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Central Finance Think Tank
1 Power battery recycling: it is about to usher in a large-scale discharge
The end of the electric vehicle is approaching, and the peak of decommissioning is coming
The high increase in production and sales of new energy vehicles has led to a higher installed capacity of power batteries. According to the statistics of The China Automotive Power Battery Industry Innovation Alliance, the installed capacity of power batteries in mainland China has shown a clear upward trend in recent years. From 2013 to 2021, China's power battery installed capacity rose from 0.8 GWh to 154.5 GWh, caGR of 93.1%; in January 2022, the mainland power battery production totaled 29.7GWh, up 146.2% year-on-year, and the installed capacity totaled 16.2GWh, up 86.9% year-on-year. Under the background of high growth in production and sales of new energy vehicles, the installed capacity of power batteries continues to rise.
New energy vehicles are gradually scrapped, and the peak of power battery retirement is coming. China's new energy vehicles began to be widely promoted and applied in 2013, and entered an explosive growth stage in 2014, while the scrapping period of power batteries of new energy vehicles operated in mainland China is 3 to 5 years, and the scrapping cycle of power batteries of private passenger cars is 5 to 8 years. We assume that the previous commercial vehicle application-based lithium iron phosphate service life is 4 years, superimposed 2 years of cascade utilization, and then can enter the scrap link; assuming that the ternary battery is used for 5-6 years directly into the scrap link, so it is judged that the power battery around 2021 is the peak of decommissioning. In addition, due to the surge in installed power batteries in 2021, it is expected to lead to a rapid increase in battery scrap around 2027.
Waste power batteries have greater environmental risks, which promotes the development of battery recycling
Waste power batteries have a potential threat to the environment and human health, and need to be effectively recycled. Heavy metals in battery cathode materials can raise the pH of the environment, and improper handling can also produce toxic gases. In addition, a variety of metals and electrolytes contained in power batteries can endanger human health, such as cobalt may lead to gastrointestinal dysfunction, deafness, myocardial ischemia and other symptoms. An effective response measure is to recycle waste power batteries, which will promote the healthy development of the battery recycling industry.
Decommissioned power batteries have resource attributes and high recycling value
The demand for power battery materials is strong, and the tight supply has catalyzed the rise in the price of cobalt, lithium, nickel and other metals. Driven by the current high production and sales of new energy vehicles and the relatively tight supply of resources, the prices of cobalt, lithium, nickel and other metals have risen to varying degrees, as of February 23, 2022, the price of lithium metal (≥99% industrial grade, battery grade) in the mainland closed at 2.45 million yuan / ton, up about 367% from the same period last year; as of February 17, 2022, the average market price of electrolytic cobalt (≥99.8%) was about 533,500 yuan / ton, up about 87% from the same period last year; as of February 2022 On the 21st, the average market price of lithium carbonate (99.5% battery grade) was about 448,000 yuan / ton, and the average market price of lithium hydroxide (56.5%) was about 384,500 yuan / ton. In the current context of lithium, cobalt and nickel prices continue to rise, the metal obtained by battery recycling will achieve higher economic benefits.
The policy dividend period is expected to bring about an outbreak of industry scale and accelerate the entry of enterprises
The state has intensively introduced relevant policies in multiple departments to promote the development of the industry. Since 2012, the State Council has formulated the "Energy Conservation and New Energy Vehicle Industry Development Plan", proposing to formulate management measures for the recycling and utilization of power batteries, and then the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of Commerce and other ministries and commissions have issued relevant policies. In October 2021, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said that it will accelerate the promotion of power battery recycling legislation, improve regulatory measures, etc., and accelerate the recycling of new energy vehicle power batteries from the aspects of regulations, policies, technologies, standards, and industries. The policy dividend period will promote the standardized development of the power battery recycling industry.
Lithium battery recycling industry space is huge
hypothesis:
1) Ternary batteries enter the scrap period after 5 years of use, lithium iron phosphate batteries for 4 years of normal use plus 2 years of cascade utilization;
2) The annual waste of the battery production enterprise accounts for 5% of the installed battery capacity of the year;
3) The battery recovery rate of nickel cobalt manganese is 98%, and the recovery rate of lithium is 85%. According to the price of the metal salts generated after recycling (including lithium carbonate, nickel cobalt manganese sulfate, etc.), we estimate that the global lithium battery recycling industry space market will exceed 150 billion yuan in 2027.
The industry space has attracted many enterprises to enter the market, and qualified enterprises are expected to increase. Under the guidance of the huge market space and the national "14th Five-Year Plan" circular economy development goals, many enterprises have accelerated the layout of power battery recycling and cascade utilization business: in 2020, the number of power battery recycling enterprises registered was 2579, an increase of 253.3% year-on-year. However, at present, there are only 45 enterprises that meet the "Industry Specification Conditions for the Comprehensive Utilization of Waste Power Batteries for New Energy Vehicles", and the number of qualified enterprises is expected to increase in the future with the enhancement of industry standardization.
2 The recycling process is relatively mature and the business model is diverse
Wet recycling technology is mature and has been applied on a large scale
The recycling process of lithium batteries mainly includes two stages: pretreatment and follow-up treatment.
Pre-treatment includes:
1) Classification, discharge, disassembly and crushing, after discharging in different ways, remove the outer packaging of the battery, remove the metal steel shell to get the inner cell;
2) Separation of the active substance from the collector;
3) Recovery and reuse of collector fluids and electrolytes. The subsequent treatment is to recover the high-value metals in the cathode material and generate metal salts for sale, such as the recovery of nickel, cobalt, manganese, lithium and the production of nickel sulfate / cobalt / manganese, lithium carbonate and so on.
Cathode material recovery and treatment technology can also be divided into physical recovery, wet recovery, thermal recovery and biological leaching method, each with its own advantages and disadvantages. Physical recovery is the use of fine dismantling and material repair and other technologies for recycling, can be fully automatic pollution-free dismantling, the economy is better. The wet recovery reaction speed is slow and the process is more complex, but the requirements for equipment and other equipment are low and the purity of the product is high, which is the mainstream process at present. The thermal recovery process is relatively simple, but the recovery rate is low, the energy consumption is high, and there is pollution. Biological recycling use of microbial leaching, small pollution, low energy consumption, microorganisms can be reused, but the cultivation of microbial fungi is difficult, leaching environment requirements are high, and it is still in its infancy.
Wet recycling is the most commonly used and mature technology for lithium batteries. The use of chemical solvents to transfer nickel, cobalt, manganese and other metal ions from the cathode material to the leachate, and then through ion exchange, adsorption and co-precipitation, the metal ions are formed into inorganic salts or oxides, such as lithium carbonate, nickel sulfate, cobalt sulfate and the like. This technology is more complex, but the metal recovery rate is high, the purity is high, and it is now widely used.
Recycled battery anode material graphite can be applied to the preparation of conductive graphite and wastewater treatment. At present, graphite is still the most widely used anode material in commercial power batteries, waste graphite contains metal elements, organic matter binders and other impurities, which can purify the waste graphite and recover high value-added products from it.
Business models are diverse, and recycling sources are at the core
Recycling channels are the key to battery recycling. Battery recycling channels include vehicle factories, battery factories, automobile dismantling enterprises, echelon users, traders, etc., there are many types of recycling channels, and waste battery formulas, shapes are different, how to establish a stable battery recycling channel is crucial. At this stage, 3C batteries are scrapped more, it is expected that the future power and energy storage batteries will be the main source, battery recycling enterprises should work with vehicle manufacturers, battery factories, automotive aftermarket service providers, Internet companies to explore cooperation models.
The recycling model of power battery enterprises is mainly carried out by battery factories. In addition to producing power batteries, power battery manufacturers are increasing the responsibility of battery recycling. Battery manufacturers through acquisitions, cooperation or the establishment of joint ventures to lay out battery recycling business, improve the bargaining power of upstream raw material procurement, reduce the cost of battery materials. The representative enterprise of the power battery enterprise recycling model is the Ningde era, which has laid out the battery recycling field through the acquisition of Bangpu, which has also reduced the cost of battery materials to a certain extent.
The recycling model of the industry alliance is the business model of recycling through the distribution service network of the member enterprises in the alliance, and then recycling by the battery processing enterprises. A single enterprise will encounter many difficulties in the actual recycling process, such as insufficient number of recycled batteries or few recycling channels. In order to solve such problems, some automakers have built recycling systems in the form of alliances to recycle decommissioned power batteries sold by their subsidiaries. The representative enterprise of this model is BAIC BJEV, which focuses on the cascade utilization of decommissioned batteries, realizes the deep integration of new energy vehicles, power batteries, and energy storage for solar power generation, and then maximizes the value of power batteries.
The third-party recycling enterprise model is widely used and requires close cooperation with battery manufacturers. Third-party battery recycling enterprises have strong advantages in battery recycling technology and technology, but they need to build recycling networks independently, and establish stable battery recycling channels through cooperation with vehicle manufacturers and battery manufacturers. Taking Tianqi shares as an example, through the deep binding of the vehicle factory, strengthening cooperation with waste battery traders, battery manufacturers, and Internet companies, a complete industrial chain of waste lithium-ion battery raw material procurement, recycling and product sales has been established.
Economic analysis of recycling
Nickel-cobalt scrap pricing has formed a fixed pattern in the domestic market. It is mainly determined according to the complexity of the amount and composition of cobalt and nickel metals contained in the scrap, and then determined according to a certain percentage of the international market cobalt and nickel metal trading price. The details are as follows:
P: refers to the price of scrap;
p: The trading price of cobalt and nickel metal in the international market;
c%: refers to the proportion of cobalt and nickel metal contained in the unit weight of scrap to the weight of the scrap;
α: refers to the valuation coefficient determined according to the composition and complexity of the scrap.
The determination of the pricing factor α and the grade and complexity of the waste battery. At present, the pricing coefficient has 5 gears, and the specific distribution is as follows:
The recovery economy of ternary batteries is good, and the increase in the price of lithium carbonate makes lithium iron phosphate recovery profitable. According to the "Electrode Material Recovery Model and Economic Analysis of Lithium-ion Power Batteries" published by Li Hualing and others in 2018, the use of wet recycling technology to treat each ton of waste batteries, LFP loss of 312 yuan, ternary materials can make a profit of 6355 yuan. In the past few years, the economics of recycling lithium iron phosphate power batteries have been poor, but since 2021, with the rapid increase in the market price of lithium carbonate, the recovery of lithium iron phosphate has also had better profitability. (Source: Future Think Tank)
3 Introduction of major companies
Guangdong Bangpu: Join hands with the Ningde era to create an industrial closed loop
Deep ploughing lithium battery recycling business for many years. Founded in 2005, Guangdong Bangpu has taken lithium battery recycling as its core business since its establishment, established a systematic recycling system and advanced recycling and treatment technology, and successively completed projects such as "recovering and preparing nickel sulfate from waste nickel-metal hydride batteries" and "recovering and preparing cobalt chloride from waste lithium-ion batteries"; continuously exerting efforts to develop research and development ends, establishing research academician workstations, research and development centers, etc.; participating in the formulation of a number of standards to promote the development of the industry. Join hands with the Ningde era to create an industrial closed loop of "battery production- use - cascade utilization - recycling and resource recycling".
Actively expand production capacity to help long-term development. Guangdong Bangpu has a total capacity of more than 120,000 tons/year for processing waste batteries and producing precursor materials of about 40,000 tons/year. In October 2021, after the deliberation and approval of the board of directors of CATL Times, it is proposed to build a Bangpu integrated battery material industrial park project by Guangdong Bangpu and its holding subsidiary, which mainly builds an intensive and large-scale production base with waste battery material recycling, lithium iron phosphate and ternary precursors, lithium iron phosphate, lithium cobalt oxide and ternary cathode materials, graphite, phosphoric acid, etc., with a total project investment of no more than RMB 32 billion.
Industry-university-research cooperation to promote the company's technological progress. The company pays attention to school-enterprise cooperation, establishes cooperative relations with Tsinghua University and other universities, introduces academicians of the Chinese Academy of Engineering as the chief scientist of the company, jointly develops and completes a number of important projects and realizes production, and undertakes major projects of the "Eleventh Five-Year Plan" and "Twelfth Five-Year Plan" science and technology support plan of the Ministry of Science and Technology. The company has participated in the formulation and revision of a total of 196 relevant standards for waste battery recovery, battery materials, etc., applied for nearly 500 national patents such as battery recycling, NCM materials, and dynamic power recycling, and has undertaken a total of 251 government projects such as battery recycling, NCM materials, power recycling, and automobile recycling, and published a total of 172 journal papers.
The company mainly adopts wet recycling process. In terms of resource recovery technology, Bangpu crushes, pyrolysis, crushes and repeatedly screens magnetic separation of waste lithium batteries after fully automated pretreatment to obtain concentrates containing nickel and cobalt, and then generates a specific shape of ternary material precursors (nickel-metal hydromanganese hydroxides) through a series of chemical impurity removal processes. The ternary precursor and lithium carbonate as a reaction, in an oxygen atmosphere in accordance with the set temperature program for sintering, that is, to obtain nickel cobalt manganese oxide cathode material.
Grimme: Technology leads development and lays out the whole life cycle
Deepen upstream and downstream cooperation and create a circular model from the end of the scrap end to the green consumption end. The company is to recycle, the use of waste cobalt and nickel resources, the production and sales of ultra-fine cobalt nickel powder material products. In cooperation with a number of battery factories such as Ewell Lithium Energy and Fu Neng Technology, the company's new energy life cycle industrial chain of "battery recycling - raw material reengineering - material reengineering - battery pack reengineering - new energy vehicle service" will achieve strategic upgrading, establish a deep cooperative relationship between the targeted cycle of power battery recycling and nickel and cobalt resources, and consolidate the core position of the company's industrial chain and create a large cycle model from the scrap end to the green consumption end.
"2+ N + 2" power battery recycling industry layout. The company establishes the circular industry concept of "battery recycling leads the world, recycling covers the world", spanning the industrial layout of east-west radiation north and south. Build a "2+ N + 2" power battery recycling and utilization industry system: the first "2" is the two comprehensive recycling and disposal centers of Wuhan + Wuxi, the "N" is the company's other recycling and disposal bases + other social recycling networks, and the upstream and downstream recycling network platforms are developed in a platform-based mode, and the second "2" is the two resource utilization centers of Jingmen + Taixing, forming the "Wuhan + Jingmen" and "Wuxi + Taixing" two closed-circuit cycle power battery comprehensive utilization industrial chain.
The company actively expands production capacity, and the scale advantage will appear. Relying on its leading edge in hydrometallurgical technology, the company has built a power battery material remanufacturing center in Jingmen, Taixing, Wuxi, Ningde, Indonesia and other power battery materials, with an annual production capacity of 130,000 tons, and plans to increase the shipment of ternary precursors to 400,000 tons in 2025. The company has built 6 power battery comprehensive utilization centers such as Jingmen, Wuhan, Wuxi, Tianjin, Ningbo and Shenzhen Shantou, and laid out the global network recycling system of "Gouhe Jianghai". At present, the annual processing capacity of 350,000 sets, the annual dismantling capacity of 200,000 tons, the echelon utilization capacity of 1.5 GWh, the products are mainly used in low-speed electric vehicle batteries, engineering machinery power batteries, industrial UPS and other fields.
Qualification superposition technology, two-wheel drive development. The company continues to deepen the industry, won the first prize of the National Nonferrous Metal Technology Standard Excellence Award, the national circular economy advanced unit, the national renewable resources excellent park and other qualification honors, Jingmen Grammy, Wuhan Grammy, Wuxi Grammy were selected by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology in the first batch, the second batch of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology in line with the "New Energy Vehicle Waste Power Battery Comprehensive Utilization Industry Specification Conditions" recycling, cascade utilization of the list of enterprises. The company's qualification advantages have brought it high-quality customer resources, the company focuses on Samsung, LGC, CATL, Ecopro, Xiamen Tungsten, Ronbay and other high-nickel ternary precursor core customers, and constantly deepens the integration of the industrial chain, and strengthens the in-depth cooperation with the world's TOP5 battery manufacturers.
The company's main technical route is wet recycling. The company has 20 years of wet chemical technology background, established a complete "chemical raw material system + precursor manufacturing system": the recovered cobalt-containing nickel waste after discharge, disassembly, crushing and sorting and other pretreatment steps, through high-temperature smelting and purification to obtain crude alloys, and then through ball milling, acid solution, electrochemical activation and dissolution to obtain nickel and cobalt crude solution, the high-purity nickel and cobalt solution obtained by chemical purification, extraction and purification of liquid synthesis, nickel and cobalt precursors can be obtained, and the corresponding powder can be obtained by high-temperature heat treatment.
Strong R&D strength and rich patent achievements. The company has independently developed more than 100 core technologies, applied for 2181 patents, compiled and revised 273 national and industry standards, and achieved key technical achievements in the industry such as raw material and material manufacturing of ternary power batteries, recycling of electronic waste, and comprehensive utilization of cemented carbide waste. The company has realized the key technology and industrialization of the green cycle of electronic waste, and the environmental protection technology of the scrapped circuit board without incineration and cyanide-free treatment is the world-class core technology in China in this field; the key technology to overcome the recycling of scarce resources such as cobalt and nickel, so that the recycling of ultra-fine cobalt and nickel materials can replace mainstream products.
The profitability of the company's power battery comprehensive utilization business showed an upward trend. From 2019 to 2020, the profitability of the company's power battery comprehensive utilization business showed an upward trend, and the operating income was 33.88/93.21 million yuan, accounting for the proportion of the company's total industry revenue, which was 0.2%/0.8%, and the gross profit margin was 16.1%/20.0%, respectively. In 2021Q1-Q2, the operating income of the company's power battery comprehensive utilization business was 54.75 million yuan, an increase of 75.9% over the same period of the previous year, and the gross profit margin was 20.2%, an increase of 0.2 percentage points over the same period of the previous year.
Huayou Cobalt:
Actively layout lithium battery recycling, strategic cooperation to form an ecology
Through upstream and downstream cooperation, lithium battery recycling is carried out to create an industrial ecology. The resource business is one of the three major business sectors of the company, and the company actively lays out lithium battery recycling: signed a strategic cooperation agreement with Zhongtianhong Lithium, and the two sides will cooperate in the construction, cascade utilization and recycling of power battery recycling network; cooperate with a number of well-known battery companies to exchange waste for materials; and reach a decommissioned battery recycling cooperation with a number of domestic and foreign vehicle companies. With the development of business, the company is forming a new energy lithium battery industry ecology from cobalt and nickel resources, smelting and processing, ternary precursors, lithium battery cathode materials to resource recycling and recycling.
The subsidiary has excellent qualifications and actively expands production. Huayou Quzhou and Resource Recycling, subsidiaries of the company, respectively entered the first and second batches of the list of enterprises issued by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology that meet the "Industry Specification Conditions for the Comprehensive Utilization of Waste Power Batteries for New Energy Vehicles". Huayou Recycling put into operation in 2018 a special production line for recycling, which has achieved an annual processing of 64680 tons of decommissioned power batteries, and can comprehensively recover 5783 tons of cobalt (metal volume), 9432 tons of nickel (metal volume), 2050 tons of lithium (metal volume) and manganese, copper foil, aluminum foil and other valuable elements per year.
Technological innovation leads and continues to promote development. The company has completed the research and development of more than 1,000 scientific and technological projects, undertaken 6 major national scientific research projects, won the first prize of Zhejiang Provincial Science and Technology Progress Award, the first prize of Environmental Protection Science and Technology Progress And other scientific and technological progress awards more than 20 items, and won a series of national/provincial/municipal honors such as "The First Batch of National Green Factories", "Zhejiang Green Enterprises" and "Zhejiang Provincial Technological Innovation Demonstration Enterprises" for many times. As of the end of January 2022, the company has obtained 240 domestic core patents and 5 software copyrights.
Tianqi shares:
With the help of JintaiGe and Tianqi Lithium, the advantages are superimposed on the grand plan
The acquisition of Jintaige and Tianqi Lithium layout power battery recycling, continuous investment continues to increase. In 2017, the company began to deploy the power battery recycling business, and during the period of 2017-2020, the company invested more than 934 million yuan to achieve the holding of Jintaige and Lithium Zhi Industry, a high-quality target in the power cell recycling industry, and successfully extended the automotive industry chain. According to the company's announcements in June and August 2021, the company intends to invest 5 billion yuan for the decommissioning power battery, lithium battery cascade utilization and ternary precursor production project, and invest 440 million yuan for the comprehensive utilization of waste lithium batteries to expand the production of technical transformation projects, increase industrial layout, and promote the company's decommissioned power battery life cycle management process.
Jintaige continues to promote R&D and innovation in the field of battery recycling, with a number of patents and new products. Jintaige's patents in the field of battery recycling include technologies such as crushing and sorting equipment to avoid environmental pollution, and controllable discharge safety automatic dismantling method. In 2020, Jintaige officially put into use the power battery automatic dismantling production line, successfully developed nickel oxide products and began mass production, from nickel sulfate water synthesis to calcination extraction of nickel oxide, the newly developed extraction technology further improved the extraction rate, reduced production costs, and wastewater pollution is much smaller than the traditional preparation method.
Actively expand production to help business growth. Subsidiary Tianqi Lithium has successfully completed the expansion of production in the first half of 2021, and the output of lithium carbonate has increased from 1150 tons/year to 2000 tons/year. In addition, the company and Ganzhou City, Jiangxi Province, Longnan Economic and Technological Development Zone (the management committee signed the "investment in the establishment of decommissioned power batteries, lithium battery cascade utilization and ternary precursor production project contract"), the company and its subsidiaries intend to purchase about 397.34 acres of land in longnan economic development zone, in the next 5 years planning to invest in waste lithium battery raw materials as the mainstay, the formation of an annual output of 30,000 tons of ternary precursors and 12,000 tons of battery-grade lithium carbonate production project. After the relevant projects are put into production, they will help the company's business to grow further.
The contribution of the power battery recycling business can be expected. From 2017 to 2021H1, the operating income of the subsidiary Jintaige accounted for 9.8%/15.1%/14.2%/11.4%/30.3% of the operating income of Tianqi shares, respectively, which was caused by the company's continuous promotion of technology research and development and innovation in the field of power batteries and the active expansion of production. From 2018 to 2020, the overall net profit attributable to the mother of Jintaige showed an upward trend, accounting for 43.5%/51.4%/49.2% of the net profit attributable to the mother of Tianqi shares, respectively, maintaining a high level of more than 43%; in Q1-Q2 of 2021, Jintaige achieved a net profit attributable to the mother of 0.77 billion yuan, accounting for 98.7% of the company's revenue. Jintaige Power's battery recycling business is expected to continue to drive the company's profitability growth.
Ganfeng Lithium:
Battery recycling business process and technological innovation, outstanding competitive advantage
The company's lithium battery recycling technology is mainly divided into waste lithium iron phosphate battery recycling technology and waste ternary battery recycling technology. The raw material of waste lithium iron phosphate battery recycling technology is waste lithium iron phosphate battery, first of all, through discharge, disassembly and crushing, acid leaching, impurity removal and other processes to prepare lithium chloride solution, and then enter the company's lithium chloride production system to prepare anhydrous lithium chloride, battery grade lithium carbonate, lithium hydroxide and other products; waste ternary battery recycling technology to waste ternary lithium battery as raw material to prepare ternary precursor, the production process of extractants and by-products for efficient separation, improve the recovery rate of resources, reduce the cost of tertiary waste treatment.
The company's lithium battery recycling project process is at the leading level in China. The main products of the lithium battery recycling project are battery-grade lithium carbonate, lithium hydroxide, ternary precursor materials, these three main products are key new products in Jiangxi Province, identified by relevant experts organized by the Provincial Science and Technology Department, and their process level has reached the domestic leading level. The core technology of the project has been authorized 2 national invention patents:
(1) A method for preparing nickel sulfate solution by using nickel cobalt manganese hydroxide as raw material (ZL 201310552644.7) ;(2) A preparation method for precursors of ternary cathode materials (ZL 201310485720.7).
The company is positioned as a total solution provider and continuously strengthens its relationship with customers. In 2018-2019, the company signed cooperation agreements with South Korea's LG Chem, Tesla, and Germany's BMW. In April 2019, the company signed a cooperation agreement with Volkswagen of Germany, agreeing to supply lithium chemical products to Volkswagen and its suppliers in the next decade, and will cooperate on topics such as battery recycling and solid-state batteries. From July to August 2021, Ganfeng Lithium Battery has signed cooperation agreements with Dongfeng Motor, Battery, Jinko Energy and other enterprises, covering the fields of comprehensive recycling of automotive power batteries and waste lithium batteries. The company will further improve the extraction method of lithium and the processing technology of high-purity lithium, including: the development and production of solid electrolytes and anode materials for solid-state lithium batteries, the secondary utilization and recycling of lithium batteries, etc.
Ganfeng Recycling, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Company, continues to expand its production capacity in the field of waste lithium battery recycling. Ganfeng Cycle will be completed and put into operation in 2019 to process a comprehensive recycling project of 34,000 tons of waste lithium batteries per year; in 2020, the second phase of the 12,000 tons of ternary precursor expansion project will be launched, which is expected to reach production in mid-to-late 2022; and the third phase of the 100,000-ton decommissioned lithium battery comprehensive recycling project will be launched in November 2021, which is expected to be completed and put into operation in 2023. At present, Ganfeng Cycle has 20,000 tons / year lithium iron phosphate battery processing capacity, it is expected that after the completion of the third phase of the project, the company will have 50,000-70,000 tons / year lithium iron phosphate battery processing capacity. The company's laboratory has mastered the full element recovery technology of lithium iron phosphate, and is currently designing and building a 3000 tons / year high-quality iron phosphorate pilot line, which is expected to be completed and put into operation in the first half of 2022.
Zhefu Holdings:
Deeply cultivate the field of environmental protection, and actively layout the power battery recycling business
The company is a large environmental protection group that has realized the layout of the whole industrial chain of front-end and back-end integration. The company provides harmless treatment of hazardous wastes and recycling services of renewable resources, and has the whole industrial chain technology and facilities of the front and back end of the integrated front and back end of hazardous wastes "collection - storage - harmless treatment - deep processing of resources", that is, through physical, chemical and other means to harmlessly treat hazardous wastes and other solid wastes generated by upstream waste enterprises, enrich and recycle copper, gold, silver, palladium, tin, nickel, lead, zinc, antimony and other metal resources.
At present, the company is actively laying out the waste liquid and waste residue disposal areas generated after the recycling and dismantling of power batteries. The company has a refined nickel sulfate process of extracting and producing lithium battery material grades from industrial waste, and has supplied a small amount of lithium battery materials to lithium battery material enterprises. At present, the company is actively laying out the disposal market for hazardous wastes such as waste liquid and waste residue generated by the power battery recycling and dismantling unit. The company's capacity plans related to the material level of automotive lithium batteries that have been approved by the EIA include: 15,000 tons of refined nickel sulfate (Ni≥22.0%), 15,000 tons of refined cobalt sulfate (Co≥20.5%) and 790 tons of lithium carbonate (Li2CO3 ≥98.5%).
Beyond Technology:
Starting from the field of solid waste recycling, we have entered the field of battery recycling
The company cut from waste treatment to lithium battery recycling. The company announced in September 2021 that it plans to build a project that will recycle 60,000 tons of waste lithium-ion batteries and pole piece waste resources every year. The project uses wet recycling technology and includes three production lines: a dismantling milling line, an acid-soluble impurity removal line and a cathode raw material production line. The total investment of the project is expected to be 400 million yuan, and the company currently obtained the project construction land through auction in February 2022, and plans to complete the first phase in July 2023, with a production capacity of 30,000-40,000 tons in the first phase and the second phase to be completed in August 2024.
Jinyuan shares:
From the field of building materials recycling, priority is given to the establishment of recycling networks
The company actively carries out strategic cooperation with lithium battery recycling enterprises, focusing on the layout of collection outlets. Since entering 2022, the company has established strategic cooperative relations with Hengda Mining and Shanda Qili Enterprises, including lithium resource layout and battery recycling. Hengda Mining is a joint venture jointly established by Chuanheng Chemical and Sunwoda, the main business is the investment and development and application of mineral resources such as phosphate rock and lithium ore; shanda Qili's main business is waste lithium battery recycling, and it has rich resource advantages and development experience in the development of waste lithium battery recycling network. The company's agreements with partners include research on lithium battery recycling and the establishment of a regional central station.
Guanghua Technology:
Deepen the cooperation between vehicle manufacturers and battery factories, and take the lead in laying out lithium iron phosphate battery recycling
The company expands recycling channels through cooperation with OEMs and battery factories. Since the company began to carry out battery recycling business in 2017, it has continuously cooperated closely with vehicle manufacturers, battery factories, and power exchange operators, including jointly establishing a dynamic battery recycling network, carrying out battery cascade utilization, etc., and broadening battery recycling channels and expanding battery recycling capacity through cooperation or joint ventures. The company will continue to focus on building a new energy life cycle value chain, build a waste battery recovery network system, and form a complete closed loop of power battery recycling.
The company actively expands the recycling capacity of lithium iron phosphate batteries. The company has an annual production capacity of 15,000 tons of ternary batteries, and announced the high-performance lithium battery material project in December 2021, with a planned total investment of 1.24 billion yuan and a project construction period of 18 months. The project plans to build an integrated recovery production line with an annual output of 50,000 tons of iron phosphate and 11,500 tons of lithium carbonate, and the company adopts a wet process to extract lithium using low acid leaching.
The battery recycling business has grown exponentially. From 2019 to 2020, the operating income of the company's battery recycling business was 296.9/66.167 million yuan, a substantial increase year-on-year, and the proportion of battery recycling business in the company's total operating income increased, at 0.17%/3.28% respectively. 2021H1 The company's battery recycling business continued to maintain rapid growth, with operating income of 31.646 million yuan, +229% year-on-year, accounting for 2.72% of the company's total operating income.
Zhongwei shares:
A number of core technologies jointly lead the development of the battery sector
Technology accumulation for more than ten years, with advanced technology development capabilities. Based on the consideration of industrial synergy and cost control, the company lays out the circular smelting industry, forms a nickel, cobalt intermediate wet processing of nickel sulfate, cobalt sulfate and lithium-ion battery recycling capacity, and forms a good industrial chain synergy advantage with the precursor industry. Focusing on high nickel, doping, pre-sintering, circulation and other technologies as the main research and development direction, a number of core technologies have been formed, including single crystal precursor synthesis technology, quantitative nucleation continuous synthesis preparation technology, rapid and efficient co-precipitation technology, quantitative intermittent binary co-precipitation technology, oxide precursor preparation technology, high voltage large particle cobalt oxide precursor sintering technology and other product preparation technology.
The company holds a number of patents in the field of resource recycling. The company has made breakthroughs in many aspects on the basis of invention patents and utility model patents in the field of lithium battery materials, including lithium iron phosphate cathode material recovery, mother liquor centrifuge filters, waste lithium batteries and other core patents. Some patent breakthroughs can make lithium iron phosphate batteries have higher recovery rates, higher product density and relatively low costs.
The company actively layouts in the lithium battery material recycling industry. The company has established a recycling industrial park in the industrial base in the west of Guizhou, which is expected to process 50,000 tons of decommissioned lithium batteries per year after all of them are completed, and will build a metal nickel and cobalt and its comprehensive recycling and recycling project in the industrial base in southern Guangxi. After the company's recycling project is completed and put into operation, it will help reduce the company's external dependence on the raw material end, thereby effectively reducing the cost of raw material procurement, enhancing and improving the core competitiveness and sustained profitability.
Haopeng Technology:
Set up a special battery recycling subsidiary to enter the battery waste industry
The company actively layouts in the lithium battery material recycling industry. The company is committed to the research and development, design, manufacture and sales of lithium-ion batteries and nickel-metal hydride batteries, and is an enterprise with independent research and development capabilities and comprehensive competitiveness in the international market. In 2010, the company wholly established Ganzhou Haopeng to lay out the business of recycling and cascade utilization of waste batteries, and then introduced external shareholders to promote its business development, and the shareholding ratio dropped to 31.294%.
Ganzhou Haopeng is outstanding in recycling technology and has a wide range of business. The company has developed and applied lithium metal recovery and purification, negative electrode toner recycling, battery powder continuous leaching process, nickel cobalt manganese collaborative extraction purification, cobalt nickel manganese ion exchange purification, fine dismantling technology, etc., and the decommissioned lithium-ion battery short-range recovery technology jointly developed with the Institute of Process Engineering of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and other units, greatly simplifying the treatment process of waste power batteries and reducing secondary pollution.
4 Investment strategies
New energy vehicle power batteries are about to enter the peak period of scrapping, and the sharp rise in the prices of cobalt, lithium, nickel and other metals has made the battery recycling industry economic benefits increase. Further legislation by the state on the power battery recycling industry will promote the rapid development of the industry. We expect the global lithium battery recycling market space to exceed 150 billion yuan in 2027. The battery recycling industry is highly standardized, and the battery recycling channel requires enterprises to have certain bargaining power, bringing greater market opportunities to head enterprises.
(This article is for informational purposes only and does not represent any of our investment advice.) For usage information, see the original report. ）
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