Lithium battery recycling market has entered a benign development

Power batteries are the core of new energy vehicles. With the increasing production of batteries and the large number of products on the market, a problem that cannot be ignored has been placed in front of us urgently, that is, the recycling of used lithium batteries. With the increasing awareness of environmental protection and resource recycling, as well as the active involvement of vehicle and power battery enterprises, China's battery recycling industry will eventually follow a healthy and orderly development.

New energy automobile market in 2014 began to rapid growth, and new energy vehicles as early as in 2008 during the Olympic Games have been, in accordance with the corresponding standards, power lithium battery scrap battery market has started to form, by 2018 China power (600482) battery waste recycling market will take shape, accumulative total waste power battery is 12.08 GWH, accumulative total scrap amount will reach 172500 tons.

It is estimated in the industry that the recycling market scale created by recovering cobalt, nickel, manganese, lithium, iron, aluminum and other metals from the huge amount of waste power lithium batteries will exceed 5.3 billion yuan, will exceed 10 billion yuan by 2020, and the market of waste power lithium batteries will reach 25 billion yuan by 2023.

Most of the automobile power batteries in China are lithium ion batteries. Although they do not contain mercury, cadmium, lead and other toxic heavy metal elements, improper disposal of waste lithium ion batteries still causes great pollution to the environment.

Once the organic electrolyte, cobalt, copper, nickel and other heavy metals infiltrate into the water and soil, it will bring hidden dangers to the ecological environment and even endanger human health. If we do not recycle and dispose of the used lithium battery, it will not only cause a waste of resources, but also cause some pollution to the environment. Therefore, it is urgent to accelerate the recycling and utilization of power lithium battery, which has become a major issue affecting the development of new energy automobile industry.

Although power lithium battery recycling industry is considered to have important market value, but the power battery recycling industry in China is still in its early development, the industry has not been a closed loop, development is relatively slow, in 2015, domestic scrap power battery recovery rate was only 2%, the reason is that the main problems are as follows: imperfect policies and regulations system; Industry development is not standardized; The market is immature; The recovery cost is high and the economy and safety are not good.

At present, the power battery recycling channels are mainly small recycling workshops, professional recycling companies and government recycling centers, the system needs to be restructured. Most of the waste power batteries go to small, poorly qualified refurbishment workshops, where the companies' equipment is poor. However, if the enterprise is registered and pays taxes according to the law, obtains the qualification and discharges according to the national standard, it is bound to cause the lack of price competitiveness. Therefore, it is necessary to improve policies to ensure the sustainable development of battery recycling industry.

To this end, on January 3, 2017, the general office of the state council issued the "implementation plan of the extended producer responsibility system", which takes the lead in implementing the extended producer responsibility system for products such as electrical appliances, electronics, automobiles, lead batteries and packaging materials, and clarifies the priorities of various products, including automobiles. By 2020, China will establish a recycling system for electric vehicle power batteries.

Although the government has promulgated some policies and regulations one after another, there are no mandatory laws and policies, and there are no laws and regulations that actually implement the responsibilities and specify the detailed rules for punishment.

Given power lithium battery recycling, two sessions on behalf of the day, chairman of ZHANG TIANREN said, more to waste lithium batteries and dismantling, restructuring, key technology research for test and life prediction and improve technical maturity and the safety of the production process, as well as the automation level and recovery efficiency, power lithium battery recycling economic feasibility and safety; Strengthen the standardization research on the structure design, process technology and integrated installation of power lithium battery, link the traceable system with the announcement management of new energy vehicle products, ensure the battery life cycle information record, and improve the convenience and accuracy of test and evaluation.

It is also necessary to formulate rules for the implementation of incentives for the recycling and reuse of power lithium batteries and establish a reward and punishment mechanism. For example, enterprises that fail to fulfill their responsibilities and obligations in accordance with the recycling policy will be punished, and the recycling and recycling enterprises will be subsidized or given tax incentives according to the number and capacity of battery sets, etc., so as to encourage the pilot innovation and application of business models. ZHANG TIANREN said.

The page contains the contents of the machine translation.