Why power battery recycling is more profitable？

"All I know is that the battery is guaranteed to be replaced for the rest of my life. A few days ago, the new energy car that Beijing advocate ZHAOXIANG bought in 2013, appeared the problem with shortened battery life ability. In accordance with the manufacturer's "battery protection for life" policy, he went to the 4S shop for replacement. In the face of disassembled batteries, ZHAOXIANG asked: how to deal with these old power batteries?

ZHAOXIANG is not alone. China's first batch of new energy vehicle power battery replacement period is approaching, waste battery recycling, treatment problems have been placed in front of us.

Power batteries to focus on 'decommissioning' in 2020

"As the most unique part of the new energy vehicle, the service life of the power battery is much shorter than that of other parts in the car, generally five to eight years." Wang QI, chairman of SICHUAN QIYANG automobile group, believes that this means that the first batch of new energy vehicles entering the market in China will gradually usher in the replacement period of power batteries from this year.

According to statistics, the sales volume of new energy vehicles in China reached 777,000 in 2017, with the cumulative ownership of about 1.8 million by that year. According to the calculation, around 2020, power battery replacement will usher in explosive growth.

At present, the main power battery in China is lithium ion battery, the positive electrode material in its composition may cause heavy metal pollution, and its electrolyte is also highly corrosive and toxic, easy to produce toxic chemical gas. "A 20-gram cell phone battery can pollute the water of three standard swimming pools. If abandoned on the land, it can pollute one square kilometer of land for about 50 years." Wu FENG, a professor at the Beijing institute of technology, has analyzed the environmental hazards of mobile phone batteries made of the same lithium-ion material. This shows what can happen if much larger dimension batteries are disposed of at will.

First step utilization, then disassemble and recycle

"Disposing of used power batteries can be tricky, but with the right use it can be a real asset." According to XIAO CHENGWEI, an expert from the national "863" plan on energy conservation and major new energy vehicle projects, by 2020, it is expected that the retired lithium battery of new energy vehicles will be about 50GWh (electric power unit, 1GWh=1 million KWH), with a market space of 10 billion yuan.

However, due to its large size and complex composition, the recycling and reuse of power batteries face many limitations and high technical barriers.

"Batteries replaced from new energy vehicles can be used for cascade utilization first." According to the standard, the power battery capacity is reduced to less than 70 percent of the rated capacity and is no longer suitable for new energy vehicles, technicians from BAIC new energy told workers' daily. "But the chemistry inside the battery hasn't changed, and it can store some of its power, so it can be collected and used in less demanding places." This is called "cascade utilization", according to the technician.

"But Recycling party fret that it requires the batteries to be of the same model and parameters before they can be assembled and operated together." This technical personnel thinks, because our country did not come on stage unified standard of power battery, want large limits to use centrally still have difficulty.

According to the introduction, it is difficult to control the quality and safety of retired batteries in cascade utilization technology. It is necessary to develop relevant detection technology and equipment to accurately determine whether retired batteries can enter the cascade utilization market and determine the application scenarios.

Reporters found in the interview, so far, China has no large-scale enterprises involved in power battery recycling work. The reason is that the cost of recycling and dismantling exceeds the value of the battery, and there is no profit point.

Enterprises should be responsible and policies should be supported

In march this year, SHENZHEN development and reform commission issued "SHENZHEN to carry out the national new energy vehicle battery regulatory recycling system construction pilot program". Previously, the ministry of industry and information technology and other seven ministries jointly issued the "new energy vehicle power battery recycling management interim measures". Both of them clearly put forward that the responsibility of automobile enterprises and power battery producers should be extended to the battery recycling link. The policies are forcing companies to act.

BAIC new energy launched the "Project prime" last year. It plans to invest 10 billion yuan to complete the construction of 3,000 light-storage and electrical changing stations nationwide by 2022. A total of 500,000 vehicles will be put into the project.

BYD, which takes "battery life protection" as one of its selling points, commissioned 4S stores to recycle used batteries and send them back to the factory for testing, so as to decide whether to continue to use them or take them apart through wet recycling. Because the batteries are all the same type of power, BYD has great convenience in the cascade utilization.

"Whether it is cascade utilization or recycling, the premise is to be able to monitor the flow of waste batteries, to ensure that the flow of technology, qualified manufacturers, so that the whole industry can run in a healthy and orderly way. During this year's two sessions of the National People's Congress, Chen HONG, a NPC deputy and chairman of Shanghai automotive group, put forward a proposal to add the power battery coding information of new energy vehicle owners to the social credit system. After the battery is recovered, the recycling enterprise shall report to the management organ and regularly update the personal credit information, so as to prevent the car owner from disassembling the battery without permission and selling it on the market illegally.

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