Where do the waste batteries of new energy vehicles go? The reporter will take you to find out

"The battery is 'dead'. Liang Yong, the team leader of a travel service platform in Wuhan, Hubei Province, hears drivers complain from time to time.

Liang Yong explained that the use of online car-hailing is intensive, and the battery capacity decays quickly.

As of 2023, the production and sales of new energy vehicles in mainland China have remained the world's largest for nine consecutive years. At the same time, Continental has become a leader in the power battery industry, with a global leading market size for 8 consecutive years, and has built a power battery industry system with the most complete industrial chain and the largest scale. Under the huge base, how to deal with waste power batteries?

Not long ago, the State Council issued the "Action Plan for Promoting Large-scale Equipment Renewal and Trade-in of Consumer Goods", requiring the implementation of recycling and recycling actions to improve the recycling network of waste products and equipment. In Wuhan and Jingmen, Hubei, reporters tracked a batch of power batteries and investigated their recycling process.

Source: Ministry of Industry and Information Technology

Recycling –

New industries give rise to new growth points

Accelerate the layout of recycling channels

Knowing the situation of Liang Yong's team, the after-sales service personnel of the automobile company contacted the power battery recycler of GEM Co., Ltd.

The next day, the recycler came to the door, wrapped the removed power battery layer by layer with insulating film, marked it, and loaded it into a truck and shipped it to GEM Wuhan Park.

The reporter came to the park with the truck, only to see the handling forklift driving steadily, sending the battery into the workshop, and completing the rapid detection of battery capacity in the automation equipment. "Those with higher capacity will stay in Wuhan for reuse, and those with serious attenuation will be sent to Jingmen Park for disposal. Bie Chuanyu, vice president of GEM Green Industry (Wuhan) Innovation Research Institute, introduced.

The power batteries recycled by GEM account for about 1/10 of the total number of retired power batteries in the country. This company once took the recycling of scrapped cars as one of its main businesses, and has a number of service outlets across the country, established stable cooperation channels with many car companies, and entered the field of waste power battery recycling, which can be described as taking advantage of the trend. In the past two years, as the first batch of power batteries for new energy vehicles have reached the recycling period, the company has taken the lead in "eating" dividends.

It is not easy to enter a new field and form a growth point. "The stability of recycling channels affects the cost of recycling enterprises and determines the business scale of the subsequent reuse of enterprises, which is one of the most concerned issues for third-party recycling institutions. Zhang Yuping, chairman of the recycling branch of the China Automotive Power Battery Industry Innovation Alliance, introduced.

In fact, it is not only retired EV batteries that can be recycled, but also waste materials that are not processed into battery cells during the battery production process. The reporter's investigation found that at present, the scale of the waste recycling market is also not small.

In the battery factory of Hubei EVE Power Co., Ltd., not far from GEM Jingmen Park, batches of new lithium battery products are rolling off the assembly line in an orderly manner.

Huizhou EVE Lithium Energy Co., Ltd. is one of the leading enterprises in lithium battery manufacturing. EVE Power Battery Factory is invested and built by this company, and has now developed into the largest power and energy storage battery production base in Central China. Driven by leading enterprises, nearly 100 enterprises have gathered to form the upstream and downstream of the power battery industry chain.

Huang Dongbo, head of the power battery recycling and processing center in GEM Jingmen Park, said that the company signed a strategic cooperation agreement with EVE to recycle EVE's waste materials, process them into raw materials and return them to the battery factory. This recycling model is known as "scrap-for-feedstock".

At present, GEM has established targeted recycling cooperation with more than 750 domestic and foreign OEMs and battery factories and other industrial chain enterprises, and has laid out 5 large-scale waste power battery treatment centers and more than 100 recycling service outlets, including Wuhan Park and Jingmen Park.

GEM's outlets form part of a huge network – according to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, more than 10,000 power battery recycling service outlets have been built in mainland China. Last year, the comprehensive utilization of waste power batteries for new energy vehicles was 225,000 tons.

Utilization——

Cascade utilization, recycling

Walk on "two legs".

Recycling is only the first step. The recycling of retired power batteries has just begun.

In the power battery cascade utilization factory of GEM's Wuhan campus, batteries with higher detection capacity are sent to the workbench. The robotic arm swings to disassemble the battery pack into modules and cells, which are then transported to the processing line by an automatic handling trolley. The staff said that the cells will be recombined and made into household energy storage cabinets.

"What is cascade utilization?" the reporter asked. The staff of the factory explained that just like the common scene in life - the battery that cannot be used on the electric toy is placed in the remote control to continue to be used - although some retired power batteries cannot meet the requirements of automobile power, they can be applied to low-speed electric vehicles, communication base stations, energy storage cabinets and solar street lights after dismantling and reorganization.

Batteries with severely degraded power will continue to play a valuable role. In the power battery recycling plant in GEM Jingmen Park, these batteries go through steps such as discharge, crushing, sorting, leaching, solvent extraction, etc., to extract lithium metal and prepare it into white lithium carbonate powder, an important raw material for the production of power batteries.

Recycling is the extraction of lithium, cobalt, nickel and other metal materials from battery waste or retired batteries and reuse them in battery production. In terms of business model, recycling is more mature. Taking lithium metal as an example, for every 1 percentage point increase in the extraction recovery rate, the recycling value of each ton of waste power batteries can directly increase by thousands of yuan.

From the perspective of extending the service life of retired power batteries, the value of cascade utilization is higher. Near the parking lot of GEM's Wuhan Park, the reporter saw several industrial and commercial integrated energy storage cabinets. "A set of energy storage cabinets is composed of dozens of recycled power battery packs, which can generally be used continuously for 8 to 10 years. "Don't pass on the jade.

The commercialization of cascade utilization is not easy. Industry insiders told reporters that due to the influence of different driving habits and charging methods, after the power battery is retired, the remaining capacity of each cell in the battery pack is inconsistent, and the application scenarios of echelon utilization are relatively scattered, which virtually increases the cost of product development, design, use and maintenance.

In addition, the non-destructive automatic disassembly of the battery is a major problem. At present, there are more than 5,000 kinds of power battery packs on the market, with square, cylindrical, soft packs, etc., and the internal structure and production standards are also different, which brings challenges to flexible and fine disassembly.

This is a problem that is relatively easy for battery manufacturers to solve. "We know our batteries best, and we know how to disassemble them. Yang Qizhao, project manager of EVE, said that EVE is building a retired power battery cascade utilization plant in Jingmen, which is expected to be completed and put into operation in 2027, which will realize the intelligence of key processes.

R&D –

Make up for shortcomings and solve difficulties

Industry-university-research cooperation has full potential

Focusing on the two recycling routes of cascade and regeneration, the whole industry is accelerating technological research.

Walking into the production workshop of Dongfeng Hongtai Circular Economy Industrial Park in Wuhan, electric forklifts equipped with cascade batteries shuttle back and forth. "The cascade battery we developed is lighter, more powerful, and has a longer battery life than traditional lead-acid batteries, and can be used for 8 hours on a single charge. Said the staff.

According to the mainland's extended producer responsibility system, car companies should bear the main responsibility for the recycling of retired power batteries. In addition to cooperating with third-party recycling institutions, some car companies have begun to lay out their own battery recycling industry.

"We have developed a battery traceability management system, which can find out which vehicle each cell comes from Dongfeng and which cascade battery is installed. According to the relevant person in charge of Dongfeng Hongtai, a subsidiary of Dongfeng Motor, compared with third-party recycling institutions, car companies have a more accurate grasp of battery status and other information, "With the retirement of large-scale power batteries and the increase in sources, the development and use costs of cascade utilization products are expected to be greatly reduced." ”

The reporter learned that recycling is still the focus of most enterprises. However, when recycling recycled metals, energy consumption is high, and exhaust gases and hazardous waste are also easily generated.

Environmental protection has become the main consideration for recycling companies in the layout of production lines. For example, Jingmen is the only national circular economy demonstration city in Hubei, and GEM Jingmen Park is located in the local circular industrial park.

In terms of technology, how to reduce the risk of pollution? On the production line of Wuhan Ruikemei New Energy Co., Ltd., the reporter saw that the lithium iron phosphate powder attached to the electrode piece of the battery cell was shaken off by the machine. "We have developed a physical recycling technology for the whole process of power batteries, which does not use water, acid and alkali solutions or other solvents, and produces almost no waste liquid and exhaust gas. Cao Yuancheng, chairman of the company, introduced.

In terms of improving the overall recovery rate of resources, there is still room for improvement in recycling. "The recovery rate of battery cathode materials on the market, such as nickel and cobalt metal, can exceed 95%, but some anode materials represented by graphite have not yet fully realized high-value reuse. Ouyang Hongyong, general manager of the product line of Hubei Jinquan New Materials Co., Ltd., said that to this end, the company established a new materials research institute and jointly conducted scientific research with local universities.

A few months ago, the Hubei Provincial Key Laboratory of High-value Utilization of Retired Power Batteries jointly built by schools and enterprises was established. "The laboratory will carry out industry-university-research cooperation with enterprises to conduct breakthrough research on the recycling of power batteries and the high-value application of cascade and regeneration technologies. Zhang Yimin, deputy director of the laboratory and professor of Wuhan University of Science and Technology, said.

趋势——

Support and guidance have been strengthened

Improve the degree of standardization of the industry

The reporter searched on an enterprise information query platform and found that there were more than 41,000 power battery recycling-related enterprises registered in the past one year, of which small and micro enterprises accounted for a considerable proportion.

However, according to the information released by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, there are only more than 100 enterprises in 5 batches that meet the conditions of the industry specifications for the comprehensive utilization of waste power batteries.

Zhang Yuping introduced, some of the qualifications of small workshop enterprises without authorization to recycle and dismantle old batteries, and rough processing for profit, these "three no" products have greater safety hazards, and face many intermediate links, traceability management and other problems.

At the end of last year, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology drafted the "Administrative Measures for the Comprehensive Utilization of Power Batteries for New Energy Vehicles (Draft for Comments)", which clarified the responsibilities of various business entities in the process of comprehensive utilization of power batteries. Local governments have come up with real money "policy packages" to encourage compliant companies to update their technology and expand production capacity.

"It is necessary to let enterprises that meet the specifications have more funds to invest in research and development and the purchase of environmental protection equipment, rather than fighting a price war with small workshops. Peng Yong, deputy director of the Jingmen Economic and Information Bureau, said.

Enterprises will be given a one-time reward of 500,000 yuan for new high-tech invention patents in Jingmen and implemented them, a subsidy of 50 yuan will be given for every 1 ton of waste power batteries recycled, and a subsidy of 8% of the invoice amount for the purchase of productive equipment will be given if the new large-scale project is completed and put into operation within 2 years from the date of commencement...... In November last year, Jingmen issued local measures to support the comprehensive utilization of waste power batteries, supporting industrial development from various aspects such as pilot demonstration creation, technological innovation, project construction, finance and taxation.

Policy guidance is working. In the factory of Meihua New Materials (Hubei) Co., Ltd., the two pipelines are directly connected to the GEM Jingmen Park next door. According to the person in charge of the project, the factory plans to recycle 70,000 tons of waste power batteries annually, extract battery raw materials, and then transport them back to GEM Park to manufacture battery-grade high-purity crystal materials, so as to realize the full closed loop of battery recycling and production process.

"We will introduce power battery comprehensive utilization enterprises, build a full-cycle power battery industrial chain of 'battery recycling, cascade utilization, raw material regeneration, battery reengineering, new energy vehicle reassembly', and promote the lithium battery industry to become the first 200 billion yuan industry in Jingmen. Peng Yong said that after all relevant enterprises reach production, Jingmen's power battery recycling capacity will reach 238,000 tons/year.

Some research institutions predict that by 2025, the retirement of power batteries in the mainland will reach 820,000 tons. The "14th Five-Year Plan" for industrial green development proposes that by 2025, a relatively complete power battery recycling system will be built. A larger number of power batteries will embark on a recycling journey.

Walk the pen in the middle of the night

"Multi-hand joint play" plays a strong voice in the industry

Lu Li

The recycling of waste power batteries is a need for environmental protection and an important part of the sustainable development of the new energy vehicle industry. At present, the upstream and downstream enterprises "multi-handed" - the layout of third-party recycling institutions and battery manufacturers, downstream car companies, upstream battery material companies to join - in the full-cycle industrial chain of power battery recycling, a new movement is playing.

Aiming at the goal of developing the lithium battery industry into a 200 billion yuan industry, Hubei Jingmen strives to "play" a loud voice. Relying on business advantages, recycling enterprises have cooperated with car companies and battery manufacturers to build a large-scale service network, and nearly 100 enterprises have gathered to form the upstream and downstream of the industrial chain...... Driven by the market, the company strives to extend its tentacles and develop together. At the same time, the local government has made great efforts to introduce leading enterprises, improve supporting facilities, and come up with real money and policy measures to support industrial development. With the vision of advance layout, more continuous efforts, and the concept of mutual achievement, these experiences constitute the "keynote" of the development and growth of local industries.

Harmonious music does not tolerate "noise". The disorderly development of small workshops has buried potential safety hazards for consumers and also affected the overall development of the power battery recycling industry. We have seen that the relevant departments have frequently taken measures in terms of technological innovation, finance, taxation and other aspects to encourage formal enterprises to update their technology and expand production capacity; strengthen supervision and punishment to limit the barbaric growth of small workshops, and avoid the phenomenon of "bad money driving out good money". The formation of a list of enterprises that meet the conditions of industry norms, the traceability management of power batteries, etc., these measures are to remove the "noise" of industrial development.

Only by playing a strong voice in the industry can the recycling of power batteries effectively benefit enterprises and the people, and promote the high-quality development of the industry.

(Source: People's Daily)