How to Recycle Batteries for New Energy Vehicles?

According to the data released by China Automobile Industry Association, the production and sales of new energy vehicles in 2016 were 517,000 and 507,000 respectively, up 51.7% and 53% year-on-year; in 2017, they were 794,000 and 777,000 respectively, up 53.8% and 53.3% year-on-year. It is expected that the sales growth of new energy vehicles in China will reach about 40% in 2018, and the sales of new energy vehicles will reach 1 million vehicles. The battery life of new energy vehicles is 5-8 years, or 200,000 kilometers. The first batch of new energy vehicles have reached their service life, and a large number of discarded batteries will enter the recycling market. According to statistics, in 2016, less than 10,000 tons of power batteries were actually dismantled and recycled in China, and more than 80% of the discarded batteries still remain in the hands of automobile manufacturers. According to industry experts, by 2020, the accumulative scrap of new energy vehicle power battery in China will reach the scale of 120,000-170,000 tons. Therefore, the rational recovery and reuse of new energy vehicle power battery has become a top priority.

First, there is a large space for power battery reuse. Due to the advanced manufacturing technology, scrap power batteries still maintain high safety and electrical performance even after scrap. For example, in 2008, hundreds of electric buses were put into operation at the Beijing Olympic Games. After three years of operation, their batteries were used for wind power and photovoltaic energy storage. In addition, waste batteries of new energy vehicles contain valuable energy materials such as cobalt, nickel and manganese, which can save 51.3% of natural resources by recycling. Especially for cobalt resources, the proportion of cobalt needed for new energy automobile batteries is more than 70%, and 95% of its demand depends on imports. It is predicted that the recycling market of waste power batteries will reach 5 billion yuan in 2018. By 2020 - 2023, the recycling market of waste power batteries will further increase to 13.6 billion yuan - 31.1 billion yuan.

Second, the recovery technology and process level are poor. On the one hand, the domestic recycling technology for power batteries is still in the exploratory stage, and recycling technology aiming at recycling manufacturing has not been widely developed. On the other hand, domestic power battery recycling and treatment generally remain in the waste treatment stage, resource recovery and reuse and battery recycling and remanufacturing technology research has not yet been carried out, there is no specific measures and equipment to ensure the production safety and environmental issues involved in battery recycling. Especially, the voltage of power battery is high voltage direct current, the passenger car is more than 300 volts, the bus is more than 600 volts, the recovery process is not handled properly, and safety accidents are easy to occur.

Third, the recycling system is still not perfect. There is no special legislation on the recycling of power batteries for new energy vehicles in China, and there is a lack of access conditions and management methods for recycling enterprises. Some existing power batteries recycling workshops have extensive development model, backward technology and weak environmental awareness, which seriously affects the sustainable and healthy development of waste power batteries recycling, such as the disorder of waste battery recycling industry. Competition, environmental pollution and waste of resources in the recycling process are very serious, the shortage of raw materials aggravates the price rise and so on. At present, more than 70% of the old batteries in China are flowing to small workshops, and the market is in urgent need of supervision.

To this end, it is suggested that:

First, speed up the system design. To formulate laws and regulations covering the recycling, transportation and storage of waste power batteries, to systematically sort out and stipulate the standardization of power battery structure design, connection mode, process technology and integrated installation, to ensure the consistency, safety and economy of power batteries in the disassembly and testing links, and actively guide relevant enterprises in the industry to participate in the formulation of standards. Establish power battery coding system and traceability system to ensure the information record of power battery life cycle, such as adding power battery coding information for owners of new energy vehicles, reporting to management agencies by recycling enterprises, regularly updating personal credit information, so as to prevent owners from dismantling batteries privately and selling them illegally in the market.

Second, improve the management system. Fully utilizing Internet of Things, big data and other informationization means, a large-scale, efficient and traceable waste power battery recycling management system is constructed. In accordance with the principle of limited cascade utilization, power battery recycling tries to recover the residual value of power battery, while recovering elements with high extraction value, thus forming a closed-loop industrial chain of power battery, maximizing the use of resources and minimizing environmental pollution. For reference, BMW and Bond Group and Ningde Times have established partnerships on behalf of car companies, power battery recyclers and power battery manufacturers respectively. BMW handed the recycled power batteries to Bond, Bond took apart and recycled raw materials, handed the obtained raw materials to Ningde Times to produce new power batteries, and finally the new power batteries produced were re-assembled into BMW vehicles. The whole forms a closed loop.

3. Promoting commercialization. We should formulate incentive and Implementation Rules for power battery recycling, establish a clear reward and punishment mechanism, subsidize power battery recycling enterprises in advance according to the number and capacity of batteries, and provide tax incentives to ensure the economy and enthusiasm of power battery recycling enterprises. We will carry out pilot demonstrations of innovative business models and promote valuable circular economy development models. At the same time, we should expand the power battery recycling channels, carry out the "Internet + power battery recycling", O2O, APP, WeChat and other forms of sharing and sharing mode, fully tap the value of waste power battery recycling, and achieve the intensive use of resources.

The page contains the contents of the machine translation.