How to solve the recycling issue of 3 million electric vehicle batteries

According to foreign media reports, the batteries of the first batch of electric and hybrid vehicles are approaching the retirement period, but they will not be transported to landfills, but will help ice beer in the 7-Elevens store in Japan to charge cars in California. The station stores energy for European homes and the grid.

Lithium-ion batteries for cars and buses can be used for charging and discharging for 7 to 10 years after being removed from the chassis, which will be generated for global automakers, power suppliers and raw material suppliers. big influence.

According to data from Bloomberg NEF, it is estimated that by 2025, there will be more than 3.4 million electric vehicle battery modules in the world (about 55,000 this year), and it is becoming more and more urgent to find ways to reuse this technology.

China's electric vehicle sales account for half of global sales, and the Chinese government will implement new regulations in August to allow automakers to dispose of decommissioned batteries and ban them from being sent to landfills. The EU also has relevant regulations, and industry insiders expect the United States to follow suit.

General Motors, BMW, Toyota Motor Corporation, BYD and other renewable energy storage suppliers are working hard to create an aftermarket for electric vehicle decommissioned batteries and hope to generate additional profits. Electric vehicle batteries are "recycled and reused" and create a second revenue stream that helps lower the price of electric vehicles.

Johan Stjernberg, CEO of the Swedish energy company Box of Energy AB, which works with Porsche and Volvo Cars, said: "Automakers are about to face a problem, and we have begun to see: a large number of decommissioned batteries, Its recycling market will be huge."

BNEF's predictions for the next decade are staggering. By 2030, demand for electric vehicle batteries will increase by 25 times. According to data released by Paris-based Avicenne Energy, cars have surpassed consumer electronics and become the largest lithium-ion battery users.

BNEF predicts that by 2040, more than half of the new cars and one-third of the world's cars (equivalent to 559 million cars) will be battery-powered. By 2050, companies will invest about $550 billion in battery storage for homes, industries and power grids.

Cecile Sobole, project manager for electric vehicle business at Renault, said: "The logic behind this is a circular economy, and batteries from electric vehicles will increasingly become an important part of the energy world."

However, with many companies joining, Tesla, the largest electric car manufacturer in the United States, is still waiting to see. The company said that after 10 to 15 years of use, its battery may not be suitable for new tasks, and it is currently focusing on recycling raw materials.

If it is more profitable to extract substances such as cobalt, making it easier to make new batteries, efforts to reuse them may slow down. Evidence of a decline in the performance of electric vehicle batteries is that the owner will travel less miles after each charge and charging will become more frequent.

These parts can usually be used on a family car for about 10 years, while on buses and taxis they can only be used for 4 years. While these replaced batteries cannot operate on passenger cars, they are well suited for less demanding tasks, such as storing electricity for solar panels and wind turbines, and storing electricity for conventional grids at lower prices.

Hans Eric Melin, founder of London energy storage Research and Consulting, said: "Lithium-ion batteries will never be scrapped. Just like you can take alkaline batteries from a flashlight and then put It's on the remote, it's still good enough."

Merlin said that by 2025, about three-quarters of the waste electric vehicle batteries will be reused and then recycled to obtain raw materials. This means that car manufacturers and battery manufacturers can profit from multiple products in the same product.

The Swedish energy company Box of Energy, London Power vault and Melbourne RelictrifyPty are all helping to develop the second life of electric vehicle batteries. Many car manufacturers either work with them or act alone.

In the basement of a three-story apartment building in western Sweden, Boxof Energy installed refrigerator-sized silver cabinets, each using 20 battery modules recycled by Volvo Hybrid. They store energy for rooftop solar panels and are then used for elevators and lighting in public spaces.

According to Powervault, this technology can reduce household electricity bills by more than a third. The company plans to break down Renault Zoe's battery pack and use it for homes and schools in England this summer. Powervault dishwasher-sized equipment can calculate when it is best to use grid charging and when to use stored power.

Jeff Hardy, 44, installed Powervault equipment in his home in South East London with a Victorian terrace. He expects to save ?110 a year (about 954 yuan).

As a scholar and consultant in the field of energy, Hardy pointed out: "This technology can basically supplement my solar energy needs, so that I can do more things for free. The manufacture of electric car batteries does have an impact on the environment. In fact, this is a Reusable products, which means that this effect can be reduced."

Large systems can also reduce business costs. The retired battery of the Nissan Electric Car Leaf will soon help illuminate the streets of the Japanese coastal town of Namie. Langjiang is recovering from the 2011 disaster at the nearby Fukushima Daiichispecial power plant (Fukushima Daiichi).

Next year, Toyota, the maker of the Prius hybrid, will install decommissioned batteries outside the 7-Eleven store in Japan. Hybrid batteries store the energy of the solar panels and then use juice to help run beverage coolers, fried chicken warmers and sausage grills when needed.

Tom Zhao, global sales director of BYD Battery Group, said that typical electric vehicle batteries can retain about 50% to 70% of their electricity after being removed. The Warren Buffett-backed company uses a second-hand battery pack to power the wireless transmission tower and help run one of Shenzhen's largest energy storage systems.

Tom Zhao said: "If you don't reuse them, it will be a huge waste."

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