Waste power batteries: there is a crisis and a business opportunity

"All I know is that it lasts a lifetime and I don't know what happened to the battery." A few days ago, the new energy car that Beijing advocate zhao xiang 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. Faced with disassembled batteries, zhao xiang asked: what should I do with these old power batteries?

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

Power batteries to focus on 'decommissioning' by 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, China's new energy vehicle sales reached 77 percent in 2017. 70,000 vehicles, about 1.8 million by the end of the 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 happens when a much larger battery is disposed of at will.

First step utilization, then dismantling recovery

"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 of 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 of power batteries faces many limitations and high technical barriers.

"Batteries from new energy vehicles can be first used in cascade." According to the standard, the capacity of power batteries will be reduced to less than 70 percent of the rated capacity, which 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 what bothers recyclers is that it requires the batteries to be the same size and the same parameters before they can be put together." This technical personnel thinks, because our country did not come out unified standard of power battery, want wide range to use centrally still have difficulty.

According to the introduction, it is difficult to control the quality and safety of retired batteries in the 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.

Businesses need to be responsible and policies supportive

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 "interim measures for the management of the recovery and utilization of new energy vehicle power batteries". Both of them clearly put forward that the responsibility of automobile enterprises and power battery manufacturers should be extended to the battery recycling link. The policies are forcing companies to act.

Baic new energy launched the "optimus prime plan" last year. It plans to invest 10 billion yuan to build 3,000 light-storage and electrical changing stations nationwide by 2022. A total of 500,000 vehicles will be put into the project, and more than 5GWh of cascade energy-storage batteries will be used.

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 to take them apart through wet recycling. Because the batteries are all the same type of power, byd has great convenience in cascade utilization.

"Whether it is cascade utilization or recycling and dismantling, 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 deputy to the National People's Congress and chairman of Shanghai automotive group, put forward a proposal to add the power battery coding information of owners of new energy vehicles to the social credit system. After the battery is recycled, the recycling enterprise shall report to the management organization and regularly update the personal credit information, so as to prevent the owner from disassembling the battery without permission and selling it in the market illegally.

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