The large-scale recycling of lithium-ion batteries is still a difficult problem in the industry

The large-scale waste reporting period will be

According to data released by the China Automotive Technology Research Center, this year's new energy vehicle power battery will gradually enter a large-scale end-of-life recovery period. It is expected that by 2020, China's power battery recovery will exceed 220,000 tons, and by 2022 it will reach 422,000 tons.

The reporter learned that the current recycling of power batteries is divided into terraced utilization and dismantling recovery. Terraced utilization is mainly aimed at batteries with reduced capacity, which can not make electric vehicles run properly but they are not scrapped, but they can still be used in power storage and other fields.; Dismantling and recycling is the recycling of end-of-life batteries with serious battery capacity loss, and the recycling of recycled resources with useful value. "The purpose of recycling old batteries is to use them step by step. Batteries with no terraced use value are called waste batteries. Waste batteries are centrally disposed of for the purpose of resource regeneration and pollution prevention. "Academician Yangyusheng of the Chinese Academy of Engineering pointed out.

In the face of the current recycling status of power batteries, Zhaojinsheng, chairman of the China Battery Industry Association, expressed concern. "At this stage, the recycling system for used lithium ion batteries in China is not yet sound, and the recycling technology and business model have not yet reached mature standards. Chenqingtai, chairman of the China 100 Electric Vehicles Association, also expressed similar views. "At present, problems such as immature technology, imperfect acquisition networks, imperfect management measures, and inadequate support policies are still plaguing the power battery recycling industry in China. Business and profit models are yet to be explored. "

Recycle multiple questions to be solved

"China has few cobalt and nickel resources, and the price is controlled by people. It is difficult to support the production of tens of millions of electric vehicles. Mr Yangyusheng spoke frankly about the difficulties facing the battery industry.

At present, the main technical route of new energy passenger vehicle batteries in China is ternary batteries, IE lithium batteries with lithium nickel-cobalt manganese acid or lithium nickel-cobalt aluminate as the positive material. Cobalt is indispensable as a stabilizer.

Statistics show that the cobalt content in China is only 0.02 %, and the proven exploitable amount is only 80,000 tons. The cobalt resources used for battery production are heavily dependent on imports. "If cobalt can be effectively recovered from decommissioned batteries, it will greatly ease the external dependence of rare metal resources in China. Professor Xushengming of Tsinghua University stressed to reporters.

At the same time, the problem of enterprises ignoring battery safety and blindly increasing battery power is also worrying. "In order to increase the specific energy, the ratio of nickel cobalt manganese in ternary batteries has evolved from 333 and 523 to 622 and 811. By increasing the nickel content to increase the voltage, the temperature of thermal runaway is getting lower and lower! "Yangyusheng told reporters that the safety of power batteries is directly related to the actual energy ratio." The purpose of developing electric vehicles is to save energy and reduce emissions. Some electric vehicles only save fuel and do not reduce emissions. At present, many policies are misleading, ignoring the fact that the higher the battery than the energy, the more the battery, and the lower the safety, which is contrary to the initial heart of energy conservation and emission reduction. "

In addition, the system of echelon utilization is not perfect, and it is still the biggest problem in the field of old battery recycling. Wangzidong, director of the National 863 electric vehicle's major dedicated power battery testing center, said that there is no clear standard for the extent to which battery capacity can be used into the next ladder and the extent to which it can not be used step by step and need to enter the recycling process.

The reporter learned that at present, the early power batteries that can be used in terraces are only a handful of high-quality lithium iron phosphate batteries, and the rest of the batteries, including ternary batteries, are not of use value. In response to this phenomenon, Huangxuejie, a researcher at the Institute of Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, believes that after using for a period of time, it is difficult for ternary batteries to ensure the uniformity of the electrochemical properties of the internal materials of the battery, so there is a safety risk for the use of terraces. In addition, Huangxuejie also said that if the group of batteries is dismantled, it will greatly increase the cost, and only the use of the battery package will be of value if it is not dismantled.

The future is optimistic about lithium iron phosphate batteries

The reporter found that the objective condition of the shortage of cobalt and nickel in China is the important reason for the high price of lithium ternary batteries. However, lithium iron phosphate batteries are on the contrary, because they do not contain any precious metals, and their main raw materials, iron oxide and lithium carbonate, are very abundant in China. Yangyusheng is full of confidence in the development of lithium iron phosphate batteries in China. "At present, lithium iron phosphate batteries have a specific energy of 140-180 Wh / kg, a battery cycle life of more than 3,000 times, and a group price of about 1 yuan. / Wh, Security is more prominent in echelon use. "

In view of the existing problems in the use of battery steps, it is expected that the establishment of a retroactive battery management system. The "Interim Measures for the Management of the Recovery and Utilization of New Energy Vehicle power battery" jointly issued by the ministries and commissions began to be implemented on August 1. At the same time, the "National Monitoring Platform for the Recovery and Use of New Energy Vehicle Batteries" was established to collect information on the entire process of power battery production, sales, use, scrapping, recovery, and utilization, and monitor the implementation of the recycling responsibility of all links. In this regard, Huangxuejie said that only on the basis of a comprehensive analysis of the historical data of the power battery pack and one of the corresponding management strategies can let it play a good role in the value of secondary life.

"To adhere to safety first, there must be a systematic arrangement for the use of terraces and the disposal of waste batteries. The entire use of lithium ion batteries should be protected from damage. "Yangyusheng stressed that safety is the focus of attention in the recycling of power batteries. The whole process of green and energy-saving production technology is the development trend of battery technology in the future. "Lithium-ion battery recovery and disposal should pay attention to innovation, waste battery disposal should be highly environmentally friendly, encourage innovative and environmentally friendly waste battery disposal process, and achieve full recycling of resources. "

In addition, the development of augmented electric vehicle technology to reduce the use of batteries in pure electric vehicles can also fundamentally reduce the generation of waste batteries. As an advocate of the technology, Yangyusheng said: "Some people question whether the increase program is still to burn oil, not the ultimate goal. But I think that energy conservation and emission reduction should be used as horizontal criteria to test policy and technical routes. The ultimate goal of electric vehicles is not necessarily a pure electric vehicle that does not burn oil. It is very likely that it will burn alcoholic electric vehicles without burning oil. We need a third generation of additions to deal with the impact of subsidies on electric vehicles. "

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