"Disassembly, residual life testing, sorting and system integration shall be carried out after the recycling of scrapped batteries. Does not have the recycling use value, then carries on the crushing recovery valuable element. For those that can be recycled, they will be integrated according to different needs and applied to energy storage equipment in the form of cascade utilization. They will be put into places such as commercial residential energy storage stations, electric vehicle charging energy storage stations and telecom base stations. Webber said.

Shenzhen Center Power Tech Co., Ltd., the chief engineer of garments keep loyal in the fifth China lithium electricity new energy industry international summit on the BBS, said the pilot using just a link in recycling, will eventually go apart, and dismantling application involves the harmless and recycling, can't say the high cost, no recovery value, not to be, the future will be from the technical, market, policy three aspects of the comprehensive consideration of battery recycling.

The recycling market is a sore spot

Although the market prospect of power battery recycling is objective and the principle of recycling is fixed, in wang bo's opinion, the business of power battery recycling is not easy to do.

According to yun qiang, the re-use and re-use of scrapped batteries is not easy. At present, the recovery of new energy vehicle power battery involves many problems. For example, the problems of technology and environmental protection have not been solved, the recovery model and profit model are not clear, and the recovery channels are narrow.

"In terms of recycling technology, because the battery model is complex and the technical route is not uniform, it will inevitably lead to high sorting cost and difficult disassembly, so not every enterprise can be recycled. In addition, problems such as imperfect rapid detection methods and low yield rate of re-integration will also seriously affect the enthusiasm of power battery recycling enterprises. Webber said.

The reporter searches through the map in Beijing recently, discover the enterprise that has many recycle waste batteries, accumulator and individual, but those who make clear recycle power lithium battery is very few however.

"The lead-acid batteries can be taken apart and the lead plates inside can be sold for money, but we don't know what to do with the lithium batteries.

In addition to the technical threshold, the recycling channel of scrapped batteries is also a big problem troubling enterprises.

According to the foregoing greimai staff, the main source of battery recycling is to cooperate with the vehicle factory and battery factory to deal with the scrapped battery packs and retired battery packs in the research and development process. Since the automobile manufacturer is the first responsible person, it is difficult to recycle from other channels except these two ways. In general, the amount of scrapped power batteries recovered is not large.

Industry insiders also generally believe that the traditional recycling of plastic, paper and metal has formed a closed loop from production to recycling to recycling. These recycling enterprises do not need to find waste by themselves, but the recycling of power batteries is obviously not close enough to the recycling of traditional materials.

In addition, the effective market profit model has not yet formed, which is difficult for recycling enterprises to stimulate their enthusiasm for power battery recycling.

According to the data, the price of cascade power battery is 65% to 85% of the price of lithium battery. From the perspective of profit, the strength analysis shows that the profit cannot completely cover the cost of recycling, transportation, storage and material decomposition.

"The first precondition of battery recycling is not to pollute the environment. At the same time, in the battery disassembly and material recovery process, also need a lot of capital investment. All this will lead to a lack of incentives for recyclers, and government subsidies and tax incentives are key. fuqiang said.

The page contains the contents of the machine translation.