How do we recycle after the 2020 Chinese electric vehicle battery is scrapped?

Under the guidance and promotion of national policies, the output and holdings of new energy vehicles continue to rise. Along with this, the power battery will reach a peak of scrapping around 2020. How to dispose of these scrapped batteries has become a problem that cannot be underestimated.

In January this year, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology announced that in 2015, China produced a total of 379,000 new energy vehicles, a four-fold increase over the same period last year. Miao Wei, Minister of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, also said at the two sessions in 2016 that the scale of production and sales in 2016 is expected to more than double in 2015.

However, with the explosive growth of new energy vehicles, the amount of scrapped power batteries is about to usher in a small peak. The China Automotive Technology and Research Center predicts that by 2020, the cumulative scrap of China's automotive power batteries will reach a scale of 120,000-170,000 tons.

In fact, for these batteries that cannot be used by electric vehicles, it is not that they have no use value at all. For example, the service life of a lithium battery is about 20 years, but when used in a car, the battery capacity is generally reduced to less than 80% of the initial capacity in 3-5 years, the cruising range of the electric vehicle will be significantly reduced, and the power battery will be replaced.

These batteries that are scrapped on electric vehicles can be used in energy storage or related power supply base stations as well as street lamps and low-speed electric bodies depending on the battery capacity, and finally enter the recycling system. This is also known in the industry as power battery recycling or cascade utilization.

China Energy News previously reported that many people in the industry believe that considering the strong development trend of electric vehicles in the future, it will bring the blue ocean of power battery cascade utilization. However, some insiders worry that the idea of ??power battery cascade utilization is very good, and there are still many problems in practical operation.

For example, when the used power battery is used by the cascade, the battery consistency is greatly different from that of the new battery, which poses a great obstacle to the use of the group. At the same time, when the capacity and voltage of the battery are used in cascades, a cliff-type fall will occur under a small number of cycles, which is extremely difficult for later use. In addition, enterprises including state power grids, local governments, and battery companies have carried out research on power battery ladder recycling. Although some progress has been made, it is still in the exploration stage and has not yet formed a systematic industrial chain.

Countries around the world are actively conducting experimental research and engineering applications in the use of power battery ladders. Countries such as the United States, Germany, and Japan have gone relatively early, and there have been some successful engineering and commercial projects.

United States

The United States has a comprehensive study on the utilization of power battery cascades. It has systematically studied the economic benefits, technical and commercial feasibility analysis of power batteries. Currently, there are related demonstration projects and commercial operation projects in the United States.

For example, in 2011, GM and ABB began working together to test how to use the Chevrolet Volt's battery pack to collect power back to the grid and ultimately power both domestic and commercial. After the trial, the five groups of used Chevrolet Volt batteries were reintegrated into a modular device that could support 3-5 US ordinary households for two hours of power supply. In the future, similar applications will provide backup power for some homes and small commercial buildings in the event of a power outage. At the same time, the storage of electricity during peak hours during the electricity price period can also be used to make up for the shortfall in wind power, photovoltaic or other renewable energy generation.

At the same time, the US government is also promoting the establishment of a battery recycling network. It adopts an additional environmental fee to charge a certain amount of handling fee when the consumer purchases the battery, and the battery manufacturer pays a part of the return fee, which is supported by the funds for scrapping the battery.

Germany

At present, Germany has established a sound legal system for recycling and utilization. According to the German regulations on battery recycling, in Germany, battery production and importers must register with the government, dealers should organize the recycling mechanism, and users have the obligation to give the used batteries to designated recycling institutions. The implementation of this extended producer responsibility system and the establishment of a sound battery recovery system. Meanwhile, the German ministry of environment has funded two demonstration projects on the recycling of power batteries (LiBRi project and LithoRec project) to study the recycling of waste power batteries.

As early as 2010, TUV rheinland group commissioned by Germany FederalInstitute for Building, she will participate in the electric car battery ladder make use of the research project. The project is planned to set up a demonstration project of energy storage application in Berlin, Germany, with financial support from the German energy and climate research institute. In addition, Bosch has built a 2MW/2MWh large-scale photovoltaic power station energy storage system using the discarded batteries of BMW's Active E and i3 pure electric vehicles.

Japan

Neighboring countries in Japan are also doing a better job in recycling and recycling of used batteries. Japan's sound system of circular economy development laws and regulations provides a good standard for the recycling of power batteries. Previously, Japanese battery manufacturers have established a battery recycling system for “battery production and sales – recycling – recycling”.

In terms of power battery cascade utilization, Nissan Motor Co., Ltd. and Sumitomo Group established a joint venture with Sumitomo Group before the listing of “Leading Wind”, which is mainly engaged in the recycling of used batteries for electric vehicles. At present, the scrapped batteries of Nissan Leaf Motors sold or leased in Japan and the United States can be used as energy storage equipment for residential and commercial use.

Comparing the battery recycling status of the above countries, it can be seen that in addition to advanced power battery recycling technology, these countries also have relatively sound laws and regulations. At present, in order to guide and promote the use of power battery cascades, policies are continuously introduced at the national policy level, but China still lacks professional laws and regulations, and recycling companies also lack relevant strict management systems. Therefore, it is also necessary for China to learn from foreign related experience to establish a complete power battery recycling system.

The page contains the contents of the machine translation.