In recent years, with the encouragement of national policies and the change of residents' consumption concepts, China's new energy vehicle sales have grown rapidly. According to data from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, China's new energy vehicle production and sales exceeded 1.2 million units in 2019, continuing its global leadership. At the same time, the first batch of new energy batteries in China is entering a large-scale retirement period. According to the calculations of the China Automotive Technology Research Center (hereinafter referred to as "CATRC"), the new energy batteries will enter a large-scale retirement stage in 2020, with a total of more than 200,000 tons. If effective control is not implemented, it will cause serious environmental pollution and waste of resources. So, what to do with these retired batteries?
Traceability management for accurate recycling
There is a familiar phrase in China that "we cannot take the road of development before governance". Before the arrival of the new energy vehicle power battery retirement tide, the relevant departments have started the construction of the power battery traceability system from the top.
On July 31, 2018, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology launched a comprehensive management platform for national monitoring and power battery recycling of new energy vehicles, and on August 1, the Interim Measures for the Management of New Energy Vehicle Power Battery Recycling was officially implemented, marking the beginning of national supervision of new energy vehicle power batteries and ensuring the orderly and green development of the new energy vehicle industry.
Sun Fengchun, director of the National Engineering Laboratory for Electric Vehicles at Beijing Institute of Technology and academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, said, "China is the first to regulate the whole process of power batteries from the national level. This has a leading role in the development of global electric vehicles."
It is understood that the power battery recycling traceability integrated management platform is divided into the new energy vehicle management module and battery recycling management module. The former is managed by the National Engineering Laboratory of Electric Vehicles of Beijing Institute of Technology, and the latter is managed by the Data Resource Center of CAC, mainly focusing on the power battery after decommissioning from the vehicle, towards gradual utilization, disassembly, recycling and so on. Sun Fengchun said, so the whole process management, in order to be able to each piece of battery 100% tracking traceability.
Only enterprises that have obtained the relevant qualifications can engage in the recycling of power batteries. According to Chen Ping, deputy director of the CAC Data Resource Center, the enterprises identified by the Ministry of Commerce or local business departments as having the qualification of auto recycling and dismantling have more than 700 enterprises nationwide
However, whether the battery can be collected is a major challenge commonly encountered around the world. As a national pilot area of new energy vehicle power battery recycling, by 2020, Jiangsu province will basically form a new energy vehicle power battery recycling system, the key areas of new energy vehicle power battery basic recycling. At present, the country has 27 new energy vehicle manufacturers in Jiangsu Province set up 698 recycling outlets, but few batteries are really recycled from the recycling outlets.
If within the warranty period, customers have the need to replace the battery, they will take the initiative to contact the car manufacturer; if outside the warranty period, the situation is more complicated. "According to the regulations, the car manufacturer is the responsible body for battery recycling and has regulatory responsibility, but the ownership of retired batteries is in the hands of the end customer, and we have no right to deal with it." The person in charge of a battery recycling company in Nanjing said that if there is still availability and profit space for retired batteries, end customers are not necessarily willing to hand them over to car companies for disposal and often have their own considerations.
In terms of recycling retired batteries, commercial vehicle customers are mainly state-owned bus companies, which are more cooperative in recycling retired batteries. Private purchase of passenger cars, its power battery tracking recovery is more difficult, to communicate one-on-one. It is understood that generally when the vehicle is sold, a clause will be added to the agreement: the customer has the responsibility to cooperate with the power battery recycling. However, even then, it is not binding.
As retired batteries are general industrial solid waste, there is no special threshold for recycling, only normal qualifications are required. In addition to the car manufacturers who have the main responsibility for battery recycling, there are special recycling enterprises that can recycle. However, if the retired batteries after recycling are not used in regular channels, such as made into small rechargeable batteries, etc., there are not only safety hazards, but also disappear from the view of regulation.
"The current first step is to have the battery recycling information supplemented by vehicle enterprises to the power battery recycling and utilization traceability comprehensive management platform, which is the basis for building a comprehensive and effective supervision and management." Hu Zhengxin, deputy director of the Department of Energy Conservation and Comprehensive Utilization of the Jiangsu Provincial Department of Industry and Information Technology, suggested that the responsibility of recycling among various subjects should be further clarified and the recycling awareness of the whole society should be enhanced. At the same time, it is also necessary to accelerate and optimize the distribution of recycling points and improve the convenience and operability of recycling.
Wide prospects for secondary use
It is predicted that the market scale of new energy vehicle power battery recycling is huge: the market scale is expected to exceed 10 billion yuan in 2020 and 30 billion yuan in 2022. In other words, power battery recycling is not only required for environmental protection but also has considerable economic benefits.
Usually, the remaining capacity of the power battery on the new energy vehicle is reduced to 70%-80% of the initial capacity will not be able to meet the requirements of the car, and will be "retired". Just like the battery on the electric toy can not function in the radio can still be used normally, the power battery retired from the car, after testing, screening, restructuring, etc. can still be used in the field of electric vehicles, backup power, power storage, and other relatively good operating conditions, battery performance requirements are low, which is the secondary use.
In the pilot enterprise of new energy vehicle power battery recycling - China Tower Jiangsu Branch, Guo Xiang, power supervisor of the operation and maintenance department, introduced the power battery consists of a small cell, they are connected in series into various specifications of the module, and then through the series-parallel connection to form a battery pack. After a number of years of use, the battery pack capacity will gradually decay and cannot continue to be used in the car.
Since April 2018, Jiangsu province has used more than 9,600 sets of ladder batteries, about 60 MWh, and consumed 600 tons of retired power 600 tons of batteries, replacing about 1,800 tons of lead-acid batteries. China Tower Jiangsu plans to replace all lead-acid batteries within 8 years, with an annual demand of more than 200 MWh, which can consume 2,000 tons of retired power batteries and replace about 6,000 tons of lead-acid batteries.
The power battery gradual utilization is also generally favored by the energy storage field. Due to the implementation of peak and valley pricing of electricity, power supply enterprises need to charge energy storage at night and then release the power during the day, which can save a lot of electricity bills for customers. At present, China Tower Jiangsu Branch is building a 45 MWh gradient battery energy storage power plant project in Nanjing Jiangbei New District, which will be put into operation in the first half of 2020. The project will be charged and released once, which is equivalent to the electricity consumption of 180 families for one month.
Disassembly and conversion is the key
Generally speaking, if the capacity performance drops below 30%, the power battery can no longer be used for secondary use and can only be dismantled and scrapped. After the battery is dismantled, the recycled resources with value can be recovered, such as cobalt, lithium, nickel, and other precious metals. These resources will then be transformed into materials for battery production. This is the last and most critical link in the construction of the whole life cycle value chain recycling system for power batteries.
It is understood that the dismantling method of power batteries can be divided into two kinds of physical dismantling and chemical dismantling. As the strong acid and alkali used in chemical dismantling will cause pollution and damage to the environment, so Jiangsu Province does not encourage this method.
A new energy company in Jiangsu Province has developed the plasma dismantling method, which is to implement plasma separation, solids separation, gas harmless treatment, and other procedures for waste lithium batteries to extract usable renewable resources. It is reported that this new dismantling method can effectively avoid the use of strong acid and alkali to prevent damage to the environment. At present, this new technology has been promoted in the province, and a project processing 10,000 tons per year will be put into operation in mid-2020.
In addition to the dismantling process that may cause pollution, the high cost is also a problem that hinders the recycling of retired batteries. According to the relevant dismantling enterprises, the widespread use of lithium iron phosphate batteries, the recovery value is low, the disposal costs are too high, regeneration revenue is far from its regeneration costs, which greatly affects the enthusiasm of recycling enterprises.
For the economic value of power battery disassembly and recycling, there is also a lot of discussions. Prince Dong, director of the National 863 Electric Vehicle Major Project Power Battery Testing Center, pointed out that whether the power battery has the value of recycling should be determined by assessing the benefits of multi-stage battery utilization in advance. In actual application, the recycling value of many materials is relatively low, especially the application of lightweight technology, resulting in many companies using non-metallic materials for battery box materials, the value of which is even lower. For batteries such as lithium iron phosphate, its cathode material recycling value is not large, according to the traditional process of recycling will be more than worth the loss.
In Chen Ping's view, "the standardized management of new energy vehicle waste power battery after the vehicle is retired is an important link in the whole life cycle of power battery traceability." Therefore, in the national regulatory platform to establish "recycling management module", for end-of-life vehicle recycling and dismantling enterprises, secondary use enterprises, recycling enterprises to complete the traceability information collection, in order to achieve online monitoring of the power battery and the implementation of the responsibility of the main body.
At present, a group of enterprises represented by Hubei Greenmax, Beijing Sedgemei, Ganzhou Haopeng, Hunan Bump, Guangdong Guanghua, etc. has formed a certain scale of waste power battery regeneration processing capacity. At the same time, Ningde Times, Guoxuan Hi-Tech, BYD, and other power battery production and material enterprises have also laid out in the field of power battery recycling. In the future, China will continue to cultivate benchmark enterprises in power battery recycling and continue to explore diversified recycling modes with stable technology, mature system, commercialization, and environmental friendliness.
