Focus: power battery recycling channel construction into a critical period

While the new energy vehicle industry is booming, the recycling of power batteries has become the focus of the industry. After the development in recent years, the batch application period for new energy vehicles will come. If a large number of retired batteries cannot be properly recycled and utilized, it will not only lead to the waste of resources, but also bring environmental pollution and other problems.

"With the establishment of the extended production responsibility system with the vehicle enterprises as the main body, the power battery recycling industry has entered a critical period of channel construction. Ministry of energy saving and comprehensive utilization department, former deputy inspector, secretary general of the China electronic energy-saving technology association, an April 17 in the 7th auto motive battery recycling and secondary battery recycling and regeneration technology seminar, said on the design of the power battery production in China and waste power battery recycling disposal and comprehensive utilization are currently in need of support, standardization of preliminary stage of development.

Industry pain points: high cost, weak economy

The retirement period for new energy passenger vehicles is usually five years, and that for passenger and commercial vehicles is three years. Before 2022, the decommissioned batteries will be mainly lithium iron phosphate batteries. After 2022, the decommissioned amount of ternary batteries will be equal to lithium iron phosphate and gradually exceed it. Theoretical decommissioning of power batteries is expected to be 5 percent for the full year of 2018. 14GWh, the main source of retired new energy bus.

Reporters learned that the current layout of the relevant business enterprises are mainly divided into five categories: traditional recycling enterprises, emerging recycling enterprises, battery PACK plant, battery material enterprises and vehicle manufacturers.

Different types of enterprises have different advantages and disadvantages. For example, traditional recycling enterprises have relative advantages in recycling channels, material recycling technology, battery crushing technology and smelting technology, but they still need to cooperate with vehicle plants and scrap plants due to the lack of power battery sources. The strength of the emerging recycling enterprises in the technology is breaking and dismantling batteries.

At present, there are two main disposal methods of waste power batteries: fire smelting technology and wet smelting technology. Wang haibei, director of the metallurgical research and design institute of Beijing mining and metallurgical technology group co., said that the existing smelting process is very complex and difficult.

"The smooth operation of the recycling system should be based on profit, without profit driven, the enterprise can't fully improve the enthusiasm. Wang haibei admitted that "the existing recycling technology investment and recycling network construction investment are very large, although many enterprises layout test water, but few enterprises dig big bucket of gold.

It can't be ignored that the battery recycling process will produce toxic electrolyte and harmful gas, if not properly handled will bring great harm to the environment and human health. "Some enterprises adopt the way of high temperature heating or burning in the process of treatment, losing control may easily endanger the health of workers." Harbin batrui resources renewable technology co. LTD. General manager Ming yuebin pointed out.

Government and business join forces to seek disruption

In view of the above problems, the relevant national departments have issued a series of industrial policies to guide and regulate the power battery recycling industry.

In February this year, the ministry of industry and information technology and seven other ministries and commissions jointly issued the interim measures for the management of the recycling and utilization of new energy vehicle power batteries, making it clear that automobile manufacturers should assume the main responsibility for the recycling of power batteries. In march, the ministry of industry and information technology and seven other ministries and commissions jointly issued the notice on organizing and carrying out the pilot work of recycling and utilization of new energy vehicle power batteries, proposing to carry out the pilot work of recycling and utilization of power batteries in selected parts of the beijing-tianjin-hebei region, the Yangtze river delta, the pearl river delta and the central region, with the pilot as the center and radiating to the surrounding areas.

"The issuance of the notice marks the gradual establishment of a recycling policy system in China." "With the continuous breakthroughs in relevant technologies, the speed of policy release will be accelerated, and relevant standards are expected to be released this year," Yang said.

Participants believe that the battery types, battery capacity and voltage platforms of new energy vehicles are quite different at present, which is the first hurdle faced by the cascade utilization of power batteries. Therefore, how to scientifically evaluate retired batteries has become the first hurdle to determine where to go.

"The decommissioning battery evaluation process is mainly to upload the collected online and offline data to the monitoring platform, so as to analyze and process the battery pack and evaluate its performance." Li pengfei, technical director of Beijing jiangxin battery technology co., LTD., pointed out that from the evaluation results, the cascade utilization value of sanyuan battery is greater than the direct dismantling.

According to the report, after the decommissioned battery is evaluated and qualified, the cascade utilization can be carried out to help the energy storage system improve the overall economy and maximize the cycle life of lithium battery. At present, many enterprises have carried out demonstration projects of cascade utilization.

Shanghai xi da new energy technology co., LTD., vice President of marketing zhang xixian told reporters: "the original prediction battery echelon use attenuation rate in 3%-5%, but through the actual operation of the project, except the cold weather months, most of the charge and discharge data shows no attenuation, even lower than the new battery attenuation rate.

In view of the treatment method of toxic gas, Ming yuebin believes that the assembly line mechanical equipment can be used to break the battery and the module as a whole, recycle the electrolyte as a whole, and use the separation technology to separate the material, positive and negative electrode powder, so as to get the final metal shell. "Since the diaphragm is fully recycled, it does not turn into harmful gas." "She added.

Deep cooperation sharpens the industrial chain

It is known that the power battery recycling system involves many stakeholders, such as automobile enterprises, battery production enterprises, battery recycling enterprises, etc., with a long chain, and there are still many difficulties in the actual operation process.

In response, xie shaozhong, general manager of jiangxi ganfeng recycling technology co., ltd. suggested: "all links of the industrial chain need to be run together, but the overall principle should be 'professional people do professional things'. For example, automobile enterprises set up recycling channels, and then hand them over to comprehensive utilization enterprises for professional treatment.

It is reported that at present, there are a number of enterprises layout power battery recycling this blue sea:

At the end of 2017, BAIC new energy released the "skyscraper plan" : by 2022, it is estimated that it will invest 10 billion yuan to build 3,000 light storage and electrical changing stations nationwide, put a total of 500,000 electric changing vehicles, and use cascade energy storage battery more than 5GWh.

In January 2018, China tower signed a strategic partnership agreement with sander group and 16 other enterprises on the recycling and utilization of new energy vehicle power batteries. China Tower Company will use the retired power battery of the pure electric bus to replace the lead-acid battery for the communication base station backup after detection, sorting and reorganization.

"Both car companies and power battery companies are trying to implement the advanced concept of extended producer responsibility. It is hoped that all participants can start from the perspective of undertaking corporate social responsibility and explore the model and mechanism of power battery recycling suitable for industries, enterprises and product features. Huang jianzhong pointed out, "if the highlight of power battery is the cascade utilization and resource disposal, then the establishment of recycling mode and mechanism will be a masterstroke."

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