China has the world's largest new power car market, and has been developing rapidly in recent years. Lithium-ion batteries are considered to be one of the preferred power batteries for new power cars because of their high energy density, small self-discharge performance, and recyclability.
It is worth noting that, because of the limited life of lithium-ion batteries, coupled with the continuous updating of skills, lithium-ion batteries will usher in the planning of retirement, scrap "small peak". If the waste power battery disposal is not properly, will bring life and health, safety, environmental pollution and other issues.
Orderly guidance to improve the system
According to statistics, this year, China's power battery will enter the planning phase of retirement, according to 70% can be used for secondary use calculation, about 60,000 tons of power battery needs to be scrapped. Power battery recovery and use is imminent.
Waste lithium-ion power battery where to go, how to complete a cleaner, green, safe way to deal with these issues become the focus of professional attention. The introduction of the Skills Code may give the profession a path to follow.
Recently, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment released the national environmental protection standard "Technical Specification" gives a clear definition of "waste lithium-ion power battery": the loss of the original use value, or although not lost in use value but abandoned or discarded lithium-ion power battery, excluding the shelf life of the returned to the factory fault detection, repair and renovation of lithium-ion battery. Power battery. Followed by specific specifications from the pollution control skills requirements, operational environmental handling requirements, environmental emergency handling requirements.
"Now, the requirements of environmental protection in various professions are increasingly stringent, the introduction of the "technical specifications", after the current power battery recovery process to sort out the existence of perhaps potential pollution risks, to support the power battery recovery process green, to promote more standardized development of the profession." Sun Qi, a researcher at the Institute of Process Engineering of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, told China Science News.
"At this time, China does not have the pollution prevention requirements specifically for the power battery recovery industry, as long as the general rules." Yang Qingyu, deputy secretary-general of China Battery Alliance, believes that as an important component of the entire recovery industry specification system, the "technical specifications" has its own characteristics, on the control of pollutants to the corresponding recovery enterprises put forward specific and concrete requirements, which will help the power battery recovery industry to green, environmental protection, and promote industrial transformation and upgrading.
In fact, in recent years, the domestic power battery recovery policy is constantly updated, touching the power battery handling methods, traceability, the construction of the processing platform, specification conditions, network construction and operation and other aspects, but also built a power battery recovery and use of the whole life cycle of the national specification system to guide the healthy development of the industry, and promote the safe and orderly recovery of power batteries.
"The policy system is gradually constituted, the specification is gradually improved, and the construction of the entire recovery pathway system has more basis." Yang Qingyu said.
Needle guidance to promote corporate recovery awareness continues to grow. According to China Battery Alliance statistics, by February 2020, a total of 130 enterprises nationwide declared 11,229 recovery service outlets, an average of 86 outlets for each vehicle company declared responsible for the recovery of lithium batteries.
Different links Different requirements
Sun Qi said that as far as the skill path is concerned, there are mainly two types of industrial applications now. One type is the combined pyro-wet recovery process, in which waste batteries are prepared by high-temperature melting of cobalt-nickel-manganese alloy, and then further wet separation and purification to obtain related products.
The continuous innovation of skills is strengthening the pollution control of the whole industrial chain of power battery recovery, and promoting the green and sustainable development of the industry. In terms of pollution control skills requirements, the "technical specifications" from the process pollution control skills requirements, end pollution control skills requirements for specific specifications.
Another category is the combined pyrolysis pretreatment - wet metallurgy recovery process. That is, the primary removal of waste battery organic matter, by crushing and sorting, etc., to get rich in lithium and other elements of the black powder, and then the black powder using wet leaching process to recover its valuable metals, further preparation of battery cathode material.
Waste lithium-ion power battery recovery touches collection, storage, transportation and discharge, crushing, sorting, metal extraction and many other key skill links, different links have different requirements for pollution control.
"The two roads have their own characteristics, both expect 'from the battery', and then 'back to the battery'." Sun Zhi said. In fact, as far as the power battery recovery profession is concerned, China is ahead of the curve, "because our problems and needs are presented earlier and more urgently."
Yang Qingyu told China Science News that in the collection, storage and transportation link, the focus is on the electrolyte leakage problem. Lithium hexafluorophosphate is the most important component of the electrolyte, accounting for about 43% of the electrolyte, which is volatile and releases hydrogen fluoride to pollute the environment. And in the disassembly sorting, exercise link, it is necessary to ensure the confinement of the working environment, as well as the treatment of waste gas waste water slag. "To complete the green and safe recovery, the closed environment of the enterprise, environmental protection equipment, environmental protection process and other requirements are high."
Sun Qi also said that the danger of environmental pollution of power batteries is now one of the most important issues in the industry. In addition to electrolyte leakage, there are heavy metal pollution such as copper-nickel, secondary waste slag problems occur in the processing process; in addition, if not properly handled, the residual electricity in storage, cracking process may cause spontaneous combustion, explosion, etc..
He pointed out that "the pre-treatment process is the focus of power battery recovery pollution control."
In recent years, there are related companies began in the front-end design of the battery, consider how to be more convenient, safe and environmentally friendly when the battery back-end retrieval. "To coordinate the needs of electric car use, the difficulty is still relatively large, but at home and abroad are trying to explore." Sun Qi said.
The prospect is vast, keep exploring
Rarely, according to forecasts, in 2020, China's power battery recovery and use of the mall will reach about 10.7 billion yuan, of which about 6.4 billion yuan in the gradient use of the mall, regenerative use of the mall about 4.3 billion yuan.
There is no doubt that the rapid development of new power cars has driven the growth of lithium-ion power batteries, but also to the lithium-ion power battery recovery has brought a broad vision of the market.
Yang Qingyu said, the center of the battery recovery is to extend the full life cycle of the battery as far as possible, to improve the regeneration value. Among them, the battery ladder use deserves attention, the power battery unloaded from the new power car, according to safety testing and life expectancy, can also be applied to low-speed electric vehicles, electric bicycles, small planning distributed energy storage, etc..
In his opinion, the reasons may include customer awareness, poor recovery pathways, etc. "When the power battery capacity decayed to 80% reached the vehicle scrap specification, but the battery price is higher, customers will have 'rather than replace the battery than drive more than two years to directly replace the car' idea." Yang Qingyu said, on the whole, the battery will be retired sooner or later, the career prospects, on the one hand, the need to guide customers through the regular way to retrieve the battery, on the other hand, to strengthen supervision.
"In addition to skills, the profession now pays more attention to recovery planning and economics." Yang Qingyu admitted that the number of retired power batteries circulating in the market now is planned to be lower than expected by the industry, the lack of recovery volume and lack of planning effect may be a common problem faced by battery recovery enterprises.
In Sun Qi's view, the future also needs to strengthen the level of automation of battery recovery skills and equipment. "Because of the large variability of battery packs, there is now more room for improvement in skills such as dismantling."
Experts pointed out that to constitute an enterprise-led battery recovery industry chain, but also need government guidance, scientific and technological support, public support and other parties to jointly promote.
Li Jinhui, a professor at Tsinghua University's School of Environment, pointed out in the proceedings of the recent 15th International Conference on Solid Waste Management and Technology that the construction of China's power battery recovery system was still not perfect. Now the power battery recovery system mainly relies on the car production enterprises existing sales network construction, there is a certain safety risk, and the professionalism of the operator is not enough. In addition, the power battery recovery system coverage rate to be improved, the overall recovery cost is high, the recovery of the use of enterprise benefits is not obvious. The cooperation of upstream and downstream enterprises needs to be strengthened, and the resource allocation of the recovery system needs to be optimized.
Welcome to visit our company website: www.manlybattery.com. If you have any interests in batteries, please feel free to contact us: info@manlybattery.com
