On the recycling of power batteries

Recently, the "Dismantling Code for the Recycling of Vehicle Power Batteries"(hereinafter referred to as the "Dismantling Code") and the "Waste Energy Detection for Vehicle power battery Recycling"(hereinafter referred to as "Yu Neng Test") were officially held. With the promotion of the campaign, the issue of power battery recycling is expected to be partially resolved.

After 2013, new energy vehicles have entered a period of rapid development. According to calculations, by 2020, battery scrapping will reach a peak, and the cumulative scrapping volume will reach 120,000 to 170,000 tons, but at present it is in the field of power battery recycling and reuse, regardless of mode. There is also a critical lack of technology and regulations.

Sales staff at a new energy 4S store in Beijing told the Daily Economic News that at present, manufacturers do not have relevant policies for battery recycling, so end-of-life batteries are generally handled by 4S stores themselves.

Not only there are problems in the recycling channels, but also the technology of power cell reuse is not mature, and the process is too complex and the cost is too high, which also brings great resistance to power battery recycling.

A power battery industry insider told that if the relevant preparations are not started now, the future peak of power battery scrapping will cause serious environmental problems.

Recycle subject clearly to be enforced

According to the plan, the "Dismantling Code" will be formally implemented on December 1 this year, and the "Energy Testing" is expected to be officially launched next year. This will bring some improvement to the power battery recycling market where the current regulations are still blank.

There is a chaotic market for battery recycling. "Wangxiaojian of the Technical Management Department of SAIC Group Co., Ltd. told the" Daily Economic News "reporter that the country does not currently require recycling for end-of-life power batteries, and host factories, battery factories, and dismantling factories have not found suitable operating models.

In the era of Ningde, insiders told reporters that at present, the life span of power batteries is 7-8 years. The reporter visited the new energy 4S store in Beijing and learned that at present, the warranty period for power batteries used in new energy vehicles is generally 8 years. After 8 years, consumers need to pay for their own battery replacement.

In fact, at the beginning of last year, the State Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and other departments jointly issued the "Technology Policy for the Recycling and Utilization of Electric Vehicle Power Batteries(2015 Edition)" to clearly implement the extended producer responsibility system. Electric vehicle production enterprises, power battery production enterprises and cascade battery production enterprises shall bear the main responsibility for the recycling and utilization of power batteries for their own production and use, and scrap automobile recycling and dismantling enterprises shall be responsible for the recovery of power batteries on scrap automobiles.

According to this regulation, in theory, the host plant should bear the responsibility for recovering end-of-life batteries from the 4S store, and the end-of-life batteries removed from the scrapped vehicles should be used by the battery plant and other enterprises for echelon use, and finally the scrap plant should be used for end-of-life treatment. However, the above-mentioned Ningde era insiders told the "Daily Economic News" reporter that this provision only clarified the subject of responsibility and did not require enforcement. Therefore, power battery recycling is not implemented in accordance with the above requirements.

An insider from BYD confirmed the claim to the daily economic news. It said that because there are no mandatory requirements for power battery recycling under the current regulations, companies such as BYD that involve battery business will recycle batteries, while new energy companies that do not involve battery business most of them do not have clear requirements for recycling.

Complex battery types, high reuse costs.

Not only is it difficult to recycle, but there are many problems in the treatment after battery recovery. According to the plan, the recycling of end-of-life batteries from vehicles should be used for echelon reuse. However, the above-mentioned Ningde era insiders told the "Daily Economic News" reporter that because the scale effect has not yet been formed, the battery dismantling and reuse is basically at a loss. state.

A company that uses mechanical and wet methods to recycle used lithium iron phosphate batteries costs 8540 yuan to recycle 1 ton of used lithium iron phosphate batteries, while the income from recycled materials is only 8110 yuan, a loss of 430 yuan, according to a study by the China 100 Electric Automobile Association.

In addition to cost, process complexity is another challenge for power cell recycling, Wangxiaojian told reporters.

It is understood that at present, there are many kinds of power batteries in the market, and there are different types of batteries in different manufacturing and design, different types of serial groups, different service and service times, and different application models and operating conditions. The diversity of battery types complicates the recycling process.

Because there are many problems, the recycling of power cell in China is currently in the exploration stage. This also leads to the disposal of some power cells instead of being recycled.

It is understood that although most of the power batteries are lithium batteries at present, if discarded at will also cause environmental pollution. Wangxiaojian said that the organic matter in the power cell is toxic and has strong carcinogenicity. Disposing it at will have serious consequences.

China's new energy vehicles entered the period of rapid sales growth after 2013. At present, most power batteries in the market have not yet entered the retirement period, but it can be calculated that by 2020, the problem of power battery scrapping will gradually appear.

According to the research report of the China 100 Electric Vehicles Association, the total number of power batteries scrapped in China will reach 120,000 to 170,000 tons before and after 2020. Therefore, before the peak of scrapping comes, accelerating the construction and development of laws and regulations and technologies will have important significance for the healthy development of new energy vehicles in the future.

The page contains the contents of the machine translation.